Find where you belong in North Texas.

North Texas is not one housing market. It is dozens of cities spread across Collin, Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties, each with its own school districts, tax rates and drive times. The same budget can buy a new build in Celina, an established home in Plano or a house close to downtown Dallas, and each choice changes both your monthly payment and your daily routine. In my experience, choosing the city first and the house second is the step that saves people the most money and the most regret.

Most of the growth is happening in the two northern counties. The Census Bureau estimated Collin County at 1,297,179 residents in July 2025, up from 1,066,201 in 2020, and Denton County at 1,069,346, up from 906,530. Plano, McKinney, Allen and Anna are Collin County cities. Denton, Little Elm, Aubrey, Lewisville and The Colony are in Denton County. Frisco, Prosper and Celina sit across both, which matters more than most buyers expect, because the county line changes the tax bill.

Texas has no state income tax, so property taxes carry real weight in your budget. Your bill is the sum of every taxing entity on the address: city, county, school district, sometimes a college or hospital district, and in many new communities a MUD tax or a PID assessment. For tax year 2025 the combined rate ran about 1.63% to 1.87% in Frisco, 1.69% to 1.71% in Plano, 1.97% to 2.02% in Celina before any MUD or PID, and 2.23% to 2.34% in the Dallas County part of Dallas. On the same $500,000 home, a half point difference is about $2,500 a year.

Special districts are where two similar homes drift apart. In McKinney, Trinity Falls sits inside McKinney MUD No. 1, whose 2025 rate alone was 0.98475 per $100. Celina lists 31 public improvement districts. In November 2025 Texas voters raised the school homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, so filing your homestead exemption the year you move in is one of the simplest ways to lower your bill.

School districts follow their own boundaries, not city limits. Frisco ISD, Prosper ISD, Lewisville ISD and Little Elm ISD all have territory inside Frisco, and McKinney and its ETJ are zoned into seven districts. Two homes a mile apart can go to different campuses, so I confirm the district and the zoned schools for every address before you write an offer.

Then there is the drive. Growth here follows a handful of roads. The Dallas North Tollway runs north through Plano, Frisco, Prosper and Celina. SH 121, the Sam Rayburn Tollway, links McKinney, Allen, Plano, Frisco, The Colony and Lewisville toward DFW Airport. US 380 crosses the north through Denton, Cross Roads, Aubrey, Little Elm, Prosper and McKinney. US 75 carries Anna, McKinney, Allen and Plano toward Dallas, and I-35E connects Denton and Lewisville to Dallas. Off peak, Frisco to Legacy West is about 15 to 20 minutes, Celina to downtown Dallas about 50 to 55, and Lewisville to DFW Airport about 15 to 20. Rush hour is a different number, so we test your real route at your real time before you commit.