Sunday, June 22, 2008

Fun Facts and The Good Life

D Magazine has put out their suburb rankings in this month's issue. Every two years, they rate the Dallas area 'burbs in categories like education, crime, housing & something called "ambience and air." I think that last one is kind of a catch-all.

And it looks good at first...

Highland Village enters the poll at #8. They got major points for their Inland Trails which roll through the city. Get this: They even got points for an upscale Wal-Mart and the new "Shops at Highland Village" (which was called a mini Southlake Town Center).

Our beloved FloMo rolled in at #10. We got points for easy airport access and low housing prices. Interestingly, they praised Parker Square (a retail development attempting to create a "downtown" for our city) for not having chain retailers. I don't know anyone that goes there except to work out or do something different for dinner. But we'll take the points and get into the top 10, brutha!

Two others of note: Lewisville was #25, Grapevine was #24.

Some other close 'burbs: Trophy Club (a completely planned community near the lake) was #4...and Roanoke was #18 and included in their "Four 'Burbs to Watch." Hickory Creek rolled in at #17.

It's pretty obvious that their stats favor cities smaller than 75,000. Frisco rolled in at #21, and Plano at #22. Those are two 'burbs that have large populations and Frisco has minor league baseball, major league soccer and a freakin' IKEA, man. How do they stay out of the top 20? So, to some degree, you were punished if your population was too big.

I also found out some things "officially." Like population totals. FloMo has 62,000 residents. HV has 14,000. Lewisville at 91,500. Average home sale prices (2007): FloMo at $294,000. HV at $289,000 and Lewisville at $192,000. I was also fascinated by the population growth since 1990. FloMo was at 302%. HV at 109%, and Lewisville at 97%.

The only downer of the deal was that Highland Village dropped 5 places from 2006, and Flower Mound 2. Lewisville's news was brighter as they moved up 10 spaces.

So, most of this only confirms what we already knew...that we've got it pretty good here in the FlowerPlex. Even if we dropped a few spots here or there since the last poll.

And, I wonder what would happen if we all joined forces and declared war on University Park, Southlake and Colleyville...I mean, our average age is only 33 (Highland Village's is actually 37, but balanced by Lewisville's 29) and those places is 38.

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