The Colony, TX Real Estate: Next to Frisco for $234K Less (2026)

The Colony is on the same tollway as Frisco, and its median is $234,000 lower.

That sentence is the whole reason this city belongs on your list, and most buyers shopping the Frisco corridor never get to it. They price Frisco, decide it's out of reach, and start driving north to Prosper and Celina - away from the jobs, into longer commutes and softer markets.

The Colony is the other direction: a Denton County city of roughly 45,500 wedged between Lewisville Lake and the Frisco line. Here is the honest version, including the two things that will bite you if nobody tells you first.

The $234,000 Question

Redfin market data for the three months ending May 2026. Market data moves - confirm current figures before acting on them.

Look at the first two rows together, because they say different things. The median gap is $234,000. The per-square-foot gap is six dollars.

That is the same tell as Frisco vs Plano, and it means the same thing: the market is not pricing The Colony's land at a fraction of Frisco's. You are mostly buying a smaller or older house, in a city that is not Frisco, at nearly the same rate per foot. Which is either an excellent trade or a disappointing one depending entirely on whether you needed the square footage or the postcode.

It's Cheaper, Not Slower

This is the part that surprised me, and it is the strongest argument for the city.

In North Texas right now, cheap and slow usually travel together. Prosper sits about 98 days. Celina about 92, and down 11.3% year over year. The pattern across the metro is that the softest prices are in the places nobody is competing for.

The Colony breaks it: three offers on average, about 40 days- faster than Frisco's 42 at two offers. It is the most competitive market in this whole comparison, and it is also the cheapest one in it. That combination tells you the discount here is about the address, not a shortage of people who want to live here.

One nuance worth having, because it is the kind of thing that gets quoted wrong: The Colony's median is down 1.9% year over year while its price per square foot is up 2.3%. Those are not in conflict. They mean the mix of what sold shifted toward smaller homes - not that homes got cheaper per foot. A market where per-foot pricing is rising is not a market in retreat.

Two Districts, One City

Now the part that costs people money. The Colony is split between Lewisville ISD and Little Elm ISD, by address. Western neighborhoods generally feed Lewisville schools; eastern sections tend to land in Little Elm boundaries, and Little Elm ISD earns an A rating from the Texas Education Agency.

The city name tells you nothing. Not the neighborhood name either. Only the address does.

If this sounds familiar, it should - it is the third city on this blog with the same trap. Wylie has five districts touching it across three counties. Little Elm is split three ways. There is a reason these cluster out here: these cities grew across boundaries the districts never followed, and the mailing address caught up while the school map didn't.

Run the exact address through the district's own boundary lookup before you are under contract. Our school district guide covers how to do it properly.

It's Denton County

The Colony is in Denton County, not Collin. If you have spent three months learning Collin County - its appraisal district, its tax rates, its comps - none of that transfers when you cross this line, and the line is not where most buyers think it is.

It is the same correction Little Elm needs, and for the same reason: the Frisco corridor spills west into Denton County without announcing it. Confirm the county before you build a budget, and get the all-in tax rate for the specific address rather than assuming the one you already researched.

Grandscape, the Lake, and the Tollway

Grandscapeis the anchor: a large shopping, dining, and entertainment destination that draws people from across the metro. A city of 45,500 does not normally get one of those, and it is a genuine reason The Colony doesn't feel like a bedroom community.

Lewisville Lake runs along the western edge, so water access is real here, though the city is not built around it the way Little Elm is.

And the Sam Rayburn Tollway (SH-121)is the actual product. It runs 26 miles from near the Dallas/Denton county line up to US-75 in Collin County, with a five-level stack interchange at the Dallas North Tollway, and it is the link to DFW International Airport. That is what puts Frisco's jobs and Frisco's Saturday within a short hop east while you pay a Denton County price. The trade-offs are the ordinary ones out here: the good routes are tolled, and there is no rail.

Who The Colony Is For

The Colony works ifyou want the Frisco corridor - its jobs, its amenities, its tollway - and Frisco's median has priced you out. $234K of median gap for six dollars a square foot is the best version of that trade in the metro, and unlike the northern alternatives it does not cost you a longer commute or drop you into a market taking three months to sell.

Look elsewhere if you specifically need a Frisco ISD address, or you want the square footage that the $234K actually buys - because per foot, you are not saving much, and Plano may be the better answer if it is space and trees you are after rather than proximity to Frisco.

Whatever you do here: verify the district and the county on the exact address first. Everything good about this city survives that check. The people who get hurt are the ones who never ran it.