The median price in McKinney is $504,000. The typical Texas home sells for $343,000. That gap, 47% above the state average, is not an accident. It's the brand premium, the zip code tax, the cost of living somewhere people already Googled before they landed here.

Overpriced doesn't mean bad. It means you're paying for something that has nothing to do with the house itself: the name on the welcome sign, the school district boundary, the amenity package people plan vacations around. For every one of these five suburbs, there's a town nearby where you can get the same house, same highway access, same builder floor plans, for tens of thousands less.

Table of Contents

• Melissa: Brand New Everything, But at What Cost?
• Van Alstyne: The Small Town Melissa Used to Be
• Celina: Paying Today for a Town That Doesn't Exist Yet
• Blue Ridge: Actual Space, Not a 60-Foot Lot with Rules
• Prosper: The Zip Code Purchase of North Texas
• Farmersville: Where an Acre Costs Less Than a Prosper Lot Premium
• Frisco: National Brand Recognition and 20-Year-Old Mechanicals
• Little Elm: Keep the Access, Stop Paying for the Name
• McKinney: The One I Live In (And Why It's Still Overpriced)
• Anna: Same Highway, $150,000 Less
• Which Area Is Right for You?
• Conclusion

Melissa: Brand New Everything, But at What Cost?

Melissa sits directly north of McKinney on Highway 75. Fifteen years ago, it had one stoplight and no grocery store. Now it has new schools, new subdivisions, new roads, a brand new H-E-B, a brand new Walmart, a brand new Kroger, and restaurants going in left and right. Everything there is brand new. Melissa ISD is small, and that's exactly why parents love it. You're only about 10 minutes north of McKinney shopping, but you're not paying McKinney prices.

That's the pitch, and it's a pretty good one. Here's what's happening to the price, though.

Melissa is getting valued off McKinney's reputation. Builders know exactly who is driving north on 75, and they price accordingly. That discount Melissa used to offer has gotten much thinner. Then there's the part buyers don't see until the tax bill shows up: a lot of these newer communities sit inside a PID or MUD district. That's an extra charge on top of your regular property tax. It pays for the roads, the drainage, all these amenity centers going in. Nobody mentions it at the model home. It shows up on your statement and it changes your monthly payment drastically.

You also have to consider what a brand new build doesn't come with: fences, sod in the backyard, blinds, gutters, a fridge. That's real cash out of pocket in the first 60 days. So you're paying near McKinney money, 10 minutes further from work, with an assessment on top of that. It's worth asking what you're actually buying.

The PID/MUD Trap

The PID and MUD assessments are not small line items. They can add hundreds of dollars to your monthly payment, and they're not fixed, they change as the district pays down infrastructure bonds. That variability makes it harder to budget, and it's a cost that doesn't show up in the purchase price or the builder's payment calculator. You find out about it when your lender runs the final numbers, or worse, when the first tax bill arrives.

Melissa is a great town if you want everything brand new and you're willing to pay for it. Just make sure you're running the real monthly payment, not the one the builder showed you.

Van Alstyne: The Small Town Melissa Used to Be

Keep driving 12 minutes up the same highway and the math completely changes. Van Alstyne sits just north of Anna in Grayson County, right off Highway 75. It's got an actual old Texas vibe: downtown center, main street, water tower, Texas Friday Night Football. It's the kind of small town Melissa was 15 years ago, except it's still there today.

Van Alstyne has kept its small town charm, but it also has new construction going up. Not master-planned communities with mega amenity stuff, straightforward new builds on decent lots at a price point that's noticeably below what you'll pay one exit south.

Here's why the commute argument holds up better than most people expect. If you're driving to Plano or Richardson, Van Alstyne to Melissa is maybe an extra 12 minutes on a highway you're already sitting on. That's it. If you work remote or you're heading north toward the job growth in Sherman right now, you're going the right direction entirely. Everything in Collin County is going to continuously move north.

The Trade-Offs Are Real

You've got fewer grocery options, fewer restaurants, and you're driving into Anna or McKinney for a Target run. But you're likely getting more square footage, a bigger lot, and often no PID assessment on top of your taxes. If Melissa appealed to you because of the small-town charm and the new houses, Van Alstyne gives you both. You just have to be honest about whether you want a small town or the 10-minute drive to Chick-fil-A.

