Plano, Texas is located in Collin County in the great state of Texas.
Plano homes began back in the 1850's by the first settlers coming from Kentucky and Tennessee. Plano in spanish means plain and Plano was deemed the name after a couple other options of Fillmore and Foreman.
It wasn't until the 1970's that Plano homes for sale began to spike. After the majority of new development was headed in the Southern direction, Plano real estate was a prime piece of property due to developing out to the border of North Dallas.
My parents atcually purchased a lot and built a home in North Dallas in the late 1970's. They paid around $27,000 for a 1,800 square feet home. The home was located in the Plano isd school district and that is where I gratuated from in 1997.
Today my parents property is worth around $350,000 and over the years this price increase is due to Plano homes for sale. At one time Plano was the fastest growing city in Texas and the Nation.
The schools are exemplary and have great teachers and curriculiums. Plano currently has three High Schools and is well known for their Football Teams and Soccer Teams.
Plano TX homes have had a constant demand due to the cost of living. This significance has brought many Nationally Recognized Employers to relocate to Plano for their employees and to prosper off of Dallas's business sectors. Not to mention Plano foreclosures have also jumped in the past year to record highs.
Big builders such as Drees, KHOV, Toll Brothers and Pulte have all created communities to allow many new home buyers to call Plano home. Developed neighborhoods by large well known builders inticed many to the city for the vision of raising families in beautiful large homes in plano.
Plano homes have seen a huge increase in price due to the amount of land in Plano left to build new homes if you ask any group of plano realtors. Many Plano residents will tell you they never would live anywhere else due to the amentities and location in the DFW metroplex. If you are looking for Plano homes for sale you have made a wonderful deciscion and will be happy with any neighborhood you choose if you find a new plano home!
Allen, Texas is located in Collin County in the great state of Texas.
Allen homes began back in the 1800's by the Comanche and Caddo Indians as Tee-Pees. Fast forward to the 1960's and the population exploded and helped a slow growth of Allen home building to occur.
It wasn't until the late 1970's that you could see all over the city, "Allen homes for sale!" This was a good sign of things to come but the residents, mostly farmers, had no idea what was to come.
Way before the Frisco Homes Rush and after the Plano Homes Rush in the mid-1970's, the closest city for new development was traveling East was Allen. New Home Builders started coming in by the truck loads. Many developers at that time were selling actual developments instead of giving an option of a take-down schedule.
Life was good in Allen Real Estate!
Allen isd is an exemplerary rated school district with some of the most sought after elementary, middle and High schools in the nation. The local Allen realtors use the Allen isd as one of the most important selling points when promoting Allen listings.
Allen High School is known for two things, it's Football Team and The Largest High School Marching Band in the Nation! They cover the whole Football Field!
Many big builders have called Allen home in the past couple years. From Grand Homes to Darling and DR Horton to Drees, Allen homes for sale have been a hot commodity. Building communities like Watters Creek, Twin Creeks and Montgomery Farm, the builders have definately paid attention to detail in the Allen houses.
If you are looking for Allen TX Homes, Allen rentals or even Allen Foreclosures give us a call for more information. We specialize in Collin County and feel that we could be considered Allen realtors due to the amount of time we spend there. Allen foreclosures are also a main focus to our out of state relocation clients as well as a group of investors.
Come see what Allen homes for sale look like in person and you will not be dissappointed!
Call me directly at (469) 733-2723 for more info on Allen or an updated List of Properties directly from the builder.
Brad Holden
Who is curious about the newest Frisco Homes to hit the Market in DFW? Not Landon Homes.
The newest builder on the block is absolutely taking the city by storm. The Austin Ridge Community could be the most sought after community in DFW. They are selling homes like crazy and are having to take a waiting list on homes on their smaller lots! What other builder in Frisco has a waiting List?
I have seen many builders in the area and how they build, and have never been as impressed as I am with Landon Homes. They have created an unbelievable bar for other builders in energy efficiency as one of the first major builders in DFW that use 2 x 6's instead of 2 X 4's. This helps with the insulation issue by providing up to 60% more insulation than the new homebuilder standard, and the huge savings being passed on to their customers makes Landon Homes a incredible buy for the price.
