Home alone

One DFW city singled out as new U.S. hot spot for single residents, report says

Buying a home alone in Frisco is no big deal.

Courtesy photo

More and more people in Frisco are leading the single life. A new report from Point2 Homes shows that among the country’s 200 largest cities, Frisco saw the second biggest increase in one-person households between 2008 and 2018.

During that period, the share of single-person households in Frisco rose 35.4 percent, according to the Point2 Homes report. Only North Las Vegas, Nevada, experienced a greater increase (43.3 percent) from 2008 to 2018. The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau.

While Frisco witnessed a surge of single-person households from 2008 to 2018, the city’s total share of these households (28 percent) remains below the national average, according to Point2 Homes. At 36.4 percent, Dallas is the only large city in Dallas-Fort Worth where the share of single-person households sits above the national average.

For singles, part of the attraction to Frisco is the robust job market. Major corporate employers in Frisco include Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Toyota, Liberty Mutual Insurance, J.C. Penney, Frito-Lay, Keurig Dr Pepper, FedEx Office, and Pizza Hut.

Another draw: Frisco’s livability factor. In 2019, personal finance website SmartAsset placed Frisco at No. 10 on its list of the most livable midsize cities in the U.S. SmartAsset cited the city’s high median household income.

Not surprisingly, then, Frisco ranked fourth on the Census Bureau’s most recent list of the fastest-growing large cities in the U.S. Frisco’s population grew 6.1 percent from 2017 to 2018, the bureau says. As of July 2018, Frisco was home to more than 188,000 people.

While Frisco is a magnet for singles, the share of single-person households in Arlington, Fort Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie, and Plano, dropped by a range of 3.8 percent to 22.8 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to the Point2 Homes report. The report was published January 6.

Another interesting trend highlighted in the survey: the rise of unrelated people living together. In Mesquite, the share of unrelated people sharing a home jumped 256.2 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to Point2 Home. That was the biggest increase among the 200 cities featured in the report. In Plano, that figure was 68.6 percent, putting it in 19th place among cities that notched the biggest increases in this category.

The report also indicates that Irving boasts the 14th highest percentage of condos as a share of all residences (57.3 percent).

Point2 Homes, a division of software provider Yardi Systems Inc., covers real estate market trends and news, and conducts research on the housing market.

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Weed News

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Dallas over decriminalization of marijuana

Photo courtesy of US Fish & Wildlife

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The City of Dallas has been sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for its efforts to decriminalize marijuana.

According to a release, Paxton has sued the city for adopting a city charter amendment that would decriminalize marijuana-related offenses and prohibit police from enforcing Texas law.

That amendment was Proposition R, or Dallas Freedom Act, which decriminalizes possession of four ounces of marijuana or less. Voters passed the amendment in the November 5 election, with 67 percent voting in favor.

The lawsuit, filed against the Dallas City Council, alleges that Proposition R is unconstitutional and violates Texas drug laws criminalizing any amount of marijuana.

Paxton says that cities can't "pick and choose which state laws to follow." He's proposing a permanent injunction to stop Proposition R from going into effect.

"The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them," says Paxton in a statement. "This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office.”

Before the recent election, possession of two to four ounces of marijuana could result in a punishment of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Ground Game Texas, the activist nonprofit that has also helped get marijuana decriminalization on the ballot in elections across Texas, first got the issue on the ballot in July with the necessary 50,000 signatures.

Dallas is not the only city to be sued; Paxton also filed lawsuits against five other cities in Austin, Denton, Elgin, Killeen, and San Marcos in January for their ballots and policies decriminalizing marijuana.

Both Austin and San Marcos had a judge overturn their cases, according to a FOX 4 report.

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