I’m still having fun with cutting and sorting the data of our 2012 Best Dallas Suburbs ranking. Today I wanted to know which of our suburbs are the biggest bargains, since many of us can’t spring for a $1.6 million house in Highland Park or a $500,000 house in Parker. Here’s how I determined the best deals:
For the definitive magazine ranking of 63 Dallas satellite cities, our methodology ended up with an overall weighted score for each, on a scale between 1 and 5. Parker, as you know, was our No. 1 finisher. It garnered a 4.143. On the bottom of the scale was Cockrell Hill, with a 1.737.
So I treated 1.737 as a minimum score, subtracted that number from each suburb’s actual weighted score to get a better picture of how many points each had earned relative to one another. Then I took the average home sales price of each and divided that by this new relative weighted score to determine how much it would cost to live in each city per point above the minimum scored.
Anyway, to the list.
Best Dallas Suburbs: Biggest Bargains
- Richland Hills (40) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $119,894
- Lake Dallas (30) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $124,290
- Lancaster (51) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $127,084
- The Colony (25) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $127,806
- Highland Village (2) Â Â Â Â Â Â $129,659
- Little Elm (22) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $130,275
- Red Oak (37) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $141,733
- Rowlett (29) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $141,822
- Mesquite (54) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $142,106
- Rockwall (13) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $143,232
The number in parentheses is the actual place each suburb took on our official overall ranking. The dollar figure is the price per point over the minimum scored.
The big winner is really Highland Village, which was No.2 overall on our list, and finishes No. 5 among the bargains.
Some of you may be curious as to which suburbs deliver the least bang for your buck (or you’re just the sort of people that enjoy seeing the Park Cities get ranked at the bottom of something for a change.) So here are the bottom dwellers:
Best Dallas Suburbs: The Possibly Overpriced
- Highland Park (3) Â Â Â Â Â Â $770,925
- Addison (57) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $616,721
- University Park (4) Â Â Â Â Â Â $587,980
- Hutchins (61) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $480,106
- Wilmer (62) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $439,688
- Irving (58) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $402,402
- Balch Springs (60) Â Â Â Â Â Â $388,044
- Southlake (6) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $334,392
- Seagoville (59) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $307,179
- Heath (11) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $295,451
Poor Addison.
Also, note that Cockrell Hill was necessarily excluded from these value rankings because its score was used as the minimum. And I figured maybe we’ve picked on it enough, what with ranking it 63 out of 63.
