Moving to Plano: Pros, Cons & What to Know
Moving to Plano is a big-metro interstate move with Plano-specific wrinkles worth knowing before you land: it sits in Texas's deregulated ERCOT electricity market like the rest of DFW, but under Oncor's delivery territory rather than Houston's CenterPoint, and -- unlike Houston -- Plano is a fully zoned, largely built-out suburb, so land-use questions are answered by a zoning map and, in newer developments, an HOA, not private deed restrictions alone.
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Learn moreTexas New-Resident Deadlines: License and Registration Are Different Timelines
New Texas residents have 90 days from their move-in date to get a Texas driver's license in person at a Department of Public Safety office, per TxDMV and DPS guidance -- a valid out-of-state license works during that window. Vehicle registration has a shorter, separate deadline: 30 days from establishing residency, and DPS generally requires the vehicle to already be registered in Texas before it will process a license application, so handle registration first despite its earlier deadline. New-resident vehicle registration also carries a one-time $90 new-resident use tax if sales tax wasn't already paid on the vehicle in another state.
Choosing Your Own Electricity Provider -- Under Oncor, Not CenterPoint
Plano sits in Texas's deregulated ERCOT electricity market, same as most of the state, but the wires-and-meters utility here is Oncor Electric Delivery, not Houston's CenterPoint Energy. Oncor delivers the power; it doesn't sell it to residential customers. You choose a retail electric provider (REP) by comparing plans on the state's Power to Choose comparison site -- a genuinely different process from a one-call utility setup in most other states, and worth handling before move-in day since fixed-vs-variable rate and contract-length terms vary meaningfully by plan.
Water and Sewer: City of Plano Service, Not a Patchwork of MUDs
Because Plano is a mature, largely built-out suburb rather than a still-expanding one, water and sewer service across most of the city comes directly from the City of Plano rather than from a Municipal Utility District (MUD) -- a real contrast with newer, still-developing DFW suburbs and with much of suburban Houston, where MUD service (and a MUD tax layered on top of standard property taxes) is common. Confirm service for a specific address regardless, since city boundaries and utility service areas don't always align perfectly.
Plano Has Real Zoning -- and, in Newer Areas, an HOA on Top of It
Unlike Houston, which has no formal zoning citywide, Plano is a conventionally zoned city: land use is governed by an actual zoning map and the city's development code, giving a mover a genuinely more predictable picture of what can be built next door than Houston's deed-restriction patchwork offers. That said, master-planned pockets like the Legacy and Willow Bend areas commonly layer a homeowners association on top of city zoning, with its own dues, architectural rules, and enforcement -- confirm HOA status and dues for a specific property before closing, since they're a real, recurring cost not captured in the base purchase price or property tax bill.
Bind Insurance Before Hail Season, Not Hurricane Season
Plano's severe-weather exposure is fundamentally different from a Gulf Coast city's: there's no hurricane season timing rule to plan around here (see the flood-hurricane-risk topic page for the honest, DFW-specific risk picture), but North Texas's hail season -- roughly March through June, peaking in April and May -- is the real analog. Texas insurers can tighten underwriting or raise rates around active severe-weather stretches, so get homeowners insurance quoted and bound before peak hail season if your move lands in late winter or early spring, rather than scrambling for coverage after a damaging storm has already been forecast.
Key takeaways
- Texas driver's license: 90 days from move-in. Vehicle registration: 30 days -- register the vehicle first, since DPS generally requires it before processing a license.
- Plano is in the deregulated ERCOT market under Oncor Electric Delivery (not CenterPoint) -- choose your own retail electric provider via Power to Choose.
- Most of Plano gets water and sewer directly from the City of Plano rather than a Municipal Utility District, reflecting its status as a mature, largely built-out suburb.
- Plano has conventional zoning, unlike Houston -- a real, predictable land-use framework, though newer areas like Legacy and Willow Bend commonly add an HOA with its own dues and rules on top.
- There's no hurricane-season insurance-timing rule here; the real analog is North Texas hail season (roughly March-June, peaking April-May) -- bind coverage before it if possible.
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