Full steam ahead
This Dallas neighbor nails top spot in ranking of fastest-growing U.S. cities
The locomotive known as Frisco — Money magazine’s Best Place to Live in America for 2018— is on a roll. Personal finance website WalletHub just crowned Frisco the fifth fastest-growing city in the U.S. and the fastest-growing city in Texas.
WalletHub published its list of America’s fastest-growing cities October 14. To come up with the list, WalletHub compared 515 cities of varying sizes on 17 key measures of both growth and weakness over a seven-year period. Cities were judged in areas such as population growth, economic gains, and unemployment declines.
Aside from landing at No. 5 among all 515 cities, Frisco claimed the No. 3 spot for midsize cities (100,000 to 300,000 residents). In the category for highest population growth, Frisco tied for No. 1 overall with McKinney, Sugar Land, and three cities outside Texas. Frisco also tied for No. 1 in the category of highest job growth (6.88 percent); McKinney shared that ranking.
Last month, personal finance website GOBankingRates put Frisco atop its list of the “Most Surprising Cities to Live in if You Want to Make a Lot of Money.” It based Frisco’s showing on the difference between the suburb’s median household income ($120,701) and the state’s median income ($57,051).
“Frisco is the best city to live in if you have your sights set on big bucks but want to avoid living in an urban center,” GOBankingRates says.
Frisco’s momentum has been driven, in large part, by its ability in recent years to attract corporate headquarters. For instance, Frisco now is the home base of the Dallas Cowboys and Keurig Dr Pepper, and PGA of America is moving its headquarters there.
On the website of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones brags that Frisco’s leaders have “invested in creating a world-class city” with a skilled workforce and a pro-business climate.
In July 2018, Frisco’s population was estimated at 188,170, up 60.6 percent from April 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Other Texas cities that made WalletHub’s top 30 are:
- Round Rock (Austin suburb), No. 10 (No. 6 among midsize cities)
- Austin, No. 15 (No. 1 among large cities)
- Sugar Land (Houston suburb), No. 21
- Pearland (Houston suburb), No. 27
