Where to live around Dallas?

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

DH is thinking about applying for a job that would have him based out of Dallas, and being a lover of Texas, I just really think that's a fine idea. I just don't know where is the best place to live.

I'm thinking somewhere around the Northeast side of the city--maybe out as far as Rockwall or beyond. I think we could be happy in lots of places but here are some of the things we really enjoy and need. Here they are:

1) 2500 sq. ft. or more
2) land with trees around it--AKA, no tiny lots
3) NO KB HOMES! Or Centex, or any other one of those neighborhoods where the houses all look the same and the builder put the entire subdivision up in 6 months' time
4) excellent public schools or an area where we can live and still afford Catholic schools
5) access to kids' sports and activities--DD 7 has been out of gymnastics for two years because we live in a place where no one even teaches it. DD4 loves to play soccer. DD16 wants to be around friends and shopping malls. We'd like to introduce them to a variety of things!
6) Crime rates relatively low, shopping opportunities would be nice...etc.
7) DH and I have been thinking about flipping houses on the side...or maybe he could do some sort of home inspection service or something...so opportunities around housing would be great.

I would love to hear from everyone around there about the good, the bad, and the ugly...

 

[DVC Jen]

We live in Rowlett and really like it. We are a part of the Garland School System. It has an open enrollment policy.. meaning if you aren't super crazy about your neighborhood school you can easily choose another within the district.

Rowlett is close enough to Dallas that we have so many options, yet we aren't so close as to have the bad traffic and crime.

There are soooo many opportunities for your children here. It is a VERY family oriented town. It is growing, yet still has that small town feel to it.

You could easily find a house that is not a "subdivision" home.

My DH works in Richardson and his commute is only about 15-20 minutes.

Oh and there is a really nice open air mall that just opened up about 10 minutes away. It is actually in Garland (think downtown disney type place). My two teens LOVE it and it has all the stores they think are a "must".

 

[ChristmasElf]

PLANO is a really nice city. Great school district. Lots of shopping choices as well as malls, shopping centers, and wonderful neighborhoods.
Housing in Texas is sooo reasonable.

Good Luck on your move!

 

[DVC Jen]

Plano is a really nice place to live. I am not sure you will have a large lot there however. But.. you might find one.. I just have my doubts.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Housing in Texas is most certainly NOT reasonable - that was much too broad a statement! DS's teacher said today that a little house they used to rent 25 years ago was offered to them to purchase for $30,000. They didn't buy it. She saw that the house is currently for sale and grabbed a flier out of curiosity. It is listed at $970,000. No, that is NOT a typo. That's the area near where we live. We live in an apartment. That would be WHY we live in an apartment.

OP-
Definitely stay to the north. We are in Preston Hollow just outside of Highland Park. Housing prices are completely out of control. We will NEVER be able to move to a house in this neighborhood, which would mean having to move DS to another school, being farther away from work for DH & me, blah blah blah. You can't beat the shopping - I can WALK to Nordstrom, Neiman's, etc. (I don't walk, but it is close enough. ) Crime is high but spotty. You can usually avoid it if you know which areas to stay out of. Well, violent crime can usually be avoided. Petty crime like theft/burglary of cars and so forth is just plain high. You cross your fingers and hope for the best. Dallas public schools are dismal for the most part. I can think of 2 pretty decent ones - one is where DS goes. There is a private school on every corner but they are expensive and competitive. Since they have people beating a path to get in they don't have to keep tuition reasonable or be generous with financial aid. I know this because DS USED to go to private school.

Best of luck in your search! I think Rockwall or Rowlett might be good places to start looking. There is a nice community up there I used to drive through on occasion- I think it is called Water View? Big golf course community with a water park and an elementry school right on the edge of the subdivision. I stayed on the main road so I don't know if the houses are "cookie cutter" ones or not.

 

[DVC Jen]

Best of luck in your search! I think Rockwall or Rowlett might be good places to start looking. There is a nice community up there I used to drive through on occasion- I think it is called Water View? Big golf course community with a water park and an elementry school right on the edge of the subdivision. I stayed on the main road so I don't know if the houses are "cookie cutter" ones or not.

ACK! Stay away from WaterView.

My husband is a member of the city's RACES (radio amatuer civil emergency services). We got nearly 9 inches of rain on Sunday and Water View was flooding so badly that RACES and CERT (civil emergency response team) had to block off both entrances into the place. The builder did not grade it properly and it was horrible. Streets were turned into rivers and I swear to you.. at one point ducks were swimming down the middle of the streets.

It does look great to drive through.. the houses are nice..but there are a lot of problems you can't see.

There are some really nice houses on decent sized lots that are also close to the lake. That might interest you.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Ok....so how much land are we talking? What about your price? DH and I are always on the lookout right now.
1 acre you are looking 400,000 and up.

Everyone says stay north of 30. Nicer areas are north of 635. Crime is very very bad in Dallas.

Flower Mound, Double Oak, Bartonville, Argyle, are the "hot" areas around me.

Housing is only cheap if you don't want land.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

I don't know how much house we'll be able to afford...afterall, we do currently live in Mississippi!

We'll be moving from a house of 3500 sq. ft. on 1.5 acres. $400K will be out of our price range, at least for the first few years DH is out of the Air Force. I suppose I could go to work so we could afford it....but hey, someone needs to be able to go get a sick young'n from school and be available to cook dinner, run to/from soccer, and all that stuff...and what's the use in buying a house you never get to see?

Maybe if we live farther out we'll be able to afford something with a little land. But then what happens to the school districts?! Are they worse?

