Pilot Point Is Priming for a Population Pop

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most significant trajectories of North Texas growth has been… well, north. While places like Frisco and McKinney have been making a lot of headlines for the various developments going up in their city limits, the small municipality of Pilot Point is being primed to become a new frontier of suburban D-FW.

One of the first Anglo settlements of what eventually became Denton County, Pilot Point has experienced a significant population surge in recent years, growing from around 4,380 residents in 2020 to roughly 6,770 in 2024 for a 54.6% increase, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.

Growth drivers in the city include proximity to the Dallas North Tollway, cheaper housing compared to cities like Frisco and Prosper, and an influx of big master-planned communities in and near the area. Officials estimate there will be more than 10,000 people living in the city by 2029.

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“It’s just going to be covered in homes and schools, all the way from Aubrey to Pilot Point,” said Ben McCutchin, executive vice president of the boutique CRE firm Younger Partners, speaking with CandysDirt.com.

McCutchin recently brokered the sale of just over 260 acres of agricultural land in the northeast corner of Denton County to Dallas-based Talley Land Development for future residential projects. The land belonged to his deceased brother Gene, who bought it back in 2000 as a long-term investment.

“I helped him put together probably 3,000-4,000 acres over the years all through that North Texas area. This was one of those pieces,” McCutchin said, noting that he had previously sold Talley Land Development an adjacent tract spanning 167 acres just to the south.

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Another recent land deal was announced earlier in June when Farmers Branch-based Centurion American Development Group secured 2,000 acres in nearby Grayson County for a master-planned community of 4,200 single-family homes and 3,000 units of multifamily housing.

“That’s just to the east of this property,” McCutchin said. “In the next 15-20 years, you’re not going to recognize [the area]. I sold land in Tioga. They’re even developing up there.”

He credited Texas’ pro-business policies (low taxes, lax regulatory environment) for fueling the growth. Denton County and Grayson County are both seeing business operations pop up in the industrial, logistics, and retail sectors. In Sherman, for example, which is just 30 miles northeast of Pilot Point, some thousands of new jobs are expected from semiconductor plants that are being developed.

“When I was just a kiddo, I lived in Addison, and all that land growth was moving up to the Frisco area,” McCutchin said. “That’s what’s going to happen … more development all the way to the Oklahoma line, especially from I-35 to U.S. Hwy 75.”

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Pilot Point and other cities like it will need to get ready as they approach mid-size status in the coming years. McCutchin pointed to some 2,000 acres that are due to come online in just the next few years.

“It would be called a boomtown if you were in the oil business,” he said.