Rachel Cahill

Something has been on my mind lately and I want to put it out there honestly.

We are building a lot of large homes in Collin County. Beautiful neighborhoods. Great schools. Real quality of life.

At the same time I keep hearing from young people, people who grew up in McKinney, Frisco, and Prosper and want to put down roots here, that they feel like homeownership is getting further out of reach, not closer.

Down payments have more than doubled since 2019. New construction costs are up about 45% over five years. Most of what is being built is not priced for a first-time buyer.

I do not have a clean answer to that. But I think about it a lot after 25 years in this business. The communities that figure out how to house the full range of people who want to be here tend to thrive longer than the ones that do not.

If any of this is hitting close to home, I am happy to have that conversation directly. 469-551-5852.

I keep seeing people talk about Collin County real estate like the story is residential prices softening. That is part of the story. It is not the whole story.

Residential values here grew about 1.8% in 2026. Fine. Stable. Expected.
Commercial real estate values in Collin County went up 13.8% this year. That follows a 14.8% increase in 2025. Two consecutive years of double-digit commercial growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country.

Medical office values jumped 34.5%. Low-rise office up 8.4%. Retail up 15.1%.

I have been in this market for over 25 years in the business. When residential cools and commercial accelerates at the same time, it tells you something about where the real conviction is. Institutional and commercial capital is not spooked by the residential correction. It is leaning into this market.

For anyone thinking about commercial real estate in Collin County right now, that context matters. The businesses, medical operators, and developers putting money into this county are not doing it speculatively.

They are doing it because the fundamentals keep paying off.

What are you watching on the commercial side of this market?

McKinney just held its first Affordable Housing Summit and I think it deserves more attention than it got.

Here is why it matters. McKinney's median household income looks great on paper at around $124,000. But more than 40% of the people who actually live here earn under $100,000 a year. And over 12,000 renter households were already spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

That is a real gap. And the city is finally talking about it directly instead of pretending it does not exist.

After 25 years in the business here, I know that the communities that address affordability proactively end up in much better shape than the ones that wait until it is a crisis. McKinney doing this now is a good sign, not a warning sign.

What are your thoughts on affordable housing in McKinney?