John Landon has the experience, beautiful open floorplans that make since, and has created the ultimate value for the middle of the road buyer, or the buyer that wants one step below custom!
Call me today at (469) 733-2723 to take advantage of the newest builder on the block in DFW, Landon Homes in Austin Ridge, and I promise you will not be disappointed in these Frisco homes!
Brad Holden
Holden New Homes
. . . it's back!!!!!
That's right, Craig Ranch is making the turn and heading for the finish line.
The 2,000 Acre Master Planned Community has trotted at a much slower pace than anyone has expected, but after a couple of the latest transactions that have taken place the prime piece of McKinney Real Estate is back!
In late 2007, the public, the custom builder and even the real estate community would shake their head back and forth when the discussion of Craig Ranch came up and think there is no out. David Craig has always had the vision and made the right plays to come out on top.
In the past 6 Months 2 Nationwide builders have made purchases of lots and another is in Escrow as you are reading this to build new mckinney homes. KHOV was the first to take down the first phase of Villa lots despite many other custom builders attempts at the project which left the community in disarray with a home here and a home there.
Same situation with The Settlement on the East Side of the TPC Golf Course. A surplus of McKinney homes for sale were left non-complete due to financing of a builder that had built in DFW since 2000. Yet again, a nationwide builder Beazer Homes has come in and swiped up 93 lots even in the uncertainty of not only this market, but Craig Ranch as well.
Another developer called Mad Mag development has purchased 24 acres and will begin Tuscorara which will primarily focus on independent living with 165 apartments and 24 villas.
To help further stimulate the economy, Traxxas a hobby-class radio controlled cars, trucks and boats, will relocate its corporate headquarters to McKinney in Craig Ranch. This will add another 150 jobs to the city of McKinney after the move. They plan on having a test facilities and race tracks with public access.
So there you have it, all in one post. The next Frisco with that cities Frisco homes explosion? We will have to wait and see. In 5 years, someone will come across this post and think, "Okay, like everyone didn't know that already about Craig Ranch, of course it is the best new community in DFW."
But I would correct him and say, "the best new community in the entire nation!"
If you are looking for a new home, nows the time! Call me to take advantage of what Craig Ranch has to offer at the bottom of the market, before you cannot afford it.
For more information on Craig Ranch visit my website at this link: Craig Ranch McKinney.
Brad Holden
(469) 733-2723
Leave it up to Frisco to make headlines again.
Frisco was the nation's fastest-growing city last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday. McKinney wasn't that far behind, ranking third in the Census Bureau's Info.
One thing that did surprise me was a couple of other North Dallas Cities in the top 25. Lewisville , Fort Worth, Carrollton and Denton were also included.
Frisco claimed the top spot among cities with more than 100,000 people this is by a 6.2 percent population increase during a 12-month period starting in July 2008. McKinney, scored a 5.5 percent jump since July 2008.
I am happy to say thata big focus in my real estate business is focusing on these two cities. Frisco homes are selling very quickly over the past couple months and most new home builders have no available homes. As for McKinney it is in the same boat. For instance, Craig Ranch in Mckinney, Texas has added three new builders (KHOV, Beazer Homes and a National Builder soon to be announced) in the past 3 months after years of stagnant home growth and many builders leaving the development alltogether. Frisco and McKinney remain as the two cities that over the past decade had the country's biggest population growth, numero 1 and 2. Where u at Uptown or M Streets?
A total of 102,000 residents were in Frisco in 2009 according to the data, compared with fewer than 34,000 in 2000. Pull out your calculators and you will find a 204% Jump! Wow!
In 2009, McKinney's population was nearly 128,000, up from about 54,000 in 2000 - that would be a 135% increase. not too shabby.
This has only helped the whole metroplex of DF-Dub. The area added more residents than any other metropolitan area in the country, both in the last year and the past decade, according to census data released in March 2010.
Credit the population growth to cost of living and a steady and stable increase in home prices in comparison to the rest of the nation.
So in conclusion, there is a lot of things happening in Collin County, Texas. If you are looking for a new home in Frisco or a new home in McKinney, give Brad Holden a call at (469) 733-2723 or visit my website at homes for sale Frisco.
