My wife daughter and I currently live in Lewisville.

With the little one about to start kindergarten this year we are looking to move for a bigger home and better set of schools.

Celina is pretty far up there, but about similar distance as McKinney, and wife and I are now both potebtially permanent work from homers.

I see good school scores. Is it good living up there?

Celina, with its ETJ, is going to be bigger than Frisco or Plano upon buildout but is probably only at 10-20% now. Eventually the DNT will pass through Celina but it will be years and years away. My biggest concern for Prosper and Celina is the growth and being able to keep up with roads, schools, congestion etc. If you are going new construction homes, know that the builders are going to be cramming houses in like crazy. there are areas of Celina and prosper with some bigger lots

I settled on prosper 3 years ago in an existing neighborhood to ensure we knew where the schools were going to be, the family /kid friendly subdivision, avoid any PID/MUD taxes and proximity to the future DNT. For what its worth we moved from Plano because although we liked it there just weren't enough young families or kids in our area.

I think it all depends on your priorities and what you are wanting. I've also found looking around on the city-data dallas forums has some decent information over the years.

ETA: my office is downtown dallas but I commuted to downtown, las colinas, fort worth, and many parts of the 75/DNT corridors for work pre-covid so can say it all sucks from 630-9 and 330-6 in most any of those places.

Also, i am not saying don't consider this area because i like celina area, just trying to give some insights.

Move to The Trails in Frisco and be our neighbor. Any and every store you could want in 2-3 minutes, pools, awesome trail system and great schools.

We moved to Prosper from Mckinney in Dec of 19. We love it but the roads are a mess and will continue to be. We chose Prosper over Celina partly due to the lack of pid/mud.

We love the downtown Celina area.

Once you are all the way up here the difference between Celina/Prosper/West Mckinney really isn't that much.

Random Musings-

I'll second downtown Celina being a nice spot, definitely better than downtown Prosper.

As for schools, be aware that several of the southern Celina neighborhoods are zoned for Prosper ISD. Also, be prepared for a ton of growing pains in school reasoning and big bond packages that will continue to raise your taxes.

With only one high school there will be a nice sense of community until they start adding more. The quality of schools is fine but know that they don't have all the offerings of the more developed districts.

The city growth will be the same with traffic being a mess and then having to deal with the railroad grade separations. I went through all of that in Frisco when we moved up here in 2004 and then when we moved to Prosper in 2014. I grew tired of it and just moved back to Frisco this past summer. It's nice to live in a city where development is almost done and to be close to everything.

Also, there are several MUDs around Celina that raise your taxes.

The west side of Celina will be Denton County and the East side will be Collin County.

Wife and I signed on to build a house in Cambridge Crossings. So I guess if you move up there, we will be neighbors lol.

Look, we are probably in similar steps for wanting to move. We wanted more space, bigger house but one that was almost exactly what we wanted vs competing in the market for existing and the copious amount of offers for any good home.

I work from home and have a kid that's a few years away from starting school. But also cause Celina is expected to have their population explode. It grew 20% from 18-19. Expected to be 300K by 2050. I think it's a great time to get in Celina and ride the wave.

Rice and Fries said:

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Wife and I signed on to build a house in Cambridge Crossings. So I guess if you move up there, we will be neighbors lol.

Look, we are probably in similar steps for wanting to move. We wanted more space, bigger house but one that was almost exactly what we wanted vs competing in the market for existing and the copious amount of offers for any good home.

I work from home and have a kid that's a few years away from starting school. But also cause Celina is expected to have their population explode. It grew 20% from 18-19. Expected to be 300K by 2050. I think it's a great time to get in Celina and ride the wave.

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Can't wrap my head around this. Growing up, we ran into Celina several times in the playoffs in the 90s. I think my hometown has gotten smaller since then

Anyone else live in Celina and can chime in on it? Just curious what people think about the prospect.

Cambridge is nice. We just got done driving thru there and like the way they incorporate the water.

We live right down the tollway in star trail.

We live at the edge of McKinney/prosper in prosper isd. I love it up here, but depending on where in celina, you should know about this:

http://www.keepitmovingdallas.com/projects/us-highways/us-380-collin-and-denton-county

Have you looked at Light Farms?

FC12 said:

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Move to The Trails in Frisco and be our neighbor. Any and every store you could want in 2-3 minutes, pools, awesome trail system and great schools.

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Find a house for sale. If its on Zillow, its already sold...

Light Farms resident checking in here....

We love the neighborhood and generally have no regrets about buying. That being said in the less than two years we've been here there's been a significant amount of development that is essentially turning us into "the next Frisco". That should help property values but if you're wanting something a bit off of the beaten path you're pretty much going to have to go north to Gunter at this point.

That being said, if you like Frisco but find it too pricey (us in a nutshell) then celina is a great town to buy in.

Outerloop goes right through Cambridge crossing. It'll be 20 years but there's going to be a tollway right through that hood.

We live in Prosper, wife works in McKinney and I work in Celina. Moved here when our oldest was one month old so we've been here a little over 6-years. We moved from Dallas (McKinney Ave area)

Celina will be huge (eventually). Schools are good and if you get in now you'll still have the small town feel. Downtown is poised for a breakout and its nice now but will be better over the years

One thing I'd say is in Celina (as in Prosper) you'll know your mayor, council members, fire and police chief if you're inclined. Mayor is an Aggie.

The big difference with Celina is it has the potential to be a bit like McKinney with the downtown. To me that's a gravitational point you might not get elsewhere. There's still a lot to be done but the EDC is really starting to catch fire and has a good plan.

