DL Caldwell is 82 and still the first one through the door at his pawn shop most mornings. His family settled in Princeton back when fewer than 1,000 people lived there and the ground grew cantaloupes and onions instead of subdivisions. He has spent six decades watching that farmland turn into rows of new roofs, and he says he believed it would happen long before most people gave Princeton a second look.
Caldwell's version of Princeton is the one everybody already knows: a small Collin County town that turned into one of the fastest-growing cities in the country almost overnight. What he hasn't seen from behind his counter is the other half of the story, the one buried in the sale records instead of the population count. While Princeton keeps showing up on national growth lists, the homes themselves have spent the last year getting cheaper and sitting longer on the market. That gap between the headline and the ledger is the actual story right now, and it changes how a buyer or seller should think about timing here.
The Growth Headline Is Real, But It's Slowing Faster Than the Story Suggests
Princeton earned its reputation honestly. For the period from July 2023 to July 2024, the Census Bureau ranked it the fastest-growing city in the country, with population jumping 30.6% to 37,019. That's the number that made national news and the one still doing most of the work in how Princeton gets described online.
But the most recent Census Bureau data, covering July 2024 to July 2025, tells a different chapter. Princeton grew 18.1% to an estimated 43,524 residents, which is still remarkable by any normal city's standard, and it was enough to knock Princeton down to third place nationally. Celina took over the top spot with 24.6% growth to 64,427, and Fulshear outside Houston edged Princeton into third with 21.0% growth. Princeton didn't stop growing. It slowed down by nearly half in a single year, and almost nobody covering the "fastest growing city" beat has caught up to that.
That deceleration matters because of what was built during the boom years, which brings us to the part of the story that actually shows up in a contract.
The Price Data Doesn't Match the Story You'd Expect
If population is still climbing, even at a slower pace, you'd expect home prices to climb with it. Instead, over the three months ending in May 2026, Princeton's numbers moved the opposite direction.
| Metric | Three months ending May 2026 | Year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $325,000 | down 7.3% |
| Median price per square foot | $155 | down 9.36% |
| Average days on market | 76 days | 68 days |
The most recent monthly snapshot, from July 2026, shows the same pattern continuing. The median list price sat at $317,000, down about 7% year over year, and price per square foot came in around $160, down roughly 6%. Days on market for that month climbed even further, averaging 75 days compared to 44 days the year before, which is nearly double the wait. Inventory has grown right alongside it, with active listings up about a third year over year, and well over half of current listings carrying at least one price reduction.
Put plainly: a city still adding thousands of residents a year is watching its home prices soften and its listings sit longer. That's not what population growth is supposed to do to a housing market. Something is absorbing the demand faster than the demand itself is showing up in bidding wars, and that something is sitting in the city's own permit files.
Thirteen Thousand Homes Are Already Approved
Princeton's mayor, Eugene Escobar Jr., put the problem plainly to a national news crew covering the city's growing pains: the city is still "about five years, probably, behind" on the sewer lines, water lines, and roads needed to keep up with the people already living there. He also noted something easy to miss in the headlines about population rankings: another 13,000 home units are already approved and waiting to be built.
That figure explains the price data better than any growth ranking does. Builders and developers made those approval decisions during Princeton's peak years, when 30% annual growth looked like the new normal and every new subdivision seemed like a safe bet. Growth has since cooled to 18%, but the supply pipeline approved during the hotter years hasn't slowed down to match. New homes keep completing and hitting the market, competing for a buyer pool that's still growing, just not growing as fast as builders priced in. That mismatch between when the approvals happened and when growth actually decelerated is the mechanism behind the falling price-per-square-foot and the longer time on market. It isn't that people stopped wanting to live in Princeton. It's that the shelf filled up faster than the growth rate that justified stocking it.
For context on why Princeton still draws buyers despite the slower pace, the math is simple. Collin County's overall median sale price sits near $475,000, while a Princeton home typically sells for around $300,000. That gap is the real draw, and it's a big enough gap that even a cooling market still pulls people in from pricier parts of the county.