Brad Holden is Broker of Holden Real Estate. He is a native Texan born and raised in Dallas, Texas. As a Real Estate Broker he has been involved in over 250 transactions in the
Holden New Homes is a Full-Service Real Estate Brokerage Specializing in the North Dallas Texas Corridor. Our Special Relationships with New Home Builders and Marketing Syndication Partners allow us to pass our Industry Knowledge and Incentives to our Clients.
With over 7 years of Experience in the Collin County and the DFW Metroplex, Holden New Homes has been involved in Numerous Transactions and has Placed in the Top 50 DFW Brokerages in Sales for 2006.
Eight o'clock on a Wednesday morning and Brad Holden is getting richer. A real estate agent and broker who is, at 27, riding on an ever-rising wave of cash, Holden's a point man for the California land rush sweeping Dallas and its environs. Standing now in the plush lobby of the Richardson Hotel, he waits until Arie Avneri, a weathered, fiftysomething, Israeli-born Californian, and his sister-in-law Nili Avneri step from the elevators into the lobby. Holden reaches for Arie's hand. "Ready to see your houses?" he asks.
Arie owns a window replacement business in Los Angeles, and before boarding his plane for Dallas, he had two houses under contract in McKinney. That's the way it's done when you play with the Big Boys. You draw up contracts to buy houses before seeing them. You speculate. You make money, lots of money, mountains of money.
Now in Holden's SUV, he, Arie and Nili, a stay-at-home mom who's thinking of buying a few houses herself, head north on Central Expressway to the land of unlimited potential. Arie says financing might be an issue if he tries to buy the two houses he has under contract. Holden interrupts him.
"That's not a problem, we'll take care of that," he says. "You're on my turf now. I'll take care of you. We'll do this Texas-style."
Holden explains how Frisco and McKinney are exploding in population and how nationwide, investors are speculating that the area could be the next Phoenix or Las Vegas-cities where real estate prices in recent years have tripled.
The numbers are convincing. In 1999, Frisco became the fastest-growing city in North Texas. From 2002 to 2004, home sales there jumped 35 percent, and the current population of 75,330 is rising at a rate of 10,000 a year. In McKinney-recently crowned the fastest-growing city of its size in America-the population, now approaching 100,000, has nearly doubled since 2000. In fact, thanks to these towns, 2005 will be the seventh year in a row that North Texas will set a record for new home construction.
Here's the kicker: home prices have remained fairly constant. The median price in Frisco, at $207,850 last year, has risen no more than 7 percent annually since 2002. In McKinney, the median price has crept up only 1 percent in that time. "Homes at these prices won't last forever," Holden says.
Up FM 720 in McKinney they go past corn fields and cows. Suddenly, homes appear, and Holden's naming planned communities as his SUV passes them. Most have "Ranch" in the name, like Craig Ranch, which is a gargantuan 2,000-acre, master-planned development that includes a Tournament Players Club (TPC) golf course. "They're supposed to be moving the Byron Nelson here in the next couple of years," Holden says. "This area's hot." (Officials at the Byron Nelson say the tournament will stay in Irving through 2018.)
Moments later, Holden pulls his SUV into WestRidge, another master-planned golf-course community that, according to a recent market research study, is currently the second-highest-selling development of its type in the Dallas area. Soon the entourage walks through two four-bedroom/two-bath Cape Cod homes, with their symmetrical windows and shutters, their steep roofs with gables, their centered front doors, their large front porches. One house is priced at $136,000; the other is $145,000. Both offer about 2,000 square feet.
Later, in the sales office, Arie says he'll buy the cheaper one. "I want something that'll rent quick," he says. If that happens, and Holden assures him it will, Arie will return for another house, maybe even a third. Everyone laughs. Then papers are signed and the deal is done. "Next time," Arie says with a smile, "we'll do this on the Internet and by FedEx." 
FROM MARCH TO SEPTEMBER, BRAD HOLDEN sold 85 homes in McKinney to investors like Arie. One day alone he sold 10. "It's constant. Like every four or five days, I've got people coming out here from California, sometimes two and three a day," he says, still amazed himself. "They call up and say, 'Send me some information, and if we like it we'll buy a couple.' They act like it's K-Mart or something, you know-that blue-light special thing."
