- Lauren Barrett, 33, moved to Celina, Texas, America's fastest-growing city of under 20,000 people.
- The city, about an hour's drive from downtown Dallas, is booming with new homes and new residents.
- Barrett, a real-estate agent, said people are flocking to Celina for its schools and community.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lauren Barrett, a 33-year-old real-estate agent who moved to Celina, Texas, from the larger city of McKinney — a suburb of Dallas — in 2023.
Celina's population surged 26.6% from July 2022 to July 2023, making it the fastest-growing city in the US, according to recent Census data. The population as of 2023 was 43,317.
The essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I'm originally from Garland, where I grew up before heading off to college and eventually moving to Dallas.
As my family grew, I moved to Frisco, then McKinney, and finally settled in Celina after divorcing. All these cities are within about an hour's drive of each other.
I'm a real-estate agent with Monument Realty and also lead a team called the Texas Real Estate Girls Group. My clients put Celina on my radar, and I fell in love with the town.
Celina has a cute small-town feel — though I know it's going to boom in the next five to 10 years. For now, it has just one grocery store and many small mom-and-pop shops downtown.
When my children and I moved here, I was impressed by the town's strong community spirit and values. One year, their homecoming theme was faith, and the high school football team prays before they go on the field to play games.
The schools are fantastic, and many of my clients who have moved here rave about them. It's a lovely area where everyone takes pride in their community.
I live in an idyllic neighborhood
I moved to Celina in November 2023 and bought a one-story home from Highland Homes, which began construction in 2022.
For the average buyer, especially a single-income household like mine, it's difficult to buy a new-build home in Celina. These days, you really can't get into Celina for less than $500,000.
My home is 2,300 square feet, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, and is in a newly built community. My house sits on a premium lot with a view of a lake — it was a big selling point for me.
The homes in my neighborhood are on smaller lots, which makes them more affordable. The area is popular with young families, which was a big draw for me. In my opinion, there's no reason to live in Celina if you don't have school-age children.
For now, Celina offers a slower-paced lifestyle, and I feel safer here than I did in McKinney.
McKinney is definitely a safe city, but I feel more comfortable with my boys playing outside and running around with other kids in the neighborhood here.
It's a bit like how it used to be when we could ride our scooters down the street to find someone to play with.
The biggest difference between living in Celina and McKinney is that you can't just go down the road to get food or go around the block to the gym — you have to drive a bit for those conveniences.
Prosper is 12 minutes away, and it has everything, so it's not a huge deal.
I still think living in Celina is worth it because of the safety and the quality of the people who live here.
There are a lot of Californians moving to Celina
Many of my out-of-state clients who are moving to Celina are coming from California — obviously — and Oregon, Washington, and Chicago. A lot are young families with children enrolled in private schools.
Most of them want space and property because that's not something that you can get in northern states unless you've got a bunch of money. Their dollar stretches so much further here compared to there.
If you talked to the vast majority of people who live here, I don't think they would say that Celina is that affordable. Even still, I would say that the town is probably more affordable than the average Dallas neighborhood.
For example, I've had clients from Miami who initially wanted to be in Preston Hollow, Dallas. However, after seeing the high prices there, they were impressed by how much more house they could get for their money by moving north.
From a real-estate perspective, I believe you get what you pay for. In Dallas, you can find a nice home, but it might not be in the best area or have the best school district.
Celina is booming
In the last three years or so, Prosper was the hot spot to move to. But now it's Celina, which is partly why I bought a home here when I did — primarily for equity purposes.
However, I think the people who have lived here forever aren't thrilled about the growth.
But it's out of their control. The growth is inevitable.
I would say the only con about the city's growth is just dealing with construction. They are still getting the toll road up to Celina, and obviously it's going to take time.
However, as far as infrastructure goes, I think the city of Celina is learning from the mistakes of Frisco and Prosper. Those cities built so many housing developments and apartments that there's not enough room on the roads.
There are a lot of new amenities coming to Celina and I'm excited about it.
A lot of new places have opened up here recently. We just got an OMG Tacos, which is a big deal around here. There's also a new bar and restaurant downtown that stays open past 10.
It's really neat to see residents opening businesses in the community.
There's still not a single hotel in Celina. I think eventually we'll have them — but hopefully not as many as Frisco.