Relocating from Houston; work is near Galleria (DNT/Spring Valley Rd) (Dallas: house, neighborhoods)

[Shipresa]

Hello! We've spent 7 years in Houston and being moved up to Dallas. We certainly welcome the change of scenery.

The office is Spring Valley Road and DNT. Just north of the Galleria.

We have twins starting Kindergarten in Aug 2018. Where do you suggest we start looking for a house?

We know nothing about Dallas! Someone mentioned Prestonwood neighborhood and others suggested West Plano. What is the commute on the DNT? We are quite tired of the I-10 and Beltway 8 of Houston. Things move slowly on those....

Looking for:
*12500 sq ft lot or more
*4 bed
*pool
*budget is $600k.
*prefer about 20 minute commute or less.
*of course, great schools.

Thank you in advance! Move is planned in January 2018.

[UnfairPark]

I’m partial to West Plano but Far North Dallas(Plano ISD) and Richardson are good choices as well. If you want West Plano, look at homes feeding to Brinker, Barksdale or Centennial Elemantry, not only these are great schools but location is ideal for your commute compared to rest of the Collin County.

[Johnhw2]

Traffic thoughts. I lived in Houston for several decades (Energy Corridor to Greenspoint commute), moved to W Plano after retiring. Traffic in W. Plano and along NDT are worse than I experienced in Houston driving I10 and Beltway 8. Granted that was 7 years ago. But Plano is becoming more a major business activity center, so commute on both ways on NDT is tough and going to get tougher. Legacy West job growth will come as new Chase and Liberty Mutual facilities complete around year end and 10k or so new employees arrive. Toyota is maybe half way to their 4 to 5k staffing at their campus in Legacy West by now. Yes NDT is being expanded but it is behind the curve from what I can tell. Frisco's Five Billion Dollar contruction along NDT just north of Legacy West will add jobs and traffic going north on NDT to jobs. I would located as close to work but in Plano Schools as you can. I believe Far North Dallas area zip 75225 is in collin country (plano schools) but south of Geo Bush Tollway so closer to your work location.

We like Dallas over Houston, largely due to the flooding that can happen anywhere but also due to the cooler fall, winter and spring weather. But Plano feels like a big city not a suburb to me. Ive done the big city thing living in suburbs of NYC. Plano has everything I need plus city like traffic. I like the convenience of restaurants etc but the pace is too fast for a retired, aging couple.

I will add in Dallas's favor, medical experiences here have matched Houston, which surprised us. My wife has a complicated medical condition which can stump many very good MD's. But we have found an Internal medicine Dr up to the challenge and had great experiences with Baylor Hospital both here in Plano and the main one near DT Dallas.

Also as a golfer I have found great daily fee courses to play near me. I play Watter Creek in Allen on Saturdays and the Tribute in the Colony here. In Houston, I played Champions, Lakewide and the Woodlands and Kingwood private courses. I prefer my options here. They are in great shape, very good tracts and enjoyable yet challenging to play.

Welcome to DFW. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have

[Aggielina]

Welcome to Dallas! I also have a 2018 kindergartner. I'm in Prestonwood. A Galleria work location would be heaven from my neighborhood! Check out 75248. It's mostly in the Richardson ISD but some is in DISD - avoid that. Brentfield & Prestonwood are excellent elementaries. I don't know about the lot size, but you can definitely find everything else you want.

There's also a neighborhood north of McCallum but to the east of Preston Rd that has very big lots. I believe the neighborhood is split between PISD (zoned to Plano West HS) and RISD. You have some great options, so that should make house hunting fun. Good luck with the move!

[bigbear63]

I personally live in 75248 now and my wife works at Spring Valley and DNT. The drive is slowly getting worse from there to/from Preston/Arapaho intersection. Maybe 20-25 min in the morning at 8-8.30 and a bit less at 9a. In the evening it's 25+ min just due to increased traffic which is noticeably worse. Myself, getting to Royal & 75 is taking 35 min at 8.30a Overall tho we love the area and given the pain to get across town I would not want to be far from 75248 for your work location. The homes in 75248 that feed Brentfield elementary (Richardson ISD "RISD") are "nice" but not "great" and there are some bad areas to stay away from IMHO. 75252 has Dallas homes, in Collin county, which feed *some* Plano ISD schools. There are some very nice neighborhoods there as well. As Aggielina above says, some homes in 75248 feed DISD , some feed RISD. Do your own research as opinions about schools on here vary like the winds...

[Waterdragon8212]

There is a section of 75287 that feeds into Plano ISD (East of Midway) and much of 75252 (not 75225 - that's a Park Cities zip) is also in PISD. That being said, we've had a number of friends lately that have been unhappy with the elementary feeders from that general area (Mitchell and Haggar) and have decided to go private.

