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Not everyone is cut out for city life. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Plano.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we'll use science and data to determine which Plano 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Plano area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Plano proper, although Southlake certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Plano are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 69 biggest suburbs of Plano to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Texas lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Plano in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Plano for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Plano? Hutchins ranks as the worst suburb of Plano for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Plano that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in Texas check out the best places in Texas overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Plano too.
Editor's Note: If you see a slight difference between the worst in state rankings and this suburb ranking, it's because of the methodology. We needed a way to include more places, so we eliminated crime and commute times as criteria for this analysis.
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The 10 Worst Plano Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Hutchins, the absolute worst place to live around Plano according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Hutchins beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the Plano area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it's cheap to live there. But there's a reason for that... it's Hutchins.
You won't feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren't a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
/10
Welcome to Seagoville. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 29.9 miles to Plano. Income levels here are the 10th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $62,038 a year, which doesn't go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
/10
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Plano suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Pilot Point on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that's an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it's in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Plano suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
If you live in Balch Springs, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 3rd lowest Plano suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 2nd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Plano. Remember, we looked at 69 cities for this study.
Balch Springs is about 24.4 miles to downtown.
/10
Duncanville has the distinction of being a Plano suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Duncanville has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Plano area, where the median price is $164,800. To put that into perspective, in Southlake, the median income is $247,716, which is the best in the area.
Duncanville has an unemployment rate of 9.05% which ranks 3rd worst.
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Cockrell Hill has 4,200 residents that probably know it's a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you've ever been there, you don't need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 10.713422007255136%.
/10
Ah, Mesquite. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Plano.
It's the place with the 20th most out of work residents in the Plano metro area (4.65%).
/10
Grand Prairie is a city about 29.9 miles from Plano, but Plano probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You'd be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Grand Prairie has the 12th most uninsured people, 19th worst incomes, and has the 11th highest unemployment rate (5.45%) in the entire Plano metro area.
Homes only cost $174,300 for a reason. That's cheap for Plano standards.
/10
If you absolutely have to live near Plano, then Dallas might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Plano suburb.
About 4.9% of residents are out of work.
/10
Rounding out the ten worst Plano suburbs to call home is Garland.
Located 11.9 miles outside the city, Garlands is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 12th highest unemployment rate (5.4%), and poverty is far above the area average.
/10
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Plano for 2022
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2016-2020, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Plano.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 69 suburbs to evaluate around Plano.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 69 in each category, where 1 was the "worst".
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the "Worst Suburb near Plano." We're lookin' at you, Hutchins. You can download the data here.
Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
Summary: The areas around Plano where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Plano with Hutchins casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Plano aren't all bad. Southlake takes the cake as the best place to live around Plano.
- Southlake
- Highland Park
- University Park
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Detailed List Of The Worst Plano Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Hutchins | 5,804 |
2 | Seagoville | 16,726 |
3 | Pilot Point | 4,457 |
4 | Balch Springs | 25,123 |
5 | Duncanville | 39,096 |
6 | Cockrell Hill | 4,200 |
7 | Mesquite | 142,429 |
8 | Grand Prairie | 193,835 |
9 | Dallas | 1,338,846 |
10 | Garland | 238,622 |
11 | Farmersville | 3,560 |
12 | Denton | 139,734 |
13 | Irving | 240,475 |
14 | Princeton | 12,208 |
15 | Lake Dallas | 8,004 |
16 | Lakewood | 60,564 |
17 | Anna | 14,159 |
18 | Lewisville | 107,740 |
19 | Farmers Branch | 42,659 |
20 | Euless | 56,334 |
21 | Little Elm | 49,792 |
22 | Hurst | 38,783 |
23 | Van Alstyne | 4,153 |
24 | Aubrey | 4,352 |
25 | Forney | 23,871 |
26 | Wylie | 51,251 |
27 | Richardson | 118,583 |
28 | Carrollton | 137,319 |
29 | Grapevine | 54,151 |
30 | Sunnyvale | 6,664 |
31 | Shady Shores | 2,888 |
32 | Hackberry | 2,426 |
33 | Rowlett | 65,426 |
34 | Sachse | 25,888 |
35 | The Colony | 43,791 |
36 | Mckinney | 191,197 |
37 | Melissa | 10,774 |
38 | Bedford | 49,145 |
39 | Roanoke | 8,810 |
40 | Celina | 13,608 |
41 | Addison | 15,428 |
42 | Rockwall | 45,168 |
43 | Fate | 14,300 |
44 | Northlake | 3,182 |
45 | Fairview | 8,998 |
46 | Hickory Creek | 4,716 |
47 | Oak Point | 5,077 |
48 | Corinth | 21,881 |
49 | Allen | 104,040 |
50 | Murphy | 20,711 |
51 | Parker | 4,920 |
52 | Lavon | 3,504 |
53 | Providence | 7,732 |
54 | Frisco | 188,387 |
55 | Heath | 9,069 |
56 | Double Oak | 3,099 |
57 | Prosper | 25,887 |
58 | Flower Mound | 78,854 |
59 | Mclendon-Chisholm | 3,521 |
60 | Keller | 46,885 |
61 | Colleyville | 26,766 |
62 | Trophy Club | 11,904 |
63 | Lucas | 8,137 |
64 | Argyle | 4,278 |
65 | Coppell | 41,494 |
66 | Highland | 19,012 |
67 | University Park | 25,027 |
68 | Highland Park | 9,143 |
69 | Southlake | 31,684 |