Lake Highlands: L Streets, White Rock, Merriman Park, ... (Dallas, Plano: 2014, apartments)

[Walter Benjamin]

Indeed. The way I started was, I did different searches for 3BR+ houses, comparing Lakewood to Lake Highlands to the Pearce area to the Plano West Sr High area, filtered by elementary school:

1. Lakewood, Stonewall

2. White Rock, Hexter, Merriman Park, Moss Haven, Lake Highlands

3. Bowie, Brentfield, Canyon Creek, Prairie Creek, Mohawk

4. Andrews, Barksdale, Brinker, Centennial, Gulledge, Haun, Hightower, Skaggs, Wyatt


And my instinctive reaction to West Plano was: can't afford it, and also, I hate the look of these houses. To me, the post-1990s style of house looks gaudy, pretentious, overblown, ungainly, and disproportionate. They just look ridiculous to me. Personal opinion! Nothing at all against big grand houses per se -- I love the grand old houses in HP and Preston Hollow, but it seems that sense of aesthetic and proportion just totally disappeared when they invented the McMansions of today.

By contrast, I absolutely love the 1950s-1970s one-story ranch in different variations -- it seems simple, elegant, unpretentious, not to mention energy-efficient. So, personally, architecturally speaking, I would love the houes in LW, LH or Richardson, but not Plano, at all. But I wish the Collin County bandwagon well! Now if they would just build their own public hospital... (humor)

Originally Posted by Brookside

I wonder if proximity to LBJ is a negative?

Good thread for those who may not want to jump on the Collin County bandwagon.

[WestcoasterDFW]

We were recently contemplating similar options as you, OP. We currently live in an old tudor style home in the M Streets. While I absolutely love this neighborhood and all the character my 1920s house has, we need to move on due to the size of our growing family. We looked for 4 bedrooms in our current neighborhood, Lakewood, West Plano and many other Dallas suburbs. We strongly considered West Plano, but like you, I don't love the look of many of those houses and a lot of them need a great deal of updates. We're also not suburbia people. I see why people move to them but it's not for us. We ultimately decided to build in the new community in Merriman Park, Bordeaux of Lake Highlands. It had what we were looking for- beautiful, new houses in Merriman Park, not far from the city, not far from White Rock Lake, an elementary school that rates 8 out of 10, East Dallas people/culture, established neighborhood with great topography (actual hills!). Did I mention close to the city? That was a big one. And it will cost us significantly less than buying that same house in M Streets or Lakewood, or even lower Greenville.

[wallawallahoohoo]

Originally Posted by Walter Benjamin

Comparing White Rock Elementary, Lake Highlands Elementary, and Merriman Park Elementary, I see why WRE has wealthier student body, but LHE and MPE seem very similar.

* all have 5 stars "community" rating on GreatSchools
* GreatSchools rating: 10 (WRE), 8 (LHE), 8 (MPE)

WRE: 73% white, 12% Hispanic, 11% black
LHE: 44% white, 37% Hispanic, 13% black
MPE: 47% white, 28% Hispanic, 22% black

English learners: WRE 2%, LHE 29%, MPE 17%
Free lunch: WRE 16%, LHE 48%, MPE 44%

Just curious, I too was looking at Bordeaux at LH and noticed that the stats on MPE is very different from here vs Texas Tribune:

Merriman Park Elementary School | The Texas Tribune

Here it says: 35% white, 19% Hispanic, 45% black

This is a pretty big difference from the Great Schools website... and it remains a bit consistent percentage wise regarding middle school and high school.

Bordeaux at LH looks very attractive to me, but I'm uneasy making a huge purchase in an area where it looks like it necessitates private schooling. Just curious what peoples' thoughts are...

[WestcoasterDFW]

I also saw a few sites with varying demographic info for MPE. Most sites (other than the Tribune) say majority white, then black, then Hispanic. It looks like a pretty racially diverse school which I think can be a good thing, as long as you have decent parent involvement. MPE seems to have a close-knit community feel as well as a solid PTA. That being said, I think ultimately you need to do a tour to really get a feel for the school. When considering junior high and high school, I don't think our new neighborhood schools of Forest Meadow and Lake Highlands High are any worse then the current schools I'm zoned for- Long and Woodrow. So ultimately you have these high price tags in M Streets and Lakewood and a lot of people are still sending their kids to privates for junior high and high school. Another example of a huge purchase area necessitating private school is Preston Hollow. Rarely do residents there send their kids to the public schools they're zoned for but yet the price tags of their homes are high.

