Cedar Hill, TX or Haslet, TX (Houston, Dallas: sales, new house, job market)

[wevie]

My wife and I may be relocating and Cedar Hill or Haslet were to two options she was given.

Anything anyone can tell me about either would be great.

[ChristieP]

Where will work be located? Cedar Hill is south of Dallas and Haslet is north of Fort Worth. Both are semi-rural but growing areas.

[doctorjef]

When I was a kid, Haslet was a tiny hamlet that had seen better days. Like so many little Texas towns it once had a bank, long since closed. The red stone (or possibly brick - can't remember) bank building stood on the corner, across from a very small general store and filling station. There were probably no more than a couple dozen houses. My mother, who had grown up in Denton County only a few miles from Haslet during the Depression said that the little place never had been very much. I haven't been by there in a dozen years, but Haslet had been quietly growing for years, with some new businesses and residential development (the new houses were of a pretty cheap variety). No doubt it has continued to grow. It's only about ten or twelve minutes from the North Side of Fort Worth. I believe Haslet is still within Tarrant County. The City of Fort Worth has annexed land into Denton County now and I'm not sure that Haslet was actually an incorporated town, so it may be within Fort Worth city limits at this point; if not, it is probably an island within the outer north limits of the City of Fort Worth. I would think there are better towns to settle in, like Justin or Krum (both in Denton Co.).

[wevie]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Where will work be located? Cedar Hill is south of Dallas and Haslet is north of Fort Worth. Both are semi-rural but growing areas.

Those are the places where work would be located, for her at least as she will be the one being transferred. At some point, she will end up in Plano since this is where her companies corporate office is located.

As for me, I work in the banking industry within the technology sector. We have headquarters in Dallas so I would have to find out if i could transfer or need to find another job. I am just finishing up college and haven't been with them for very long so I'm not sure..

We moved from a very, very rural area in Virginia to North Carolina 25 miles north of Charlotte about 5 years ago so we have experienced both rural and city and don't really care to be in a really rural area again.

So, with a little more information to go on, what areas should we look at? Schools are very important as we have an eight year old daughter and the schools she attends now is one of the top ranked in the state so we hope to continue with that standard.

How is the housing market, taxes, the job market, traffic, and so on.

Heck, what is the weather like in that area. From what I have seen, it seems very similar to what we are used to here.


Oh, one more think. Before I went back to college, I worked on a drill rig that drilled for natural gas for eight years; six of that as a driller. Is there drilling in that area? Is the oil field something I should consider. I definitely wouldn't want to go back out on the rig as a roughneck but I'm just curious as to what my experience and the fact that I have a bachelors may open up for me.

[TurtleCreek80]

Some thoughts for you- how long will your wife work in Haslet or Cedar Hill before being transferred to the Plano office? Will you want to move again? Haslet and Plano and Cedar Hill and Plano are really far apart but you could live in the middle of each and be able to stay there for a long time; it would probably put you in a more central location for job locations as well. Haslet is on the far west edge of the Fort Worth side of the metroplex and Cedar Hill is pretty far south on the south side of Dallas' suburbs.

Haslet is more rural than Cedar Hill; I don't really agree with the poster who called Cedar Hill semi -rural. It's a developed suburb with all of the shopping & entertainment one would expect to find there. It's about a 20 minute drive into Dallas for more fun & action (weekend drive times, not rush hour). Cedar Hill also has gorgeous topography as it's hilly (for the DFW area) and on the banks of Joe Pool Lake.

Housing market has been very strong in DFW the last few years. Values are at or above 2007 peak in almost all parts of the metroplex. Starter home price points (<$400k) are extremely competitive with multiple offers common. There is a steady steam of people moving to the area daily for our strong economy, affordable homes (compared to California & Northeast), and good public schools. Property taxes are relatively high (2-3% of home's value, paid annually. $250k home carries a $5-7k annual tax bill), but there is no state income tax. Sales tax rate is. 8.25% in the DFW area.

