Suburban Living
2 charming Dallas suburbs among best places to move in 2021
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.
