We are also relocating to DFW from FL... (Dallas, Plano: sales, homeowners insurance)

[JamieFL]

and I have some questions for everyone! I just found this board and was reading all through it last night. You guys have some great info on here!

I havent read much on here about the Roanoke area, that is one main area we have put a lot of focus. We have two young kids in elementary school and I know that the neighborhood we are looking at has NW ISd and I had heard good things about NW and Keller. i will be working in Irving and it would be a straight shot from 114. My husband will be working in Dallas, however neither of us will be working during commute times.

My questions are about the utility bills in this area. I know the taxes are high, etc, but what about the Gas, Electric and water? We are going with a new build and plan on getting energy efficient on a 2 story 3200 sq ft home.

The homeowners insurance and rising costs in FL is pushing us out. My husband and I are both attempting transfers with our current employers.

What about the costs of homeowners insurance? Whats the ballpark norm on that there? Have you heard anything about Chadwick farms neighborhood? We were highly impressed with Davd Weekely and loved that neighborhood hen we came out to visit, but I am open to suggestions. We are coming out again mid-Jan to check things out, hoping to move this summer.

Thanks to any info you provide!!

Jamie

[cdelena]

Texas is #1 in the cost of homeowners insurance, higher than Louisiana and Florida in the latest survey.

Texas has higher electricity rates than 37 other states.

Texas has high property and sales taxes, but no income tax.

Texas has affordable housing but not that much better than Florida on average.

Look carefully and visit before you jump!

[UNT_Eagle]

Hello, yes, definately do your homework before relocating to the DFW area..
I was born and raised in Carrollton and went to college in Denton for four years and really love Texas but after living in another state, the DFW area can be very intimidating and too overcrowded for some. I don't know much about the Roanoke area but Denton, Aubrey, and Argyle might be something you could check out. These are more north than Roanoke but not by much.

Hope this helps..

[GoPadge]

Originally Posted by JamieFL

what about the Gas, Electric and water? We are going with a new build and plan on getting energy efficient on a 2 story 3200 sq ft home.

Gas

According to Atmos' website1 the current rate for gas is a base charge of $10.10 plus $1.2390 / Mcf (1000 cubic feet) for the first 3 Mcf and then $0.9890 / Mcf for any additional Mcf. Plus a Gas Cost Recovery fee, Franchise Fee, Tax Adjustment, and Surcharges.

In my experience it's the "pluses" that kill you. But having said that, my worst gas bill was in January of 2005. I had a 2880 sq ft, 105 year-old home with 10' ceilings, no insulation in the walls, and the original glass in all of the 44 windows. We used gas for the water heater, furnace, Dearborne heaters and the stove. That month our gas bill was $250.

Electric

TXU's "Price to Beat" is $0.15 / kWh.2 The best rates "available" are $0.119 / kWh from StarTex Power, butthe rates changing every month.

I'm currently using TXU's SureValue plan3, conspiculously absent from the Power to Choose website. My rates are locked for 60 months at $0.135 / kWh, but that drops to $0.132 at 1500 kWhs and $0.13 at 2000 kWhs. Depending on where you live, a co-op could offer better rates.

For example, CoServ has a base rate of $10 per meter plus $0.07854 / kWh. Between November and April rates drop to $0.067810 / kWh past 700 kWhs.4 There is a Power Cost Recovery Factor with CoServ, from what I can tell it's running about $0.04 / kWh. The best way I've found to see if you're within their service area is to view their map for their Board of Directors, found at http://www.coservelectric.com/about_coserv/serve_board_directors.cfm (broken link)

Water

Water is a touchy subject in North Texas. Mostly because we have more people than the region can support right now, due to an ongoing drout. And the builders are still building....

Rates vary from city to city. Outside the City of Dallas water on the north side is controlled by the North Texas Municipal Water District. NTMWD has member cities and customer cities. Rates are similar, but can very greatly. For example Frisco and Plano are member cities. Rates per 1000 are as follows.

Frisco 5

Water:
$9.77 (meter) upto 2000
$2.28 2,001 - 15,000
$2.98 15,001 and up

Sewer:
$9.70 (meter) upto 2000
$2.22 2,001 and up
$38.59 max for sewer

Plano 7

Water:
Meter $12.79
First 1,000 included
$0.25 1,001-5,000
$1.50 over 5,000
$3.00 over 20,000

Sewer:
Meter $9.20
First 1,000 included
$3.22 over 1,000


Murphy and Rowlett are customer cities. Rates are as follows.

Murphy 9

Water:
3/4" meter $8.50
1" meter $21.25
$1.95 per 1,000

Sewer:
Flat Rate: $32.98

Rowlett 10

Water:
<1" $10.00/month
$3.16 upto 25,000
$3.66 above 25,000

"Temporary rate" effective 7/4/06 11

$3.16 upto 15,000
$6.32 15,001 to 20,000
$9.48 20,001 to 25,000
$12.64 25,001 and above

Sewer:
Base $16.17
all Consumption $3.42
Max $34.20

What about the costs of homeowners insurance? Whats the ballpark norm on that there?

All of that depends on the type of coverage and where you live. Check out http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/rghome.html (broken link) for detailed information. Make sure you understand the types of coverage and the different homeowner profiles before you view the estimates. If you follow the links to view the estimates, select a region (North Texas for DFW), and a city you eventually get to a spreadsheet view of licensed companies with estimated annual rates. For a brick home you can ballpark this to around 0.8% - 1% of the appraised value.

