McKinney was named the country’s most affordable city this year, according to one report, surprising some residents who believe housing is unattainable in the fast-growing North Texas suburb.
“Affordability is relative to so many things,” said Beth Bentley, who lives in Allen but has six generations of family roots in McKinney.
She said it would be a challenge to find an affordable home in McKinney if she were to move back. Like many residents, she was surprised to see McKinney at the top of the list of most affordable places in the country.
McKinney has also been named one of the country’s fastest-growing cities in the past decade by the U.S. Census Bureau, one of the best places to rent by RentCafe and a city with one of the most booming economies according to SmartAsset.
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Now The Motley Fool, a financial services company, named McKinney the most affordable city in the U.S. based on a relatively low cost of living and a high median income — “the sweet spot,” according to the report. Census data shows McKinney’s median household income is $120,273, well above the national median household income, which was $83,730 in 2024.
McKinney is one of the most popular places to move north of Dallas. Since 1990, the city has added 200,000 residents, according to the city’s population data. While math tells one story of affordability for residents, some who have seen home values skyrocket and McKinney change unrecognizably have a different perspective on affordability in the city.
Next on the top-ten list were Morristown, New Jersey, Edmond, Oklahoma, and three Texas cities — Midland, Austin and Plano.
“Texas is an overall, generally affordable place,” said Jack Caporal, who authored the report for Motley Fool. “I think that’s reflected in our list.”
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The Motley Fool report used each city’s cost-of-living index from the Council for Community and Economic Research to calculate income-to-expense ratios.
“Affordability is not just based on how cheap or expensive it is to live somewhere,” Caporal said. “The cost of living versus the median household income in an area … essentially shows how far your income goes.”
High earners attracted to McKinney
Younger professionals in McKinney contribute to its affordability. The median age in the city is around 39, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — right about to enter their prime earning years, Caporal said.
McKinney’s residents make about 40% more than the national median household income, often in high-earning fields like management, sales, business or financial operations, according to Caporal. A diverse pool of industries casts a wider net for high-earning professionals.
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Wajahat Khan, 37, is one of many who have moved to McKinney to establish his family and career. He works for a software company and moved to McKinney around 2022 from Coppell to buy his first home. Khan says bills in McKinney are fair.
“It’s kind of on the border of city and country life,” he said. “We were looking to start a family and we wanted to be close enough to civilization, but not too far away.”
Not every city on the list of the country’s most affordable are as fast-growing or as large as McKinney, but the city’s location and industry make it attractive, he said.
“It’s by an urban center, which offers a lot of different opportunities for entertainment, amenities, cultural opportunities, etc.,” Caporal said. “[That] makes it a little bit more of a desirable place for families.”
The cost of housing in McKinney
Housing has a 28% weight in the cost-of-living index used in the report’s calculation, according to Caporal. He found McKinney’s housing costs were below the national average and well below Plano and Austin’s.
“McKinney sitting in the suburbs just generally helps with cost of living, especially that housing component,” Caporal said. “There’s more space to build, essentially, and there’s perhaps a little bit lower demand.”
The average home in McKinney costs more than $480,000, according to Zillow. In 2017, it hovered around $320,000.
“There’s no way people can afford this, especially for young people, who [are] starting out,” said Shawn Wang, a property owner in McKinney who used to run a restaurant downtown. “That’s not for everybody. That’s for people who are well-established with a good job. That’s not how most of America is.”
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Johnny Mowad, President of the MetroTex Association of Realtors, wrote in an email to The Dallas Morning News that McKinney is “one of North Texas’s most attainable housing markets,” with high-income residents and a good amount of inventory.
McKinney offers affordability and high quality of life, Mowad wrote, with good schools and job access. About 60% of all home sales are under $500,000, according to Mowad, and it’s an ideal market for first-time buyers — like Khan.
Affordable housing in McKinney
While McKinney’s housing market is attainable for high earners, low-income residents have a hard time owning homes. Bentley, 55, is the former director of the McKinney Housing Authority, which seeks to address housing needs of low-income families in the city.
“I don’t know that anybody’s sitting around thinking that a $400,000 or $500,000 home is [affordable],” Bentley said. “There are people that cannot live and work in the community. It’s a tough reality.”
According to a housing study drafted by the city in 2020, the homeownership rate of low-income households was 28% in McKinney, well below the rate for the U.S. and Texas, which was 41%. The report found nearly half of all renters in the city were cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs.
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The report also found a significant loss in affordable entry-level ownership options since 2011. The share of homes sold for under $200,000 dropped from 58% in 2011 to less than 3% in 2019 in McKinney, according to the study.
Bentley believes the city will make good use of the McKinney Public Facility Corporation, its community land trust and other opportunities to create affordable housing.
McKinney Mayor Bill Cox said he hopes to “ease the burden of homeownership” by incentivizing more affordable housing options and supporting organizations that provide lower-priced options.
“It’s important to have all price points of homes in a city,” Cox said. “We certainly want our employees that work in McKinney to live in McKinney.”
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