McKinney has landed at No. 2 and Frisco at No. 4 among the safest U.S. cities for new homeowners, according to a fresh 93-city ranking that leaned heavily on property crime data. The two Collin County suburbs earned top-five spots in an analysis that weighed everything from property-crime rates to how many security and fire alarm installers work in town.
How the Ranking Was Built
The study comes from CultureMap Dallas, reporting on Vivint's review of 93 U.S. cities using 2025 property crime rates, the share of homeowners under 35, the share of recent movers, and local employment of security and fire alarm installers. Property crime rates carried the most weight in the final scoring, per the outlet's report. McKinney placed No. 2 nationally for property crime rates specifically, while Frisco came in at No. 3, with McKinney logging 680 incidents per 100,000 residents and Frisco posting 789.4, according to Vivint figures cited in the CultureMap report.
Both cities fared less impressively in some of the study's other categories. McKinney and Frisco each ranked 12th for employment of security and fire alarm installers, 29th in the recent-mover category, and 35th for the share of young homeowners, the report notes. By contrast, Lubbock led all 93 cities in young homeownership, with 16.2% of owner-occupied households under 35 — a reminder that Texas affordability dynamics extend well beyond the DFW suburbs.
Where the Rest of North Texas and Texas Landed
Other North Texas cities trailed the two Collin County standouts by a wide margin in the same study. Plano came in 11th, Garland 16th, Irving 18th, Arlington 24th, Fort Worth 28th, and Dallas itself landed all the way down at 66th, per the same CultureMap account. Among Texas' other major metros, Austin ranked 20th, San Antonio 53rd, and Houston 57th. Port St. Lucie, Florida, topped the overall list and also claimed the No. 1 spot for property crime rates nationally.
The contrast gets starker farther from Texas. Oakland, California, finished dead last in Vivint's index, posting a property crime rate of 5,254.9 incidents per 100,000 residents — more than seven times McKinney's rate and about 6.7 times Frisco's, according to Vivint's September 2026 data.
A Second Study Backs the Trend
McKinney and Frisco's strong showing isn't an isolated result. SmartAsset's July 2025 evaluation of 360 U.S. suburbs within 45 minutes of a major urban center ranked McKinney 9th and Frisco 10th among the country's safest suburbs, a study that folded in traffic fatality rates alongside violent and property crime figures — Collin County recorded 6.88 traffic deaths per 100,000 residents in that analysis. SmartAsset had previously named Frisco the single safest city in America outright in both its 2022 and 2023 national reports, citing a violent crime rate of 95 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 901 per 100,000 at the time, suggesting the city's safety performance is a multi-year pattern rather than a one-off statistical blip.
The two methodologies measure slightly different things — Vivint leans on new-homebuyer metrics like mover trends and youth homeownership, while SmartAsset folds in road safety and public health data — which helps explain why the cities land in different exact slots depending on the study.
Growth, Income and the Cost of Safety
Both cities are growing fast while staying wealthy. Frisco's population reached roughly 245,470 as of January 2026, up from about 200,500 in 2020, with a median household income of $150,212 and an average home value of $736,094, according to municipal and U.S. Census Bureau figures. McKinney's median household income was $120,273.
Separately, regional transportation planners approved $11.24 million in August 2026 for smart traffic signals equipping emergency responders in both cities with vehicle signal preemption technology, part of a broader push across 10 North Texas cities that Hoodline previously reported.
A Basic Security Reminder
For anyone closing on a new home in either city, Vivint's accompanying survey offered a practical reminder: 26% of recent U.S. home buyers don't bother changing their locks after moving in, a habit the company flagged as a basic security gap worth closing regardless of how safe the neighborhood ranks nationally.
