Real estate
BY PRESTON RAVIN
Home Edition
2024
Readers, welcome to your annual CI Home Edition! This guide features news ranging from key real estate trends and new developments unique to your neighborhood to an overview of the housing industry across Texas. All of the stories were written by our team of local journalists, and all of the advertisements are from nearby businesses who support our mission to provide free, useful news—please show them your gratitude by supporting local businesses. Trash and recycling impacts every resident and our cover story this month looks into why the city changed providers and how the process is going. You can also get a look ahead at an estimated increase in monthly cost for trash and recycling services across the city. Our coverage in this edition also expands on local tax exemptions, preservation efforts in McKinney’s historic district, and how businesses like Tek Leaders are adding employment opportunities to our community. You can also learn more about a new housing voucher program created to aid qualified McKinney residents ages 62 and older amidst rising housing costs. Whether you’ve lived in McKinney a long time or are new to the community, I hope you’ll find this edition useful and informative. We value your readership and feedback. Reach out to us at mcknews@communityimpact.com with feedback, questions or news tips.
What's inside
Local voucher program to aid qualified residents (Page 19)
Miranda Talley General Manager mtalley@ communityimpact.com
Survey identifies preservation priorities for historic homes (Page 20)
Check out local residential real estate market data (Page 21)
What North Texas homeowners should know about solar panels As more Dallas-Fort Worth residents are consider- ing a switch to solar energy, a local expert weighed in on what homeowners may need to consider. In an effort to explore the growing impact of solar energy within the community Lori Clark, senior program manager at North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Transportation Department, broke down how solar panels can be useful for homeown- ers. She also advises how homeowners can find more information about solar panels. How do solar panels work? Solar panels are made out of primarily silicon sheets, but the sunlight energizes electrons in the solar panels themselves, which start moving around and create current, which creates electricity. So as long as you’ve got sunlight, and it doesn’t have to be full sun—cloudy days work too—those solar panels are able to create energy on site. How much energy do solar panels provide? So there’s several key terms that you should know. One is a cell, which is like an individual square, generally of silicon material. If you see
a solar panel, you see a lot of little squares, sur- rounded by silver outlines. Each individual square is a cell, and those cells are connected to each other in a single solar panel. I have a system on my roof of 24 panels. Most home solar panels are between 350 and 450 watts of power. That’s about enough power to run something like a TV or a microwave to power an entire home. You generally need 17 to 21 panels. What are the benefits of having solar panels? The benefit of higher electricity cost is that it makes solar more beneficial economically, because you’re generating your own power, so that’s power that you don’t have to pay the utility for. You still have to pay every month to be connected to the electric grid, and you do have to pay the capital cost of installing that solar array, but the cost of installing solar has come down like 90% over the past decade, so it’s much less expensive now than it used to be. There’s also a resilience benefit. During the winter storm, there were several people who had solar and battery storage in their homes, and they didn’t lose power, it’s able to run off of solar. What are some drawbacks of solar panels? The number one drawback is that they can be expensive, depending on how much you install at a home. You’re not necessarily going to see the payback in a single year. It may take a few years for you to see the cost savings, so you have to be able to handle that upfront capital cost.
COURTESY LORI CLARK
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version, visit communityimpact.com .
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