Van Alstyne works for remote workers, for people commuting north toward Sherman, or for buyers who want the small-town Texas experience without the master-planned price tag. It's 12 minutes north of Melissa on the same highway, and it's a completely different monthly payment.

Celina: Paying Today for a Town That Doesn't Exist Yet

Celina shows up in every fastest growing city in America headline. It sits north of Prosper on the Preston Road corridor. It's got one of the best downtown squares in the whole DFW area, real events on the square, a football culture people genuinely move there for, and master-planned communities like Light Farms with pools, trails, and amenity centers built in. You can see why people fall for it. I've walked buyers through Celina weekly and watched them decide in about 20 minutes.

Here's what's inflating the price, though. You're paying today for a version of Celina that doesn't exist yet. The rooftops arrived before the infrastructure did, so you're funding future roads, future retail, and future schools through your purchase price and through PID assessments inside a lot of these communities. Celina is still building out new strip malls, so you're driving 10 to 20 minutes south just for a grocery store run.

The Resale Competition Problem

The one thing buyers underestimate is the resale competition. When you go to sell in five years, look at who you're up against: a builder just three streets over with 40 brand new homes sitting empty. That builder can buy your buyer's interest rate down and you can't. That's a real problem on a house you paid a premium for.

A lot of Celina communities also have mandatory monthly HOA dues. That's a real line item in your monthly payment, and it's funding the pools, trails, and amenity centers you're buying into. So which one did you actually want, the community pool or the small town Texas vibe? If the answer was small town and elbow room, there's a place about 20 to 25 minutes east that no one's bidding up right now.

Blue Ridge: Actual Space, Not a 60-Foot Lot with Rules

Blue Ridge sits northeast of McKinney, out past Anna, and it's still genuinely rural. Farmland, big skies, and lots you can measure in acres instead of feet. Here's why I bring it up to every Celina buyer I talk with: a big part of what pulls people to Celina is the idea of space and a slower pace of life. But then they buy a house on a 60-foot lot inside an HOA with a mandatory monthly due and a rule about what color you can paint your front door.

In Blue Ridge, you can often get land, real land, no HOA, no PID assessment tacked onto your overall tax rate, room for a shop, a garden, a batting cage in the back for your kids. That HOA piece matters more than people think. The dues are only part of it. Nobody tells you where to park your boat.

The Honest Trade-Off

You're committing to a drive. If somebody in your house works in Frisco or Plano five days a week, this is probably not your town. If you work remote, hybrid, or self-employed and can work anywhere along the 380 corridor, it definitely works for you.

This is one of the topics I get the most questions about because acreage and no HOA options are getting genuinely harder to find in Collin County. Blue Ridge is a beautiful piece of Texas that's one of the last places you can still do it at a normal price. It's 20 to 25 minutes east of Celina, and it's the alternative for buyers who want space and a slower pace, not a 60-foot lot with a lagoon three streets over.

Prosper: The Zip Code Purchase of North Texas

Now we're getting into the towns where you clearly are paying for the name. Prosper is the zip code purchase of North Texas. Prosper ISD is a huge part of why people buy there. The lots are bigger than what you'll find in most of Frisco, and communities like Windsong Ranch built amenities that people literally plan vacations around. You're minutes from every restaurant and big box store in West Frisco, and you're right on Preston Road and just near the Dallas North Tollway.

Here's where the premium comes from. A chunk of what you're paying has nothing to do with your house. It's the lot premium, the amenity package, and the district boundary. In some of these HOA communities, the HOA dues are a real line item in your monthly payment. Somebody has to maintain the lagoon, the trails, and the staffed amenity centers.

The Finished-Out Trap

Then there's the finished-out trap. Buyers get to Prosper and they love the base price. Then they walk to the design center and add $80,000 of upgrades because everything shown in the model is just an option. That money does not come back to you dollar for dollar when you try and resell. And the 380 traffic through there is not getting better anytime soon.

The question I'd ask is very simple: are you buying Prosper for the house and the land, or the sign at the edge of the town? If it was the land, there's a town on the same highway where an acre costs less than a Prosper lot premium.

Farmersville: Where an Acre Costs Less Than a Prosper Lot Premium

Farmersville sits east of McKinney on Highway 380 out toward Lake Lavon. It's an old railroad town with a real square, and the whole area around it is just acreage. Here's the case for it: a lot of Prosper buyers tell me they want space for kids, room for a shop, and a house that isn't 10 feet from their neighbor's window. Then they end up in a subdivision because that's what's available at their price point.