It may be wishful thinking but IMO as people continue to move to Dallas for jobs and the burbs continue to expand further and further out, people will eventually get tired of longer commutes and want to live closer to the city. Crime rates are down (Dallas murder rate falls to lowest point since 1930 | Dallas Morning News), improvement districts are making significant strides, and schools are getting better as more people choose to live in the city. Robert E Lee elementary is a good example of that. Hopefully this upward trend will continue, in LH and beyond.

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by wallawallahoohoo

Just curious, I too was looking at Bordeaux at LH and noticed that the stats on MPE is very different from here vs Texas Tribune:

Merriman Park Elementary School | The Texas Tribune

Here it says: 35% white, 19% Hispanic, 45% black

This is a pretty big difference from the Great Schools website... and it remains a bit consistent percentage wise regarding middle school and high school.

Bordeaux at LH looks very attractive to me, but I'm uneasy making a huge purchase in an area where it looks like it necessitates private schooling. Just curious what peoples' thoughts are...

The choice is pretty simple. If you want a top notch school district you need to move to the burbs. If you want the premier private schools, you stay in North/Northwest Dallas. But, if you want a good school district, Lake Highlands fits the bill. Moreover, if you don't like it, and you don't want to move, there are several good private schools (Lakehill, St. Johns, St. Pats, etc.) that are convenient.

[wallawallahoohoo]

Thanks for the feedback, all. I'm not terribly familiar with DISD, but from what I know at HISD (Houston) is that there is also a lot of gentrification going on inside 610, but the demographics and school ratings will likely never change in my lifetime despite higher income families demolishing and building new homes, so I would expect more or less the same for DISD.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by wallawallahoohoo

Thanks for the feedback, all. I'm not terribly familiar with DISD, but from what I know at HISD (Houston) is that there is also a lot of gentrification going on inside 610, but the demographics and school ratings will likely never change in my lifetime despite higher income families demolishing and building new homes, so I would expect more or less the same for DISD.

In DISD, it just depends on the neighborhood. Rosemont, Withers, and Hexter Elementaries are schools no educated affluent families would have considered just 10 years ago...now people move to those neighborhoods FOR the schools. Lakewood and Stonewall Jackson have been quite strong for 20+ years now. There are about 12-15 elementary schools in DISD that are legitimately worth a look.

When you're in a neighborhood like Preston Hollow or Bluffview where 90%+ of the families go to private schools (akin to River Oaks in Houston) then it's those public schools that will probably not change even decades from now.

[TheOverdog]

By contrast, I absolutely love the 1950s-1970s one-story ranch in different variations -- it seems simple, elegant, unpretentious, not to mention energy-efficient. So, personally, architecturally speaking, I would love the houes in LW, LH or Richardson, but not Plano, at all.

Central Plano has entire subdivisions of dumpy looking 1970s single story ranch houses that were designed as cheaply and crappily as possible (that's my opinion). If that's your thing there are thousands to choose from.

[M.abus]

I think you would be better off building an addition or expanding upstairs in Lakewood or the M Streets rather than moving to Lake Highlands. They have a much higher potential for appreciation. The future of the schools in LH looks rather cloudy. In Lakewood and M Streets the schools are getting better each year, and more improvements are coming.

[HockDad]

Originally Posted by M.abus

I think you would be better off building an addition or expanding upstairs in Lakewood or the M Streets rather than moving to Lake Highlands. They have a much higher potential for appreciation. The future of the schools in LH looks rather cloudy. In Lakewood and M Streets the schools are getting better each year, and more improvements are coming.

Except, as of now, the schools in LH are better than the schools in Lakewood. No one can accurately predict when Lakewood will have above average schools, much less really good schools. Also, no one can predict if and when LH schools are worse than Lakewood schools. Personally, I will not think Lakewood has good schools until it has at least a handful of NMSF every year (like Lake Highlands). Unless I am mistaken, they rarely get one.