Are you thinking about moving to Frisco, Texas, or somewhere in the North Dallas suburbs and want to know what living there is like? In this video, we’re going to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly of life in Frisco, Texas. We’ll look at everything from the weather to traffic so you know exactly what to expect.

 

The Texas Weather And Outdoor Activities

The first thing that everybody knows about the North Dallas, Texas area is the weather. We’re in Texas and it does get very hot, though we have really mild winters. It will only fall below freezing maybe once or twice a year, and we might get snow every few years. Our summers, though, do tend to be 4-5 months long with temperatures ranging from 90 to 100 degrees—and a few days above 100.

If you have a pool, you can heat the pool and stretch it to get 6-7 months of pool time every year. This makes the weather really great. On the other hand, if you're looking for outdoor life, we don't have a lot of rolling hills or mountains—and we don't have any oceans here.

However, there is a close lake and a few reservoirs that are man-made dammed up lakes for drinking water and recreation. They're fantastic, with one right next to Frisco. It provides a lot of great boating and outdoor recreation, and plenty of the locals go visit lakes on the weekends or have a lake house for their use.

Frisco’s Housing Market

One of the great things about this area has always been the cost of living. Frisco, however, is one of the slightly more expensive suburbs in the north. The 2020 median home price in Frisco was $438,000, but in the last month, we've had a steep escalation in housing prices. With the cost of building in 2021, the median home price in Frisco was $510,000.

What makes it so desirable is that many of the houses look a bit newer compared to the Plano or Dallas areas. A lot of the out-of-town people coming in prefer something a little bit newer, as it's less maintenance. And of course, when you move to another area, you're worried about the foundation. Newer homes are just a bit easier to maintain, and there’s value in that.

Most of those homes are going to be in HOA-type communities. We get some folks that just don't want HOA, but that's a little bit of a tough grab in Frisco’s mostly newer communities. There are many masterplan communities, gated communities, and some condos and townhouses with amazing Walk Scores here. It's one of the few places in the Metroplex where you can really go somewhere that's got a great Walk Score, and the downtown area is great. At Christmas time, they have Santa's coming from the sky, an ice skating rink, and everything decorated beautifully.

Plenty To See And Do

One great thing about Frisco is that there's always something to do. There’s a glut of amazing restaurants to go to, and it seems like there’s always a new one popping up to give you something new to try. You'll never run out of places to go.

There are also a variety of amenities between the shops at Legacy and Legacy West. Grandscape is just over in The Colony, and they've got Nebraska Furniture Mart and Scheels Sporting Goods as well. There’s even an indoor Ferris Wheel that you’ve got to check out.

Aside from plenty of shopping, Frisco also has 5 pro sports teams. The Star is the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys. They also have other professional teams with the Dr. Pepper Stadium, including the RoughRiders and the Sidekicks.

Other attractions in Frisco include the Soccer Hall of Fame, Railroad Museum, KidZania USA, and Stonebriar Centre shopping mall. You can even try indoor skydiving at iFly, head to the go-kart tracks for a race, or practice your shot at the indoor shooting range.

At The Colony, you can also see a concert at one of the venues. Since we’re in Dallas—with about 7.5 million people—there’s always a great musical event going on. Frisco has several smaller venues you’ve also got to check out. Whatever you’re into, Frisco has got it.

Traffic And Congestion

While it’s great that Frisco has plenty to do and see, the downfall is that this comes with traffic. People from all of the other suburbs are driving into Frisco regularly for work and for play. That means congestion traffic. Some people might prefer to live in a suburb that borders Frisco, where you can take advantage of all those amenities within about a 20-minute drive. This way, you're not fighting that congestion every single day.

Speaking of traffic, another one of the downfalls in Frisco is the tolls. They’re very hard to avoid. The two major thoroughfares that go through Frisco are the Dallas North Tollway and the 121. Both of those are toll roads, so if you have to travel those to go to and from work regularly, you can pretty much just add an extra tax to your regular monthly expenses.

We’ve talked to people that take the toll roads, and their monthly cost might be $60 to $200, depending on how far they have to go and how often. On the other hand, Frisco is within proximity to everything you could want, taking just 30 minutes to get to downtown Dallas or north to Prosper for shopping. You can also easily take the 121 to the airport in about 20 minutes.

The Job Market And Schools

What about the job market in Frisco? Last year in 2020, Wallethub named Frisco the number one place for midsize cities in job growth and development. There’s a number of Fortune 500 companies like Lay's, JC Penney’s, Toyota, and Chase Bank that all have their headquarters right in the Frisco Plano 121 corridor area. This means there are tons of jobs. Frisco is an ideal place to live for our well-developed road systems and low crime rates, while still being close to all of Dallas’ jobs.

Another pro of living in Frisco is the fantastic school system. It’s one of the things that draws people in. When people are moving into the Metroplex, Frisco is almost always on everybody's list to call home. The high school size is kept a little bit smaller, with about 17 students for every teacher.

A couple of the suburbs in the area—like Allen and Plano—have really big high schools that are among the largest in the country. Instead of 4,000 to 7,000 students in one school, Frisco keeps their high schools at about half the size. This gives kids a lot more opportunity, especially if they happen to be athletes.

The Cost Of Living

One of the problems of the cost of living in Texas is the property taxes. While we have good housing prices and no state income tax, property taxes tend to be quite high here compared with most of the country. However, Frisco is one of the lower ones in the Metroplex for the property tax rate on the Denton County side because it's split into Collin County and Frisco County.

This is one thing to keep in mind when coming here. When you see the higher price tag, you're not paying some of the extra taxes that other places pay for the development of the utility districts in those spots. You’re also not paying quite as high of property taxes as in some of the other surrounding places.

The offset is that Frisco has some amazing city parks and recreation. They've got three really awesome parks there that anybody would love to take their kids to. In addition, they also have 16,000 acres of parks and recreation, over 90 miles of hiking and bike trails, and plenty of outdoor things to do—as long as you're not looking for the mountains and altitude.

Is Frisco, Texas Right For You?

I hope this gave you a good idea of the pros and cons of living in Frisco, Texas. If you have any other questions about something we didn’t cover, feel free to reach out to us and we’d love to help.  If you're looking to buy or sell in the North Dallas suburbs of Plano, Allen, Frisco, or McKinney, Texas, we’ll be happy to assist you.

 

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