Moving choice (Dallas VS. Fort Worth) (Plano, Irving: rent, condo, townhouse)

[syrialord]

I am moving to Texas in the up coming couple of weeks from overseas, and I am confused where to live, I mean should I go to Dallas or FT?

I need some advise guies, besides, what if I lived in one City and worked in the other one, would it be difficult?

Appreciate it

[ChristieP]

Where will your job be located? What's your budget for housing?

No, you do not want to live in Dallas and work in Fort Worth. Yes, it can be done if necessary, but its not the ideal situation.

You have to remember that the DFW area is HUGE! The entire area spans over 6 counties and is larger than the state of Rhode Island. DFW Airport alone is larger than the island of Manhattan.

[syrialord]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Where will your job be located? What's your budget for housing?

No, you do not want to live in Dallas and work in Fort Worth. Yes, it can be done if necessary, but its not the ideal situation.

You have to remember that the DFW area is HUGE! The entire area spans over 6 counties and is larger than the state of Rhode Island. DFW Airport alone is larger than the island of Manhattan.

I don't know where to apply for my job (it can be both cities, I am CPA and will work in audit firm).

I am planning to buy a house after few months, but I don't know which city is cheaper.

[TrueDat]

What type of things do you like to do? Married? Children? School districts? Do you want a single-family home, townhouse or condo? Do you prefer an urban type of setting or something more suburban? Budget? Will there a significant other working as well and where will they working? All of these factors would come into play and it's hard to recommend something without knowing them.

Offhand though, I would say the very worst thing you could do would be to live in Fort Worth and commute into Dallas. The drive into work and back every day would either send you: 1) back overseas or 2) insane. The Dallas to Fort Worth commute is only slightly better because it's a reverse commute and the traffic generally isn't horrible (along I-30 at least). But it's still not ideal. We're still talking about a 30-mile commute one- way (and that's assuming you live along the I-30 corridor in Dallas and are commuting directly into downtown FW. It could be longer if you live in, say, North or East Dallas and work in west or southern Fort Worth). There is a train between Dallas and Fort Worth (the TRE) but it may not go where you need to go, depending on where your house and work are located in each city.

In general, Dallas is more urban than Fort Worth and Fort Worth is more laid-back but no one's going to confuse Dallas with Shanghai or New York City. In any case, I'd say find the job first and then decide on where to live.

If your job is in Dallas and you're looking for a more urban, walkable area, I'd say Uptown or downtwon in Dallas. If you're looking for something more suburban and care about school districts, then maybe Richardson or Plano near the DART line and take the light rail into work (assuming you're working in either downtown or Uptown) if you don't want to drive. If your job is in Fort Worth, and you want more of an urban vibe, I'd stick with downtown Fort Worth or some of the developments along the West 7th street corridor. But if you want to do the big Texas house thing, the big growth area is north of Fort Worth, from the Alliance Airport area over to Southlake, Colleyville, Grapevine, etc.

But, again, your job could end up not being in any of these areas. I'd recommend visiting if you can and getting the lay of the land and you can see for yourself how sprawling the Metroplex is.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by syrialord

I am moving to Texas in the up coming couple of weeks from overseas, and I am confused where to live, I mean should I go to Dallas or FT?

I need some advise guies, besides, what if I lived in one City and worked in the other one, would it be difficult?

Appreciate it

The advice about not commuting from one to the other if you can avoid it good advice. If you are moving here before having a job, again not ideal but it happens, try some place mid way between the cities and rent until you know the job location then you can move closer to work. Irving is a good mid point location....but there are others as well depending on what you need...but for short term Irving might be ideal