Should you decide to look at private schools, admission season is just ramping up, so you could still apply (you apply approximately 1 year out...) Just FYI, at some schools, Kinder is an expansion point year (non-expansion years mean open slots are based on attrition only - which makes it super difficult to get twins into the same school), so this year could be your best bet if you are interested in those schools. If you want public schools, Plano or Richardson ISD will probably be your best bet with regard to commute.

[Waterdragon8212]

Originally Posted by bigbear63

I personally live in 75248 now and my wife works at Spring Valley and DNT. The drive is slowly getting worse from there to/from Preston/Arapaho intersection. Maybe 20-25 min in the morning at 8-8.30 and a bit less at 9a. In the evening it's 25+ min just due to increased traffic which is noticeably worse. Myself, getting to Royal & 75 is taking 35 min at 8.30a Overall tho we love the area and given the pain to get across town I would not want to be far from 75248 for your work location. The homes in 75248 that feed Brentfield elementary (Richardson ISD "RISD") are "nice" but not "great" and there are some bad areas to stay away from IMHO. 75252 has Dallas homes, in Collin county, which feed *some* Plano ISD schools. There are some very nice neighborhoods there as well. As Aggielina above says, some homes in 75248 feed DISD , some feed RISD. Do your own research as opinions about schools on here vary like the winds...

Wow! Are you serious?? That's like less than 4 miles from Preston/Arapaho to DNT and Spring Valley! Is it the lights, the congestion, or both? I would have thought the Prestonwood area would have meant a short commute for OP!

[bigbear63]

Originally Posted by Waterdragon8212

Wow! Are you serious?? That's like less than 4 miles from Preston/Arapaho to DNT and Spring Valley! Is it the lights, the congestion, or both? I would have thought the Prestonwood area would have meant a short commute for OP!

It's almost 5 miles point-to-point where we are to SV/DNT west-side... There are so many people looking for alternate routes now going N/S (depending on time) that they are congesting the roads like crazy. On the west side of DNT, Midway, Inwood/Addison and Westgrove are bumper-to-bumper going north to Trinity Mills. Preston, Montfort, Hillcrest the same. Take a look at Google maps at 5:30p on a typical work day and look at all the orange and red roads in the area.

It's seems to get better around only 7pm these days.

[Aggielina]

Originally Posted by bigbear63

It's almost 5 miles point-to-point where we are to SV/DNT west-side... There are so many people looking for alternate routes now going N/S (depending on time) that they are congesting the roads like crazy. On the west side of DNT, Midway, Inwood/Addison and Westgrove are bumper-to-bumper going north to Trinity Mills. Preston, Montfort, Hillcrest the same. Take a look at Google maps at 5:30p on a typical work day and look at all the orange and red roads in the area.

It's seems to get better around only 7pm these days.

On the rare occasion that I take the tollway home (coming from downtown), I always exit Spring Valley because anything north of that is asking for trouble. It takes me approximately 10 -15 minutes to get from the tollway to Preston/Belt Line. Normally, I take Preston from LBJ, and that is also about a 10-15 minute drive during rush hour. So yeah, it's bad for the short distance, but it's not maddening. It's not like I'm having to drive to west Plano.

[Shipresa]

Originally Posted by bigbear63

It's almost 5 miles point-to-point where we are to SV/DNT west-side... There are so many people looking for alternate routes now going N/S (depending on time) that they are congesting the roads like crazy. On the west side of DNT, Midway, Inwood/Addison and Westgrove are bumper-to-bumper going north to Trinity Mills. Preston, Montfort, Hillcrest the same. Take a look at Google maps at 5:30p on a typical work day and look at all the orange and red roads in the area.

It's seems to get better around only 7pm these days.

*This* is what we wanted to avoid. Hubby had 7 mile journey to Energy Corridor and at rush hour, it could take 40 minutes. He did work off hours to avoid - 6:30 left home for 15 minute ride, but if he left at 7, it would be 45 minutes. We know the location of this new office isn't ideal (corporate office is in Longview, darn it!) - so we are stumped. We don't want to simply trade "nice" but not great housing at $$ for the same thing just 4 hours north.

Granted, we are quite finished with Houston traffic and humidity, so to lose one problem would be nice...

Any thought to live out of town? And commute in?

I cringe at the people saying, "Oh I'm moving to Houston and see it is a straight shot down the 290 so I'll live 30 miles north and simply commute." (It would take them 1.5 hours to downtown...)

So now I see, oh, Denton is nice, can he commute in? Or farther north/east?