Ask anyone relocating to Dallas where to look and you’ll hear the same three names: Frisco, Plano and McKinney. All three sit in Collin County, all three have strong schools and big-city amenities, and all three rank near the top on Realust. But they are not interchangeable. Pick the wrong one and you could pay for things you’ll never use — or spend an extra hour a day in the car.
Here’s how they stack up across the eight categories in the Realust Score. The table updates live as our data does.
At a glance
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Top marks for prosperity, schools, safety and growth. You pay for it: the median home is $869,990.
Closest to Dallas, the most walkable and the most affordable of the three, with a $525,990 median.
Never wins a category outright, but finishes second in five of eight — at a $600,000 median.
Money: what you pay and what you get
Frisco’s median home price of $869,990 is roughly $344,000 more than Plano’s ($525,990) and $270,000 more than McKinney’s ($600,000). Part of what that premium buys is the neighbors’ income: 48.3% of Frisco households earn $150K or more, compared with 35.7% in McKinney and 33.6% in Plano. It’s also why Frisco has the lowest Affordability score of the three (60), while Plano leads at 70.
Property tax rates are about the same in all three — around 2.2% in our data — so the tax bill simply follows the price. HOAs are a different story. About 45.5% of Plano homes carry an HOA averaging $224 a month, compared with roughly one in six homes in Frisco and McKinney, averaging $111 and $107.
- Is the Frisco premium buying something you’ll use every day, or mostly a ZIP code?
- What’s the all-in monthly payment once property tax, insurance and HOA are added?
Schools
All three earn strong grades, but Frisco ISD stands apart: an A, ranked in the top 3% in Texas, with a 98.8% graduation rate. Plano ISD and McKinney’s district both earn an A-, ranked in the top 24% and top 29% respectively. McKinney’s graduation rate (98.1%) is nearly level with Frisco’s; Plano’s is 94.5%.
One thing to know before you shop: school district lines don’t follow city lines. Some addresses in each of these cities feed into a neighboring district, so check the specific campuses for any home you’re considering.
Safety
Frisco leads with a Safety score of 82 and a B+ grade. Look one level deeper, though, and McKinney has the lowest property crime of the three: 8.15 incidents per 1,000 residents, versus 10.03 in Frisco and 14.66 in Plano. Violent crime is low in all three, between 1.01 and 1.52 per 1,000.
Getting around
Plano is the closest to downtown Dallas at 19.3 miles, versus 28.4 for Frisco and 33.3 for McKinney. It also has the shortest average commute (26 minutes) and the highest Walk Score in our data (92, against 80 in Frisco and 64 in McKinney) — which is why Plano wins Commute with an 82.
The averages look close — 26, 27 and 29 minutes — but averages hide a lot. If your office is downtown or near DFW Airport, map the drive from each city at rush hour before you decide.
- Where are your regular trips — work, school, family, the airport — and at what times?
- Would you trade a longer drive for a newer home or a lower price?
Growth and the market
Frisco’s population has grown about 26.9% in five years and McKinney’s 16.6%, while Plano is essentially built out at +1.0%. Growth brings new schools, shopping and jobs — and construction and traffic along with them. That gap shows up in the Growth scores: 82 for Frisco, 75 for McKinney and 62 for Plano.
Prices have cooled over the past year in all three — down 6.2% in Frisco, 6.8% in McKinney and 2.5% in Plano — though they’re still up 37% to 53% over five years. Homes sell fastest in Plano (63 days on market) and take longest in Frisco (72 days), which gives buyers a little more room to negotiate at the higher end.
Lifestyle: a three-way tie
All three score 89. The difference is character, not quantity. Frisco is built around sports and entertainment. Plano offers an established dining scene and major corporate headquarters. McKinney centers on its historic downtown square. The numbers can’t pick for you here — spend a Saturday in each.
So which one?
- Choose Frisco if schools and long-term value top your list and the budget allows.
- Choose Plano if you want to be closer to Dallas, value walkability and established neighborhoods, and want the most house for your money of the three.
- Choose McKinney if you want balance — strong schools, low property crime and a real downtown — at a price between the other two.
Our overall scores rank them Frisco (92), McKinney (85) and Plano (80). But that order uses our default weights. If affordability and commute matter more to you than prosperity, it can change. Set your own weights, or put all three side by side on the compare page.
Figures in this article come from Realust data as of October 2026. Scores in the table above update live.