Scoring high

Affluent Dallas neighbor charges ahead with highest credit scores in Texas

Colleyville residents have great credit.

Photo courtesy of Local Government Federal Credit Union

Give the residents of Colleyville some credit. They’re able to brag about achieving the highest credit scores in Texas.

A new study from personal finance website WalletHub shows the median credit score of a Colleyville resident is 777. Among the 2,572 U.S. cities covered in the study, Colleyville nabs a 23rd-place tie for the highest median credit score. No other Texas city appears in the top 100.

FICO, the primary producer of credit scores in the U.S., characterizes 777 as a “very good” credit score. On the FICO scale, credit scores range from 300 to 850. A credit score anywhere from 740 to 799 is above the U.S. average “and demonstrates to lenders that the borrow is very dependable,” according to FICO.

WalletHub based the study on September 2021 data from TransUnion, one of the three major credit-reporting bureaus. In the study, The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, is the only city where the median credit score is above 800 — 806, to be exact.

Two other cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Flower Mound and Coppell, rank second and third among Texas cities for the highest credit scores. The median score in Flower Mound is 762 (tied for 185th place nationally), while the median score in Coppell is 758 (tied for 262nd place nationally).

All three cities annually rank among the area's most livable and most affluent; homes in Colleyville average between $900,000 and $1.4 million.

Here are the other cities in the top 15 statewide:

The Woodlands (Houston), 757, tied for 287th nationally.
Keller (Dallas-Fort Worth), 756, tied for 300th nationally.
Allen (Dallas-Fort Worth), 750, tied for 428th nationally.
Georgetown (Austin), 749, tied for 446th nationally.
Frisco (Dallas-Fort Worth), 748, tied for 467th nationally.
Boerne (San Antonio), 743, tied for 568th nationally.
Cedar Park (Austin), 743, tied for 568th nationally.
Plano (Dallas-Fort Worth), 740, tied for 629th nationally.
Helotes (San Antonio), 739, tied for 659th nationally.
Montgomery (Houston), 738, tied for 681st nationally.
Friendswood (Houston), 732, tied for 784th nationally.
Rockwall (Dallas-Fort Worth), 732, tied for 784th nationally.

Among Texas’ biggest cities, Austin is the only one where the median credit score exceeds 700. In the Capital City, the median score is 713, tied for 1,208th nationally. San Antonio is next in line, at 664 (tied for 2,236th nationally), followed by Houston (662, tied for 2281st nationally), Dallas (661, tied for 2,299th nationally), and Fort Worth (615.5, tied for 2,545th nationally).

The only Texas city with a median credit score below 600 is Sugar Land, a Houston suburb. According to the study, the median score there is 571, putting it in 2,563rd place nationally. FICO identifies that as a “poor” credit score.

J. Keith Baker, a CPA and certified financial planner who teaches at Dallas College’s North Lake campus in Irving, tells WalletHub that the best way to improve or maintain your credit score is to pay your credit card balances in full every month.

“Some folks will close a credit card account thinking it will help them manage their spending and protect them from identity theft since they are not using an account,” Baker says. “While this may make sense for an individual’s financial situation, do not assume it will automatically improve your credit scores.”

lists rankings

Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

politics