McKinney's Population Has Grown More Than 20% Since 2020, Straining Housing Affordability

McKinney's population has grown more than 20% since the 2020 Census, from 195,308 residents to an estimated 236,001 in 2025, continuing a growth streak that has defined the city for a quarter century. The U.S. Census Bureau named McKinney the nation's fourth fastest-growing large city from 2010 to 2019, and at one point in 2017 it was reported as the third fastest-growing city in the country, with a 5.9% growth rate between 2015 and 2016 alone.

The longer arc of that growth is dramatic even by Texas standards: McKinney's population grew from 54,369 in 2000 to 131,117 in 2010 to 195,308 in 2020 — more than tripling in two decades. The broader McKinney-Frisco metropolitan area had grown to 504,803 residents as of the 2020 Census, making it the 83rd-largest metro area in the country.

That growth hasn't come without a cost. Median home prices in McKinney now sit above $500,000, a price point that stands in sharp contrast to some of its faster-growing Collin County neighbors. Princeton, with a median home price closer to $325,000, has seen growth above 111% in recent measures, while Celina, with a median price around $380,000, has grown more than 190%. The pattern suggests McKinney's relative affordability has eroded even as the city continues to add residents, pushing the fastest growth rates in the region toward cheaper towns nearby.

The city's continued population growth is the backdrop for much of the investment now underway across McKinney — the new commercial terminal at McKinney National Airport, the AC Hotel by Marriott and wave of new restaurants, the $53 million fire department campus, and roughly $200 million in active park and trail projects are all, in part, a response to a city that keeps adding tens of thousands of residents every few years and has little sign of slowing down.