West Plano versus Frisco (Lewisville, Prosper: for sale, renting, chapel)

[London29]

We are planning on buying a house soon. ( Before June )
We have spent the last year and a half renting in Frisco ( Lakes on Legacy ).
We like certain neighborhoods in Frisco but unfortunately the ones we like are zoned to Lisd. ( Stonebriar, Lakes, Stonebriar Estates...
We looked at Stonebriar Park, Chapel creek, Starwood... They are zoned to FISD but yards tend to be really small with a pond instead of a pool.
Shaddock Creek has some nice homes but it is not green enough
We looked at Newman Village as well. The darling homes are nice but to me they are a little bit overpriced given the location.
Any input on Frisco would be helpful.

We realized that Plano might be a better fit for us. We are currently looking at houses around Willow Bend.
Anyone familiar with Brinker Elementary ? Shepton, West Plano High ? Daughter currently goes to Hick ( Lisd) in Frisco. The level is really low, hasn't learned a thing since we moved here. ( 2 school years ).
We also looked at Avignon. Water tower is an eye sore, electric wires... but the houses are new. Is it worth buying there ?
We want to buy a house that will keep its value given the fact that we want to move to Fl at some point in time.
Are there any other interesting neighborhoods worth looking at in West Plano ?
Budget-wise : Ideally no more that 800K in nearly new condition. Or much cheaper in order to renovate.

Really keen on knowing which schools to target in West Plano and Frisco. Thanks in advance.
For us the thing that count the most is the school

[Pama]

Brinker/Barksdale/Centennial-Renner-Shepton-West is the the route to go for good schools and homes from 500k and up. Avignon is new but you can find really nice homes in other subdivisions with mature trees and nice landscape on bigger lots.

[Jasmine0]

My children are going to one of the elementary here in West feeder and we are very happy with their progress. We are currently renting near Willow Bend Mall area and don't want to change schools. We are Asians and schools really matter to us. This is a very convenient location as everything is within few minutes distance, even three tollways which saves time and keeps stress level under control.

[CREW747]

We felt the same way about those particular Frisco neighborhoods.Liked Starwood but hated the lot sizes.Lakes on Legacy is great.The lots were still too small for us,but it is a really nice subdivision.Although we never seriously consider Frisco,we looked at a few neighborhoods in LISD as well.

Willow Bend is a great choice if your price range is under $800,000.When we were house hunting a few years ago,our price range was under $500,000.We decided on Prosper. Willow Bend is gorgeous.I would not do Frisco in Lewisville ISD.I would suggest Willow Bend over Starwood in that price range if you could get a larger lot.When we moved here our top turn offs were back alley way garages and small lot size neighborhoods.

[Rice&Curry]

Our family went through similar experience and we are moving back to Plano during summer. Life in Frisco is very similar to Plano and house is awesome but schooling just didn't work out for us. Size matters but academics matter more when it comes to educational institutions.

[PISDstudent]

I went through that school feeder (I'm a senior at Plano West now) and I had a pretty good experience. There were some years that I had bad luck with teachers at Brinker, but all of the ones I had that were bad have since left the school. My experiences at Renner, Shepton, and especially Plano West have been uniformally positive. If you're looking for a more challenging enviroment for a kid who is talented and ultimately going to be taking higher-level classes, I think it's very strong feeder. Frisco, not so much.

[London29]

Thanks a lot for all the infos. It does indeed confirm that Plano is good for schools... Where will the kids who graduate from Frisco high schools end up going ? Will some of them go to Ivy League universities ? How can I find out about it ?

Pama : Thanks for the school names. Did you put them in order of preference and if not what would it be ? Thanks.
Jasmine : Which school do your children go to ? Would love to know more about the school and West Plano in general.

Any input on Avignon would help. What about the resale value of the houses in that area ? A realtor who showed us a house there this weekend was saying that people have a hard time selling their homes because they are old. Is is the case ?

Thanks !

[stan4]

Hard to find a new house in West Plano, as it's established. I guess if you go west of the Tollway and north of Park, you can find some stuff, but that's not where I'd choose to live. Plus you can run into the same problem with the "is this PISD or LISD?" situation.
Most people putting homes up for sale will either have them updated already or leave them for you to do (and sell at a lower price).
$800k is a decent budget - you should be able to find something fairly nice for that.

I went through the PISD system for high and senior high. My friends and I did extremely well in college and in life as is evidenced by the fact that I live in a fancy dancy neighborhood in my mid-30s. No, seriously, it was great prep for college.

[Johnhw2]

Originally Posted by stan4

Hard to find a new house in West Plano, as it's established. I guess if you go west of the Tollway and north of Park, you can find some stuff, but that's not where I'd choose to live. Plus you can run into the same problem with the "is this PISD or LISD?" situation.
Most people putting homes up for sale will either have them updated already or leave them for you to do (and sell at a lower price).
$800k is a decent budget - you should be able to find something fairly nice for that.

I went through the PISD system for high and senior high. My friends and I did extremely well in college and in life as is evidenced by the fact that I live in a fancy dancy neighborhood in my mid-30s. No, seriously, it was great prep for college.

We are seeing inventory of homes for sale grow in my neighborhood as spring comes. The listings are in excess of $1M but the home across the street, which is going on market should be in the $800k range and should hit the market later this week as some work is being completed to bring it into selling condition. Will be interesting to see how fast it goes relative to the higher priced listings. Homes in my neighborhood are some of the newer ones in W. Plano. My home is one of the oldest in the neighborhood, it was built in 1999.

[Jasmine0]

My kids are enrolled in Barksdale which is exemplary, has balanced demographics,offers sports, G&T, PACE, honors, advance maths,spelling bee, math competitions, duke explorers etc. Best of all its a good community and children look forward to go to school.

Every parent that has children in Renner Middle, ravs about it. I don't know much about Shepton and West Sr but data and stats favor them over most other schools in DFW.