($100,000 home X (0.008 to 0.01) = $800 to $1000 annual premium)

References:

1http://www.atmosenergy.com/download/tariffs/mtx_mtx_tariff_Atmos_Mid-Tex_Tariff_Manual.pdf (broken link)

2http://www.powertochoose.org/electricchoice/compareresults.asp?zip=75023 (broken link)

3http://www.txu.com/NR/rdonlyres/9990AFA6-379C-4433-A8CE-CEDD9F55A093/0/TXUE_NTX_SureValueconspicuously_R6.pdf (broken link)

[droughtI]4[/i]http://www.coservelectric.com/billingpayment/ratestruct.cfm (broken link)

5http://www.ci.frisco.tx.us/departments/utility_billing/index.aspx?id=494 (broken link)

6http://ub.mckinneytexas.org/waterSewer.asp (broken link)

7http://www.plano.gov/Departments/CUS/General_Information/water_sewer_rates.htm (broken link)

8http://littleelmtx.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={874838B8-CC49-4B51-B3D5-F9AFB4A5B018}

9http://www.murphytx.org/services/fees.asp (broken link)

10http://www.ci.rowlett.tx.us/Rowlett/Departments/Water+Billing/watersewersvc_landing.htm (broken link)

11http://www.ci.rowlett.tx.us/NR/rdonlyres/79BB9494-892F-44E8-BD96-A7916D0C1569/0/TemporaryRateSchedule.pdf (broken link)

[Nomad123]

I just wrote on another subject "utilities in Plano" about what I just paid for July-Sept of this year for utilities in a 2400 sqft single story home if you want to go there to read.

[Ankhharu]

LC81 currently lives in the Roanoak area, hopefully he'll see this post and can provide some more info. As far as relocating to DFW, can you elaborate on some of the reasons you chose this area?

[JamieFL]

Wow, thanks everyone for your responses on this. We are choosing this area because both my husband and I can transfer there with our current employers to this area. We have been wanting a change (very tired of FL) and really loved Texas when we visited. With the hurricanes that Florida gets, homeowners insurance is very hard to get, especially at a decent rate.

CDelena, the information you posted about home prices and homeowners ins, I would love to see where you got that about the rates being higher in TX, because that seriously surprises me. Many homeowners poilicies in Florida are costing around 5k or more per year. We are not in "Hurricane Central" where I live, but our policy has doubled since last year alone, and we all have been warned that it will be increasing yearly. Insurance companies are going bankrupt because of these hurricanes, those companies that are still in business and offering insurance here have to recover those costs they are paying out in claims. As for the homes here in FL, you cannot get anything decent in my area for under 300k. If you are paying 300k, it is also about 1800-2000 sq ft. I know there are expensive houses in TX, just as there are anywhere, but houses in FL in the under 200k category just dont exist anymore, unless you want to live in a very bad part of town. Which I dont!

If you want houses in the 3k sq ft range, you have to expect to pay a minimum of 400k. When I was in TX just in September, I visited many areas and saw many nice and very large brick homes in Keller (and almost everywhere we looked) for under 200k. You cant get that here. One thing I can say for sure is that Floridas property taxes are cheaper and so are our utility costs. Florida also has no state tax like Tx. Thats why I wanted to find out how everything compares before we make the move. We have been researching this for almost 9 months-1 year already, so we are not making the move head-on with no thought put into this.

GoPadge, thanks so much for all the time you put in to that reasearch and information you supplied. I will be visiting each one of those sites.
Your awesome!

Keller and Roanoke were two areas we were looking at, and there were so many posts about Keller, but nothing about Roanoke so I thought I'd ask.

[cdelena]

Many major insurance companies are not writing new policies in coastal areas across the south and in some cases are refusing renewals... Texas is included. This is a quote from a financial publication: "The four most expensive states in which to insure a home, according to NAIC, are Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Florida." Texas is rated highest in the country with Average Annual Premium: $1,328. You may have seen much higher but that is what the stats say about the statewide averages.

As for home costs, both states are large and offer a wide range of homes. You can make your own comparisons but in general I found homes fell into the same affordable category. But the ongoing costs of taxes, insurance, and utilities will make living in Texas somewhat more expensive.

[jcl_cls01]

According to my water bill for McKinney, the rates are as follows:

Water:
$9.50 (meter) up to 1000
$2.50 1,001 - 10,000
$3.13 10,001 - 15,000
$4.06 15,001+

Sewer:
$8.78 (meter) up to 1000
$2.82 1,001 - 12,000
$??? 12,001 + (I never went over 12k in sewer, so I don't know the rate)

Are other fellow McKinney neighbors seeing the same figures as me?

[GoPadge]

Originally Posted by jcl_cls01

According to my water bill for McKinney, the rates are as follows:

Water:
$9.50 (meter) up to 1000
$2.50 1,001 - 10,000
$3.13 10,001 - 15,000
$4.06 15,001+

Sewer:
$8.78 (meter) up to 1000
$2.82 1,001 - 12,000
$??? 12,001 + (I never went over 12k in sewer, so I don't know the rate)

Are other fellow McKinney neighbors seeing the same figures as me?

I'm not in McKinney, but according to the City's webpage for info on water rates.

The rates are:

$2.50 1,000 to 15,000
$3.25 Over 15,000

So if they've change the rates, (as it appears they have,) they haven't updated their website.

http://ub.mckinneytexas.org/waterSewer.asp (broken link)