Highland Meadows....Help (Highlands: real estate, apartment complexes, rental)

[rj82]

Hello,

I did a search of the forum and did not pull up much on this area. Can someone give me a general idea about safety? desirability? demographics? etc? Is this considered Lake Highlands? Are people moving here? moving out?


thank you

[TurtleCreek80]

Google is usually a helpful starting place! Highland Meadows

Yes, that is Lake Highlands. From reading the neighborhood association website, the neighborhood is split between DISD and RISD schools. For both schools and home values, the better part - by far- of the neighborhood is the RISD part. If you have kids, there is also an outstanding private school - Highlander- in the neighborhood. Overall, Lake Highlands is very desirable and the real estate values there are going up, up, up. It's one of the few last moderately affordable areas within the 635 loop that have good public schools.

You can probably call the DPD Northeast station for crime stats or check their website, but most of the crime issues in the LH area are in apartment complexes or in the area around Forrest & 635. I am not sure what apartment complexes are in Highland Meadows - if any- but that area is pretty far from the "Forrest Ghetto".
http://www.dallaspolice.net/division...t/welcome.html

[rj82]

thanks for the info..........Google was surprisingly not that helpful on this areas, it seems to be east of LH so i am not sure how much the desirability goes down. Hopefully someone on here lives near this area.

[clickbear]

DM me if you have more questions. I have lived in the area for 8 years. I'm on the DISD side of Highland Meadows since that was level of income at time of purchase and could throw a rock to the RISD boundary from my house. At the time, we couldn't afford to get into that block.

1. IMO-Stay away from the Northern & North Eastern parts of Highland Meadows. Those two apartments have the higher crime rates in the area. Crime does occur, but mostly BMV and property break in when I see them on the crime reports. Usually it appears to be due to reasons people could have avoided. Not parking car in garage, leaving valuables seen, not having home alarm with window sensors, lighting, etc.

2. If you buy in DISD and have kids in school, have a plan other than DISD. Highlander and St Patrick are two close private schools. If you buy in RISD side, you have Wallace Elementary that feeds into Lake Highlands pattern.

3. Might want to check DCAD site and determine how many homes in your proximity are owned vs rent. Some of the streets in the rental part of Highland Meadows are pretty obvious due to lack of upkeep.

You have awesome proximity to everything and can avoid rush hour traffic on the major highways if you work downtown. This is an area where you can find a good fixer upper and some homes have remodels as well. I'm not sure what all is on the market in that area. Hope this helps some.

[rj82]

clickbear,

thanks so much for the information. is there any obvious "catch" to why the prices are lower in HM vs L Streets?

[clickbear]

I don't know why there is a price difference, but here are my takes

1. DISD vs RISD (The RISD Boundary ends in part of Highland Meadows)
2. RISD (L-streets) vs RISD (Highland Meadows)-Lake Highlands Elem has the view of a better campus compared to Wallace (RISD for Highland Meadows). I don't know from experience on either. Maybe you can find out on forum.
3. Much less apartments in the L-Street/Lake Ridge area vs Highland Meadows.
4. The L-streets/Lake Ridge area have a lot more rebuilds occurring along with the Lake Highlands Villas (used to be land for apartments) going in by David Weekly. Whereas the Highland Meadows area has yet to see that in the area. I would think you have a more stable taxable value in Highland Meadows, where maybe on the L-Streets within the next 12 months you have 4 new rebuilds built around you. It would bring property value up, BUT also taxable value and increase you taxes/budget. You could protest the value, but there is a risk with it not being lowered.
5. Some of the Highland Meadows streets intersect directly with Northwest Highway (Rolling Rock, Capri, Grenadier, Strathmore). Those streets can tend to have a little more traffic at times compared to the streets parallel to them.