Suburban Living

2 charming Dallas suburbs among best places to move in 2021

Forney is the No. 2 best suburb to move to in 2021.

City of Forney/Facebook

Fueled by the growing trend of remote working and their overall affordability, suburbs are having a moment right now. And if you're considering a move from the big city to the 'burbs, you don't have to look far from Dallas to find a top choice.

A new study from Homes.com ranks the Dallas suburbs of Forney and Little Elm among the 10 best in the nation.

To determine the best suburbs to move to in 2021, the website looked at nine factors. All-important real estate metrics like list price, square footage, homes for sale per capita, the ratio of housing price to income, and yard size were considered, as were crime index, school district score, work-from-home score, and racial and ethnic diversity.

Forney ranks No. 2 in the U.S., behind Westfield, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.

"At 2.29, Forney, [Texas] (outside of Dallas), has the third-best housing price-to-income ratio in our ranking and is the second-best suburb in terms of the number of homes for sale per 100,000 people," Homes.com says. "Lastly, its average yard size is just shy of 0.25 acres (the fifth highest in our ranking)." Forney also boasts a median list price of an affordable $235,100, and its school district makes the grade with an A rating.

Little Elm places seventh and has a work-from-home score of 1.4 — one of the highest in the study — and a housing price-to-income ratio of 2.77. Homes in Little Elm are more expensive than Forney, with the median landing at $273,600, but it ranks as the safest city in the top 10, with a crime index of 73 (with 100 being the safest).

"Notably," says Homes.com, "Texas holds three suburbs within our top ten, proving that suburbs outside of Dallas and Austin are hot tickets in the world of residential real estate."

Leander, located just outside of Austin, ranks fifth on the list, and is the only other Texas city to appear. Its median list price of $271,500 registers as far more affordable than the city of Austin, which just last month hit an all-time high median sale price of $515,000. And its work-from-home score of 1.4 makes it one of the best for remote workers.

home-for-sale rankings

Tunnel News

Southern Dallas complex wins free underground tunnel from Elon Musk

The Boring Company

Tunnel by the Boring Company

A Southern Dallas development is in line to get a tunnel from Elon Musk: The University Hills Development, a billion-dollar housing project at the northwest corner of I-20 and Lancaster Road, has been awarded an innovative mile-long tunnel to be built by Musk’s The Boring Company, which will connect the development to a nearby DART station.

According to a release, University Hills was among 16 finalists out of a total of 487 submissions vying to get a tunnel in a contest that The Boring Company launched in January — soliciting proposals from individuals, companies, and governments that would demonstrate the potential for tunnels to solve problems.

Musk founded The Boring Company in 2016 as a subsidiary of SpaceX to improve tunnel boring speeds and reduce urban traffic. Now an independent entity, the company creates underground transportation tunnels with a goal of reducing traffic and enabling rapid point-to-point transportation.

University Hills was one of three finalists in the U.S., along with NOLA Loop in New Orleans, and Ravens Loop in Baltimore. Before any tunneling begins, there'll be a diligence process which includes meetings with elected officials, regulators, community leaders, and business leaders, plus experimental borings and an investigation into the impact on utility and subsurface infrastructure. Only then will it be determined whether the tunneling ensues.

University Hills is a 280-acre, $1 billion development in Southern Dallas by Hoque Global, which will include 580 homes with a town center at its core. If the project gets the go-ahead, that town center could now be connected by tunnel to the nearby DART Station at the University of North Texas Dallas.

Hoque Global founder and CEO Mike Hoque calls it "an honor to be recognized with the City of Dallas as the winning project for The Boring Company’s Tunnel Vision Challenge."

“University Hills is innovative in all of its features to bring connectivity and growth, and this recognition highlights the development’s landmark work for Dallas and Southern Dallas, and shows how emerging infrastructure solutions can strengthen access to transit, jobs, and opportunity for the surrounding community," Hoque says.

Dr. Warren von Eschenbach, the president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, says the project will strengthen connection with the community.

“UNT Dallas is pleased this innovative tunnel will increase access to and from our campus and the region,” Eschenbach says. “It symbolizes the continued growth of Southern Dallas through technology, collaboration and forward-thinking and will strengthen the community surrounding the University."

Groundbreaking and timing for the project to be announced, based on planning and permitting with The Boring Company and City of Dallas.

transportation openings