Private school here runs about $1000/month for three kids. That is a little more expensive than the $850 we would have paid in San Antonio. I wonder how Dallas area Catholic schools compare to that.

In looking at Plano homes on Realtor.com, it seems there are several hundred with a good deal of square footage for under $300K. I am noticing there isn't much land attached, though.

Does everyone in Texas have a pool? LOL...it seems like all the listings had one.

 

[KathyTX]

Does everyone in Texas have a pool? LOL...it seems like all the listings had one.

ROFL!!! Just about...

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

What about you Kathy? Do you live in the area?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You can get a an older home for 280,000 all day long with an OK backyard.

Denton is a nice area. Now it is a little bit further out, but traffic sucks everywhere so in the end, doesn't matter.

As far as Catholic Schools, I don't know about that. I would check out a mass first, seriously. Our parish & church seems more like a community center than a church like we are used to. It is a little different. There is no recessional at the end of mass. It is like "the mass is ended, go in peace" and everyone gets up and leaves.
Traffic is a big thing here.
They do confirmation in 10th grade, I think, as opposed to 8th grade, what we are used to. Just as a heads up for you.

You know we wanted "land" too, when we moved here in April and it just keeps going up up up....
We look all the time.

 

[janette]

To get land you have to go further out, there are many areas north and east. If you have a job location work from there since the commute from the areas where land is cheaper aren't the greatest. One of my sisters lives in Rockwell and has lived a little further out, she's had no complaints with the schools. Some of the districts are having trouble because they are growing so quickly. The ones north like Frisco & Little Elm are having trouble keeping up and that can be an issue.

One of my co-workers has her kids in Catholic schools in Plano. I don't think the cost is too bad but they are hard to get into. They have a new High School too and I think it isn't too bad but the Elementary does turn many away. I'm not sure if the smaller communities further out have catholic schools.

You can buy a decent house for under $300K in most of the suburbs but having a larger yard is rare. We have .25 of an acre and it is considered a huge yard for the area. Most of the newer housing has very small yards. Highland Park and that area is the place where pricing is out of control. Many of the homes purchased there are torn down and rebuilt. The lots there are very valuable.

Most school districts are okay, you can look online at the schools and get some demographic information. Dallas ISD is the only one I would rule out completely, most of the others it really depends on the schools you'd have assigned.

Lots of kids sports & activities. Your 16yo will love it, in Dallas shopping is a sport. There are Gymnastics training centers everywhere, you'll find one with no problem.

 

[m&m's mom]

What about you Kathy? Do you live in the area?

I hope Kathy does not mind me answering for her. We both live in Flower Mound. It is a very nice area but I am afraid it does have some "cookie cutter"ness to it.
Excellent schools, reasonable priced place to live. In our area if you have a 2500 sq foot house that is "nice" you are talking low to mid $200,000.

 

[Planogirl]

You could check northeast Plano or maybe even east parts of Allen which is just to the north of Plano. Both towns have good school districts and plenty of facilities. There are also lots of horse lovers in those areas and many houses with large lots and plenty of trees. The prices could be kind of high though.

Wherever you go, definitely check to the north, northwest and northeast of Dallas. If you go further out in those directions you may be able to find the larger lots. Beware of Frisco (where we live) and towns around it right now because of heavy traffic and the potential for high taxes.

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Well, if DH got a job, he would probably only have to commute into the city once, maybe twice a week. He's a pilot.

We talked about living in San Antonio or Little Rock, but the commute costs would run us about $400/month. That's pretty high and would require him to be gone extra days every month. That's why I'm asking all the questions about the area.

Growing up in Little Rock, we always thought of Dallas as an extension of home--traveling there to shop, visit friends, etc., but all my friends have since moved from there.

 

[sm4987]

We live in Mansfield, Tx and they say it is the fastest growing district in Texas. Nice area, low crime rate. Houses are pretty resonable. DH works for a builder here called grand homes. Those extra nice extragavent homes. You can check them out.

www.grandhomes.com

I have a 2800 sq foot one story by them and they build all over the metroplex

 

[KathyTX]

What kind of pilot- commercial? Flower Mound, Coppell, Grapevine, Bedford, Euless are all towns really near D/FW Airport. We have TONS of airline employees living here in Flower Mound!

 

[janette]

If he is going to be flying out of DFW I'd go more north, either along I35 north of Lewisville or north of the mid-cities. Not really familiar with the mid-city area but I know you can get into smaller areas by going north on 114. Southlake, Trophy Club and other towns along 114 have really grown but there are many smaller towns further out, even Flower Mound and Lewisville have some areas that have more a more country feel.

 

[KathyTX]

Housing in Texas is most certainly NOT reasonable - that was much too broad a statement! DS's teacher said today that a little house they used to rent 25 years ago was offered to them to purchase for $30,000. They didn't buy it. She saw that the house is currently for sale and grabbed a flier out of curiosity. It is listed at $970,000. No, that is NOT a typo. That's the area near where we live. We live in an apartment. That would be WHY we live in an apartment.

Preston Hollow and the Park Cities (University Park and Highland Park) are really not the typical areas families looking for affordable housing would probably be looking into. These are VERY highly priced areas within the actual City of Dallas, folks like Ross Perot live there.

Going to the suburbs, prices are way more affordable. That $970,000 would buy a mansion in the suburbs, a two bedroom fixer-upper cottage in Highland Park.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hey, Paige, how about Chicago???? Jeff, you and the kids would love it here.