In Farmersville, the space is the whole point. You can get land, you're usually outside of an HOA, and the price per acre out there is a completely different universe from Collin County's western half. You're also on the 380 corridor, which is the east-west road that connects the whole northern half of the entire metro. That matters for how the area develops over the next decade.

The Drive Is Real

The trade-off, and I'll be direct about it, is the drive. Farmersville to Prosper is a real commitment if you do it daily. This works for somebody who's remote or works in McKinney, Plano, or generally just wants out. If acreage was your true dream when you relocated to Texas, you will get 10 times more of it here than a big lot in a master-planned community.

Farmersville is the alternative for Prosper buyers who want the space, not the amenity package. You're trading the lagoon and the staffed amenity centers for actual land you can use however you want.

Frisco: National Brand Recognition and 20-Year-Old Mechanicals

Frisco is a suburb that put North Texas on the map for people who have never even been here. Frisco has the Star, which is the Dallas Cowboys headquarters and practice facility. It's got the PGA of America headquarters, Toyota Stadium, Stonebriar Center, a wall of corporate offices along the Dallas North Tollway. Frisco ISD is one of the main reasons people relocate here from out of state. If you're moving from California and you Googled "best Dallas suburb," Frisco is what probably came back to you. That's the premium right there, national brand recognition.

Here's what buyers from out of state don't realize until they actually start house hunting, though. Frisco is largely built out. So unless you're at the top of the price range, you are most likely buying a resale from the early 2000s. And that gets expensive in a way nobody quotes you.

The Hidden Costs of Established Neighborhoods

A 2006 house in Frisco is 20 years old. The roof, the HVAC, the water heaters, and the fence all hit the end of their life all at the same time. That's not a small repair bill. That's tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket on a house you already paid a premium for. Then you start adding the other items: pool needs to be replastered, dated finishes you'll want to update because everything else on the block already has been. You're paying new house money for a house that needs new house work.

Frisco is worth the money if you want the national brand recognition, the established neighborhoods, and the access to everything the city has built. Just know that you're paying for the name, and if you're buying resale, you're also paying for deferred maintenance.

Little Elm: Keep the Access, Stop Paying for the Name

Ten minutes west of Frisco, there's a town sitting on a lake that people drive past constantly and never really look at. Little Elm is on Lewisville Lake on the western edge of the Frisco and Prosper area. There's a beach park on the water, a real waterfront, and you can be in West Frisco for work, shopping, or dinner in just about 15 minutes.

Here's why it makes sense for a Frisco buyer. You keep the access, you just stop paying for the name. And what you get is water, which is generally rare for this part of Texas. Most of North Texas is flat and dry. Living five minutes from a lake is a lifestyle you cannot buy anywhere else in Frisco at any price.

School Districts and Housing Age

School districts out there vary block by block, so if that's a factor for you, check the boundary on specific addresses rather than the town. The other thing is age. A lot of Little Elm's housing stock is newer than Frisco's core, which means you're less likely to be replacing a roof and two HVAC units in year three.

You're getting a newer home on or near the water, minutes from the same jobs and the same shopping. You just don't get to say you live in Frisco at the neighborhood barbecue. Little Elm is the alternative for Frisco buyers who want the access and the lifestyle, not the brand.

McKinney: The One I Live In (And Why It's Still Overpriced)

This brings me back to one of the most overpriced suburbs in North Texas, which is the one I actually live in, work in, and sell more than anywhere else here in DFW: McKinney . Let me tell you why people love it here, because I'm one of them.

Downtown McKinney's historic square is the best in the metro, and it isn't even close. Real shops, real restaurants, Tupps Brewery, events on the square all year long. Adriatica Village on the north side looks like somebody dropped a Croatian fishing town in the middle of Texas. Town Lake Park, easy access to both Highway 75 and Highway 121. It's the whole package here, and that's exactly the problem.

The median sales price in McKinney is $504,000. That's 25% higher than the national average, and it's roughly 47% above the typical Texas home at $343,000. Meanwhile, the overall cost of living in McKinney is 3% below the national average. So the housing is 25% above the national and everything else is below it. That gap is the premium. That's the brand.