[wevie]

I can't say for certain how long it would be before she is transferred but perhaps a year, maybe two. When we moved to NC from VA, we bought a house before we moved. Since the move was only about 170 miles, it was easy to drive down on the weekends and look around. With that said, we still sort of wished we would have rented for about six months before deciding on a home. We are really happy with the area, but we have found there are better communities that missed because we were rushed.

Moving is awful and that is one of the main reasons we did buy to start when moving to NC. We don't want to move two or three times with a couple of years of living there but as you said, after looking at a map, there doesn't seem to be an ideal place to move that would be good for either Haslet or Cedar Hill and then still be good for Plano.

What about Arlington, Irving, Garland, or Grand Prairie? Those seem close to Cedar Hill but not so much to Plano.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by wevie

I can't say for certain how long it would be before she is transferred but perhaps a year, maybe two. When we moved to NC from VA, we bought a house before we moved. Since the move was only about 170 miles, it was easy to drive down on the weekends and look around. With that said, we still sort of wished we would have rented for about six months before deciding on a home. We are really happy with the area, but we have found there are better communities that missed because we were rushed.

Moving is awful and that is one of the main reasons we did buy to start when moving to NC. We don't want to move two or three times with a couple of years of living there but as you said, after looking at a map, there doesn't seem to be an ideal place to move that would be good for either Haslet or Cedar Hill and then still be good for Plano.

What about Arlington, Irving, Garland, or Grand Prairie? Those seem close to Cedar Hill but not so much to Plano.

Grapevine is about 30 minutes from Haslet and about 20-30 minutes to where I believe your wife's Plano location is (121 & DNT).

Uptown Dallas and neighborhoods along DNT just north of downtown Dallas are the half-way point between Plano and Cedar Hill. About 25-30 minute commutes to both.

It can be done; will just take careful planning.

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by wevie

Those are the places where work would be located, for her at least as she will be the one being transferred. At some point, she will end up in Plano since this is where her companies corporate office is located.

As for me, I work in the banking industry within the technology sector. We have headquarters in Dallas so I would have to find out if i could transfer or need to find another job. I am just finishing up college and haven't been with them for very long so I'm not sure..

We moved from a very, very rural area in Virginia to North Carolina 25 miles north of Charlotte about 5 years ago so we have experienced both rural and city and don't really care to be in a really rural area again.

So, with a little more information to go on, what areas should we look at? Schools are very important as we have an eight year old daughter and the schools she attends now is one of the top ranked in the state so we hope to continue with that standard.

How is the housing market, taxes, the job market, traffic, and so on.

Heck, what is the weather like in that area. From what I have seen, it seems very similar to what we are used to here.


Oh, one more think. Before I went back to college, I worked on a drill rig that drilled for natural gas for eight years; six of that as a driller. Is there drilling in that area? Is the oil field something I should consider. I definitely wouldn't want to go back out on the rig as a roughneck but I'm just curious as to what my experience and the fact that I have a bachelors may open up for me.

Last I heard the drilling activity around Fort Worth had slowed down due to low natural gas prices. The best places in Texas for the oil field are the Eagle Ford down in South Texas,Houston, and the Permian Basin around Midland and Odessa.However, the hiring in the oil field may slow down due to declining petroleum prices.With a bachelors degree, you could possibly be a landman.

[wevie]

Originally Posted by Westerntraveler

Last I heard the drilling activity around Fort Worth had slowed down due to low natural gas prices. The best places in Texas for the oil field are the Eagle Ford down in South Texas,Houston, and the Permian Basin around Midland and Odessa.However, the hiring in the oil field may slow down due to declining petroleum prices.With a bachelors degree, you could possibly be a landman.

What does a landman do? Either we didn't have that or we called it something else.

[doctorjef]

Drilling may have slowed down, but there are numerous gas wells already in production. I'm an interest owner on ten wells in Denton County (old family ranch land), just a few miles north of Haslet. There are many horizontal extraction lines -- I've got two that now are under City of a Fort Worth jurisdiction even though it's in Denton County, so I now pay taxes to both Denton County and to Tarrant which collects for the City of Fort Worth, weirdly (the appraisals are all determined by Denton Co, however -- damned complicated system).