Allen has been ranked the best small-city real estate market in the United States, scoring 65.30 in WalletHub's 2026 study of 300 cities.
The category is for cities under 150,000 residents, and North Texas took three of the top five places in it. Richardson finished second at 63.23 and Carrollton fourth at 62.32.
Taken together with the midsize category, where Frisco placed first, McKinney second and Denton fifth, the region holds the top spot in two of WalletHub's three population brackets.
How the ranking is built
WalletHub compared 300 U.S. cities on 17 metrics grouped into two dimensions. The housing market itself carries 80 of the 100 points, covering things like the Zillow-based home value forecast, median days on the market and the share of mortgages that are seriously underwater. Affordability and the local economic environment account for the other 20.
That weighting matters when reading the result. A high placement describes a market that looks healthy and is expected to hold its value. It is not a finding that homes are cheap.
Cities are graded within population brackets: large is above 300,000 residents, midsize is 150,000 to 300,000, and small is under 150,000.
A quieter employment base
Allen's economy is built at a different scale than its larger neighbours, and it is more evenly distributed.
Allen ISD is the largest employer at about 2,586 staff, according to the city's annual comprehensive financial report, and the City of Allen itself accounts for roughly 995. After that, no single private employer dominates.
Experian Information Solutions is the largest at about 817. Jack Henry and Associates, which builds banking technology, employs roughly 694. Credit Union of Texas adds about 580, Andrew's Distributing about 437, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital about 435.
Motorola Solutions employs around 375 here, Netscout about 323 and Amphenol Fiber Systems International about 257.
Why that distribution matters
A city whose largest private employer accounts for a few hundred jobs is less exposed than one built around a single corporate campus. No individual departure reshapes the local labour market, and by extension the housing market that depends on it.
The trade-off is that Allen has less of the corporate recruitment story that drives headlines in Frisco and Plano. What it has instead is a set of mid-sized technology and financial services employers, a large school district, and a position in the middle of one of the fastest-growing counties in the country.
Sourced median sale prices for Allen were not available in the material reviewed here. For regional context, McKinney's median sits near $479,000 and Frisco's near $675,000.
Sources
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-real-estate-markets/14889