The Kroger Groundbreaking Is the Other Half of the Bet
If the supply pipeline explains why prices softened, the retail side of Princeton's growth explains why the bet on this city isn't over. On July 15, 2026, city officials joined Kroger and The Seitz Group to break ground on a new Kroger Marketplace, a roughly 100,000-square-foot store anchoring Princeton Town Center, a 66-acre retail development at the northwest corner of Beauchamp Boulevard and U.S. Highway 380.
The Seitz Group's site plan lists tenants including Home Depot, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, PetSmart, Discount Tire, Buffalo Wild Wings, First Watch, Texas Health Resources, and Mattress Firm, among others named in the Princeton Herald's coverage of the development. Shai Roos, the city's director of development services, was direct about the timeline at a Planning & Zoning Commission meeting: the infrastructure has already been approved, but "once the ground breaks, it still takes two years before you can shop in a store." Her estimate puts actual opening around December 2027.
Mayor Escobar called the groundbreaking "another exciting chapter in Princeton's growth story" and described it as more than a grocery store opening, framing it as a long-term investment in jobs and convenience for a population that's still expanding. Kroger's own leadership echoed the reasoning: the company is expanding across Collin County specifically because families keep choosing to settle there, and it's positioning stores to meet that demand as it lands.
The timing detail matters for anyone shopping Princeton today. A buyer who closes this fall will be living in Princeton for well over a year before that grocery store, that Home Depot, and those restaurants actually open. You're not just buying a house. You're buying ahead of the amenity base that's supposed to justify the price you're paying for it.
What This Means If You're Shopping Princeton Right Now
For a move-up buyer comparing Princeton against pricier parts of Collin County, the current numbers favor patience and leverage rather than urgency. With days on market stretching past 75 in the most recent snapshot and the majority of listings carrying a price cut, there's little reason to waive contingencies or bid above list just because the city's name shows up on growth lists. The growth is real, but it's not translating into competition for the homes already sitting on the market.
For builders and investors weighing new construction or lot purchases, the approved pipeline is worth treating as a genuine risk factor, not a footnote. Thirteen thousand additional units competing for a buyer pool growing at 18% instead of 30% means the absorption math has changed since those approvals were filed. Underwriting a new project on last year's growth rate is underwriting it on a number that's already out of date.
For anyone selling an existing Princeton home, the honest read is that pricing has to account for the new construction sitting next door, not just the comps from two years ago. A home priced against 2024's market will sit exactly as long as the data above suggests.
A Couple of Questions Worth Asking Before You Write an Offer
Is Princeton overbuilt, or just catching up to slower growth? Both are partly true. The city approved a large volume of new housing during its 30% growth year, and that supply is still completing even though growth has settled closer to 18%. It's less that Princeton overbuilt outright and more that the pipeline hasn't caught up to the new, slower growth rate yet.
Should I wait for prices to drop further before buying? That depends on what you're comparing against. Princeton homes are still selling for roughly two-thirds of Collin County's overall median, and the retail infrastructure now under construction is a real, dated commitment from national retailers betting on the area's future. Waiting has a cost too, since the amenity gap closes on its own timeline regardless of when you buy.
Does the new Kroger and Town Center change values in specific parts of Princeton? It's reasonable to expect some effect on homes closest to Beauchamp Boulevard and U.S. Highway 380 once the retail opens, the way any new grocery-anchored center tends to lift convenience for nearby streets. That effect won't show up in sale data until stores are actually operating in late 2027, so it's a longer-term consideration rather than something reflected in today's price.
Princeton's growth story is still true. It's just not the same story the price sheet is telling right now, and the two won't line back up until that approved pipeline works its way through and Princeton Town Center actually opens its doors. If you're trying to figure out what that timing means for a specific address, or how it compares to what's happening in Wylie, Sachse, or Rowlett right now, that's exactly the kind of question worth a phone call instead of a search bar. Call Jeanie at Jeanie Marten Real Estate and let's find your forever home.
