Commute to Irving (Dallas, Flower Mound, Grapevine: how much, houses, good schools)

[Cukcake]

We will be moving to Dallas in 6 months and my husband will be working in Irving. I am wanting to know areas to live if we want less than an hour commute, rural setting with acreage and a price range of 300,000-400,000. We also have two kids so good schools are a priority. We were considering Rockwall or Forney, but did not know commute time for these areas to Irving. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[momof2dfw]

Rockwall or Forney to Irving........ that will be at least an hour commute. Heaven forbid there is a mess on Stemmons or LBJ.

I'd try looking more out North of Irving. Still some rural areas w/ acreage and a lot better commute to Irving.

[Cukcake]

Thanks for the information. What areas north of Irving would you recommend?

[momof2dfw]

Depends how rural you want to be and how much of a small town you want. You have Keller & Grapevine close by, same with Flower Mound. Try to avoid any areas that would make the commute be on any part of I35/Stemmons . Look out around the Texas Motor Speedway near Alliance Airport. Lots of communities w/ acreage lots. The only thing there is going to be the traffic when the races are in town (2-3 times a year). If you want even farther out go on up towards Boyd and Decatur. You still might have close to an hour commute from there but it is much more "country" and small town than the others. The whole area that way is growing but still has some small rolling hills and lots of land. Prices are going to be more reasonable than they will be in the Rockwall area. If you look on realtor.com under Decatur (zipcode is 76234 for the town of Decatur) for your price range you will find some really nice houses on nice acreage lots.

[momof2dfw]

I did a quick look on realtor.com for your price range for Decatur just to get an idea about travel time and distance. I found one on Busey Blvd on acreage that was just Southwest of town and using mapquest w/ a final destination of D/FW Airport (not knowing where in Irving the commute was too but more than likely it will be pretty close to the airport). It comes out w/ 52 miles and a time of 57 minutes. Most of the time the times given are usually longer than what it actually takes. The schools are good and you would have the rural setting on acreage w/ some nice houses and lots of trees. It is growing up that way and has not gotten to the point the Rockwall has or other areas closer in. Not as many of the small lot subdivisions out that way either. Most people that want horse land tend to go that way.

[Cukcake]

Thanks for all the help. What do you know about the Haslet area?

[momof2dfw]

Not as familiar w/ Haslet as I am w/ the Wise County area. Haslet is flatter in terrian and less trees. Looking on realtor.com it looks like there are less homes in your price range on acreage. It does have more homes in subdivisions on large lots that are under an acre.

[Synopsis]

I don't know much about Haslet, but I live in the North Hurst/Colleyville area and it's about a 20 minute drive to Irving from where I'm at. Houses here can range from 100k to near 1 mil, so you could have your pick with the 300 to 400k price range you stated. Also some areas to consider would be Grapevine (a little closer to Irving and a great town) and as momof2 said Keller and some other areas. I don't know much about Haslet although I pass through there on occasion when I travel North of the metroplex. Watauga is also nice, in my opinion.

PS. Driving from Decatur to Irving everyday would be a beat-down of major proportions in my opinion. It says the commute time would be 1 hour and 8 minutes according to (maps.google.com), but I don't think they are taking into account the nasty mess of traffic you'll encounter once you enter ft. worth going east. 820 East from I-35W towards the airport is a parking lot for most of the workday because it's still just a two-lane road (vastly overloaded almost all of the time; I'll never understand why it's so underdeveloped when the whole area is booming beyond imagination). You could cut across Watauga from I-35W and not encounter so much traffic but the end result would be much the same because of stoplights and residential speed limits.

[Cukcake]

How is the traffic and noise levels from planes in the areas surrounding the airport? Any place to avoid?