It’s funny, before I went to Waco, my sister (who lives in Frisco, TX – just north of Dallas and about 2 hours from Waco) told me that locals had said to her “There is literally nothing in Waco except Magnolia….Nobody goes to Waco except to go to the Silos or something to do with Magnolia”. And let me tell y’all I was NOT here for it. I didn’t listen to that one bit, brushing it off with a quick justification of “Ummm hello – have they watched Fixer Upper? It’s so cute! It’s supposed to be such a cool town!”. I was headed to Waco ready to fall in love with this town-on-the-rise and, honestly, was fully expecting to feel like I needed to come home and pack my bags and move my butt down there because I was going to be so in love. Boy was I in for a treat.
Now before you keep reading (because I think you may be able to sense where this is about to go) let me tell you this – I had a wonderful time in Waco, and I will definitely be going back one day. All things Magnolia are exactly what you’d expect and so much more – and I can’t wait to share my best shopping tips below! But what we very quickly learned when we got to Waco is this……Magnolia + Waco are not on the same playing field, and my expectations of a cute historic town on the rise, did not so much fall flat, as disappear altogether.
To sum it up in one relatively harsh sentence: Waco is not cute. I’m sorry to burst your bubble y’all, but I really wish I’d done my research better beforehand and knew what to expect. I’m hoping sharing this will help curb any of those expectations so you don’t feel let down. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I’m one of very few who took Fixer Upper at it’s word (yes that’s naive I know) that this was a super-cute-super-cool, fun place to live, and I would fall in love with it’s charm just like Chip and Jo always talk about on the show.
What Chip + Jo don’t explain super well on the show, is that the charming parts of Waco they are showing us viewers, make up the vast minority of Waco.
From the moment my Mom, Kyleigh, and myself drove into the city limits of Waco, we were surprised. We could see Baylor University in all it’s shiny brick buildings and manicured lawns glory on one side, and the shimmering Brazos River on the other, but everywhere else appeared to be (honestly there’s no other way to put it) a bit of a mess. Waco is very clearly a town that has always been quite run down with a less than booming economy, who has had to quickly and unexpectedly transform itself into a town that can handle over a million tourists a year. Chip and Jo have singlehandedly changed their local economy, and Waco just hasn’t quite caught up. Hotels and shops are scattered about in a disorganized way, and the majority of residential Waco is extremely run down. All the neighborhoods we drove around were homes that were just not maintained and were falling into disrepair. And that cute historic downtown? Yeah, super, super cute. But also super underutilized. There are a ton of empty building spaces, and Kyleigh and I, try as we might, could not find a single building that contained historic lofts or apartments. Instead, scattered around the downtown area outskirts, were new apartment buildings popping up like weeds.
Now let me make one thing clear: I was in Waco for exactly 1.5 days. I did not spend a week here exploring, and Kyleigh and I searched for historic apartments though google/home app searches and looking for buildings with signs. There absolutely could be historic lofts available and we just didn’t find them. And there are certainly cute neighborhoods in Waco, but seemingly not a ton, and not any we were able to come across in our time there. So I am not saying any of this with the tone of “Waco sucks and my opinion is 100% accurate”, because again, I was only there 1.5 days. I am just giving you my unfiltered impression, to prevent you from leaving disappointed like we did.
What struck us all most about Waco was that there seemed to be so much untapped potential. The downtown area is, truly, really-freaking-cool! Wonderful architecture and layout, with tons of neat murals. So why weren’t there more businesses or apartments in historic buildings available? A lot of the houses that are run down are super cute and charming, but not maintained and showing significant wear. The strip malls and shopping areas that were clearly there before the 2015 economy boom? Run down with no real cohesion in look/design. And remember, we’re adding all this on top of lots of spread out, randomly-popping-up new businesses and residences.