Also when you get up here you're limited on dining but we really enjoy the proximity to McKinney and enjoy the atmosphere and restaurants. Of course you can jet down the tollway to FRISCO and Legacy as well. We used to go to Dallas frequently to our old haunts as you can get there in 30/45min but that urge died out with kids lol

I would say avoid the MUDs where you can. Light Farms is a great community with good schools kids can walk to and Prosper ISD. Prosper is a good option also and the schools are properly slightly better than Celina but growing at a huge pace. Mustang Lakes is a good option as are some
of the new communities along Frontier Parkway - they sit in Celina but go to PISD. Frontier is getting pretty busy but expanding soon and it gives you easy access to other communities for shopping or dining.

Interesting tidbit - old timers say if you lived on the North side of Celina you shopped in Sherman, if you lived on the south side you shopped in Dallas. With the tollway you can get south pretty quick on most days

ElephantRider said:

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Can't wrap my head around this. Growing up, we ran into Celina several times in the playoffs in the 90s. I think my hometown has gotten smaller since then

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Same here. I grew up in Celina and Prosper schools. Well in to the 90s the city limit signs had population 1800 for Celina and 1100 for Prosper. Prosper was K-12 in one school building until I hit 7th grade, and I'm not even that old. I think they are closing in on like 20 schools now. I can see the attraction especially for young families, but personally I can't stand it. I'm jealous for folks that grew up in small towns and can still go back to visit "home" and have it look familiar to how it did when they were kids; I've lost pretty much any sense of attachment to the area.

Things have changed that's for sure, it's definitely not our Prosper anymore. Even the Cotton Gin changed ownership.

From firework stands to boozing out at the cat tails.

Egg HQ over on 1st closed too.

With that being said, it's still a great community, just different. At least it has one, for now, unlike Frisco.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Things have changed that's for sure, it's definitely not our Prosper anymore. Even the Cotton Gin changed ownership.

From firework stands to boozing out at the cat tails.

Egg HQ over on 1st closed too.

With that being said, it's still a great community, just different. At least it has one, for now, unlike Frisco.

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I've done a pretty bad job keeping up with high school classmates, but know a few who have stayed the area and adapted and learned to love it as it evolves. If I hadn't moved off after school I probably would have adapted too, but when I'm only there once or twice a year it changes too fast for me to keep up with. Assuming you graduated PHS - what year?

'05, Birgular

I saw Mad Matus out and about not too long back.

Did you see Anne Casady passed recently? COVID

ChoppinDs40 said:

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'05, Birgular

I saw Mad Matus out and about not too long back.

Did you see Anne Casady passed recently? COVID

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ahh, okay I know who you are (should have from the fireworks reference), forgot your username on here. Was just texting with your cuz yesterday.

Yeah, knew about Anne. Amy went for the funeral, she is best friends with N. We just recently moved to Ruidoso, NM in case you didn't know. Kept my job in Houston but going full time remote.

yeah I saw that on the RE board. Chadro's doing well - I think he's wrapping up his Masters this spring.

They didn't come down from Christmas due to COVID.

I just moved back into town a few months ago - we're building out west of town.

Jealous of the mountain life, although the NM nazi-like lockdown probably isn't fun.

Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

The Shank Ag said:

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Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

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that's interesting.

Didn't want to open their brewery in Prosper?

I'm telling you, the guy that owns Silo Park (an Aggie) is sitting on a goldmine if he would just dump some more money in that thing. More landscaping, more food options, firepits and heaters, more tvs.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

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that's interesting.

Didn't want to open their brewery in Prosper?

I'm telling you, the guy that owns Silo Park (an Aggie) is sitting on a goldmine if he would just dump some more money in that thing. More landscaping, more food options, firepits and heaters, more tvs.

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Add some jungle gyms for the kids to run around. Parents can drink and hang and let the kids tire themselves out.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

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that's interesting.

Didn't want to open their brewery in Prosper?

I'm telling you, the guy that owns Silo Park (an Aggie) is sitting on a goldmine if he would just dump some more money in that thing. More landscaping, more food options, firepits and heaters, more tvs.

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Ben's brother and one of their other business partners got the space in celina. More bang for the buck.

Their hazy IPA is amazing.

The Shank Ag said:

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ChoppinDs40 said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

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that's interesting.

Didn't want to open their brewery in Prosper?

I'm telling you, the guy that owns Silo Park (an Aggie) is sitting on a goldmine if he would just dump some more money in that thing. More landscaping, more food options, firepits and heaters, more tvs.

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Ben's brother and one of their other business partners got the space in celina. More bang for the buck.

Their hazy IPA is amazing.

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haven't had that. I like the Big German.

I've had family living in Celina since the 19th century - crazy to see a brewery 2 blocks from the square.

He is about to drop some more $$$ in it. Some pretty cool plans. I don't think you will be able to compare Prosper's and Celina's downtown. Celina's is old school and organic, which I like. Similar to McKinney as has been mentioned. Prosper's was only a handful of old buildings. Not even a real square. The developments will be some new things and some repurposing of existing structures.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Light Farms: Home of Ben Rogers of local talk radio show Ben & Skin

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that's interesting.

Didn't want to open their brewery in Prosper?

I'm telling you, the guy that owns Silo Park (an Aggie) is sitting on a goldmine if he would just dump some more money in that thing. More landscaping, more food options, firepits and heaters, more tvs.

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He was my sons baseball coach in the fall. Doug, awesome guy.

Just put in an offer on a house in Mustang Lakes (Celina/PISD) tonight.

We hope our "competitors" are at home by the fire. It's a horrible house - none of y'all would like it

If one of you is the seller 1) get more Aggie gear and 2) accept my offer!

Welcome!

Need more ags out here and less Californians and people from chicago and NY.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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Welcome!

Need more ags out here and less Californians and people from chicago and NY.

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That's the one thing about moving up here. Plenty of Cowboy fans but lots of Packers, Steelers and Giants. Never knew many of those