The Age Problem

The other piece is the age. Big parts of established McKinney west of 75 were built in the 1990s. Beautiful mature trees, great streets, and mechanical systems that are all coming due at once. Prices there are down 3.4% year over year. Homes are taking roughly 44 days to sell, up from 39 from last year. So you're paying peak name money in a market that's definitely softening right now.

Let me be fair to McKinney because I'm not talking myself out of my own backyard. If you want the historic town, mature trees on your street, and a 5-minute drive to hundreds of restaurants, McKinney is worth paying for. That's a real thing you're buying, and the alternative I'm about to name does not have that. But if what you want is a brand new house, four bedrooms, a yard, and a payment you are entirely comfortable with, you are handing over roughly $150,000 for the McKinney name.

Anna: Same Highway, $150,000 Less

Fifteen minutes north, straight up Highway 75, just 15 minutes from McKinney, the price drops by about a third. Anna's median sales price is $350,000. McKinney's is $504,000. That's roughly 30% less for a town on the same highway, same builders, same exact floor plans.

Anna is not a sleepy nothing town anymore. There's real investment in the old downtown. Slater Creek Park has a genuinely good playground and new retail keeps landing alongside Highway 75. Here's the number that tells you people are catching on: the average Anna home is going pending in about 24 days. That is not a slow market there. That's buyers doing exactly this math and acting on it.

The $150,000 Question

This is the exact call my family made when we moved out here from Northern California a few years back. Same highway, very different monthly payment. Anna doesn't have the historic downtown or the mature trees. It doesn't have Adriatica Village or the events on the square. But it has new construction, local schools, and a monthly payment that doesn't stretch you thin.

The gap between McKinney and Anna is roughly $150,000. That's not a rounding error. That's a different life. That's the difference between stretched thin and sleeping well at night when the mortgage payment hits. Anna is the alternative for McKinney buyers who want the access, the schools, and the new construction, not the name.

Which Area Is Right for You?

Every one of these five towns is worth the money to somebody. The trick is figuring out whether it's worth it to you. Here's how I'd break it down:

• Choose Melissa if you want everything brand new and you're willing to pay near McKinney prices for it. Just run the real monthly payment with the PID/MUD assessment included.
• Choose Van Alstyne if you want the small-town Texas vibe without the master-planned price tag, and you're okay with an extra 12 minutes on the commute.
• Choose Celina if you want the downtown square, the football culture, and the master-planned amenities, and you're willing to pay today for a town that's still building out.
• Choose Blue Ridge if you want actual space, acreage, no HOA, no rules, and you're not commuting to Frisco or Plano five days a week.
• Choose Prosper if you want the zip code, the district, and the amenity package, and you're willing to pay the lot premium and the HOA dues.
• Choose Farmersville if you want the space Prosper buyers talk about but rarely get, and you're okay with the drive.
• Choose Frisco if you want the national brand recognition and the established neighborhoods, and you're prepared for the deferred maintenance on a 20-year-old house.
• Choose Little Elm if you want the access to West Frisco and the waterfront lifestyle, and you don't need to say you live in Frisco.
• Choose McKinney if you want the historic downtown, the mature trees, and the 5-minute drive to hundreds of restaurants, and you're willing to pay the $150,000 premium.
• Choose Anna if you want the new construction, the schools, and the same highway access, and you'd rather keep the $150,000.

The gap between the priciest of these towns and the cheapest is real money. McKinney's median price is $504,000. Anna's is $350,000. That's a $150,000 gap on the same exact highway. Guess wrong and you're stretched thin on a payment you don't enjoy, or you're 25 minutes further from work than you wanted to be for the next 10 years.

Conclusion

I moved my family here from Northern California a few years back, and I made this exact decision with my own money. I chose Anna over McKinney because I wanted the new construction and the payment I could sleep on, not the name. A few years later, I moved to McKinney because the historic downtown and the mature trees were worth the premium to me at that stage of life. Both decisions were right for the moment I made them.

The point is not that one of these towns is better than the other. The point is that you need to know what you're paying for and whether it's worth it to you. If you're moving to North Texas, call or text me at 214-326-2323. Tell me your budget and where your commute's going to be. I'll run the builder incentives, the tax differences, and the real monthly payment on each of these towns side by side so you know which side of that $150,000 gap you should be on.