Californians hope the Dallas market will one day be as hot as their own. In 1997 an average California home sold for about $172,000. Today, that same home sells for half a million. Many who bought in '97 looked to Las Vegas, around 2003, as a new place to invest their equity. During the course of 2004, new home prices there increased by 39 percent.
When Vegas began to max out, the speculator stampede bolted for Phoenix. As the word "flipping" found a place in the national lexicon-referring to buying a house and then a short time later selling it for a high profit-nearly one out of every four new Phoenix homes went to investors. By the end of last September, the median home price in the Arizona capital had ballooned to $259,000-a 56 percent rise in less than two years.
Next stop: Dallas? Perhaps so. "Californians are coming here by the busloads," reports Bill Sabino, managing broker at RE/MAX Premier Group in Dallas. "Imagine you're sitting in California living in a refrigerator box for $400K, and then you realize how much your funny money will buy in Texas. You can't believe it. Every agent I know has a couple of California investors they're working with."
Coldwell Banker Realtor Lou Moore says she gets calls and e-mails from Californians every week, and currently she and her business partner, Ken Morris, are working on finding investment properties for an entire family. "It's really taking off," says Moore. "Many are still dipping their toe in the water, though. So far, they like what they see."
On the other end of the deal, real estate broker Cathy Haney of Orange County advises a group of about 30,000 investors. Her job: pairing investors with Dallas' suburban builders and cutting deals on about 10 to 20 properties monthly. The National Association of Realtors says 10 percent of all purchased homes nationwide are pure investment. Haney sees Dallas-Fort Worth as a place to increase that percentage. "You've got all the right factors," she says. "You have a growing population, a strong and enlarging employer base, and a good affordability rate." An affordability rate means what percentage of residents can afford to buy an average home. In Texas, it's 52 percent. In California, it's 14 percent.
Shari Zolna is a San Diego, California-based broker and consultant who bought her first investment property there in 1998 for $117,500. Six years later, she sold it for nearly $600,000, rolling the tax-free money into seven homes in Phoenix. She's now doing the same thing with her Phoenix properties. "One house in Phoenix can turn into two or three in Dallas," she says. So far, she and her husband have seven homes in the Dallas area. Says Zolna, "There aren't too many places near a major city where you can buy a nice, big, 2,000-square-foot home for under $200,000. But in Dallas, you can."
Salesperson Sarah Walker, of Craig Ranch in McKinney, says, "We sold out 135 townhomes in six weeks. And we've got 41 people on the waiting list." Nearly every building was sold to an investor. "Anyone who talks about the speculation market coming to Dallas doesn't know what's going on. It ain't coming; it's already here."
Even at more urban locations, investors are showing up. As many as 32 percent of the condos at The W, The Terrace, and The House, all being developed in the Uptown area by Hillwood Capital, have been purchased by investors. "We're not selling to speculators, though," says Jonas Woods, Hillwood Capital's president. "Most of our buyers are Dallasites looking for a long-term, solid investment. We have provisions in our contracts that keep buyers from flipping."
Coldwell Banker's Moore sees all of Dallas real estate investment-both resale and new properties throughout the Dallas area-in this light. She predicts that speculators hoping to see Dallas take off like Vegas or Phoenix will be sorely disappointed. "We don't have that kind of rapid growth here," she says. "Never have, never will." Moore and other real estate professionals point to plenty of undeveloped land and high property taxes as primary reasons that rapid growth won't take hold.
Even Shari Zolna, who sends her clients to McKinney, Allen, and Rockwall to buy, cautions about the get-rich-quick idea of flipping. "When we bought in Phoenix, we intended to buy for the long term, and then it took off, so it was smarter to sell, but that was never our intention," she says. "Dallas is the same way. It's going to grow steadily. But if the market dictates something different, we won't hesitate to take advantage of it. We're just not counting on that kind of experience every time."
Yet some people are. Take, for instance, the brash Brad Holden, returning from a weekend getaway in Seattle and saying, "Just now, walking to my plane, I sold four houses. I'm not even in town, working. It's nonstop crazy."
Hal Karp is a contributing editor for Reader's Digest. This is his first piece for D.
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