A tree-filled Plano neighborhood.
Adobe Stock
Stop us if you’ve read this before. Wait, no, please keep reading. Plano has again been named as one of the prime living destinations in the country.
For the second year in a row, Plano has found its hot air balloon-loving self at No. 6 in the 10 Best Cities in the U.S. to Live In from Niche, a data-driven platform that provides information on schools, cities and real estate across the U.S. For the purpose of these rankings, Niche defines a city as “a principal city for an urbanized area with a population of 100,000 or more.”
For those stuffy Dallasites who prefer to not acknowledge the existence of life north of the Galleria, it’s getting harder and harder to deny that there are many reasons for people to perhaps not worry so much with what is going on south of Interstate 635. If this isn’t your first day reading the Observer, perhaps you’ve seen the recent reports noting that Plano has been praised in many other ways before the Niche report came out this week.
Not only is Plano high on this list for the second year ina row, but it again nabbed the No. 6 spot. The only other Texas city ranked higher than Plano, The Woodlands, down near Houston, fell one place from No. 2 last year to be merely No. 3 this year.
Why Plano?
As was the case last year, Plano landed high marks in all of the survey’s key metrics. It received an A rating for public schools, jobs, nightlife, diversity, health and fitness and one called “good for families.” A recent WalletHub report noted that Plano is the 23rd most ethnically diverse city in the country, so the A rating might be surprising to some, given Plano’s reputation as a predominantly white city, but its diverse population mix has been growing for some time now.
Plano didn’t score lower than a B rating in any category, with that being the score being given for housing, cost of living, outdoor activities, crime and safety, weather and commute. High marks in such a vast array of realms suggests Plano is a place where people want to be, similar to the other cities near the top of this list.
“People are increasingly looking for neighborhoods that offer both access to diverse career opportunities and a strong sense of community,” said Allison Shrivastava, Economist at Niche. “These smaller, walkable communities provide the mix of amenities and livability that families and young professionals both value.”
For what it’s worth, Plano landed high in some of Niche’s other 2026 rankings, thanks to a No. 5 ranking on Niche’s best cities to retire in list and No. 5 in Niche’s cities with the best public schools list.
Plano has been active in working to give itself a much higher profile than it already has as the state’s ninth largest city. Earlier this year, the city announced it’s hope to lure the Dallas Stars to town by offering up the prime plot of land where the soon-to-be-doomed Willow Bend Mall now sits. And Plano scored another big win over Big D recently when AT&T announced it would depart its mammoth downtown headquarters for a sprawling new campus in Plano.