Question about a specific area of Dallas County...

[ChristieP]

For your budget, rent. Condos in DFW are notoriously poor investments.

Definitely check out the school districts reputations before you sign!

[WorldKlas]

Depends on where it is.....

I paid $100K for a condo in The Village in the Glen in Euless, TX in 2014. Exact same floorplan but not an end unit like mine just sold for $179K. I don’t consider that a bad investment. I always get lots of interest when it comes up for rent and its never been vacant. They look like townhouses but they are, indeed condos.


In 2012 I bought a condo in Beverly Oaks (Irving) for $63K. I needed to rehab it and that cost another $10K. So my investment was $73. Those are selling for $180-190K now. They also are “townhouse” style but also are condos. I sold my unit in 2015 for $125K. I thought it was a pretty good investment.

[ChristieP]

Good for you! There are lots of other posters here who have said many times that condos are not good investments....

[Soccernerd]

The area around LBJ, 75, and a little bit to the east, is generally low-income/working-class. It’s a diverse area, and as others have said, it’s not really dangerous in terms of violent crime. The housing is mostly old apartments and ranch houses. Those don’t command a high price.

I feel like a lot of C-D people who are young professionals are looking for cheap housing, and this area tends to have the lowest prices while still having good access to Downtown and other job centers along 75. What happens is that they get to know the area and end up in places like Addison.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

The area around LBJ, 75, and a little bit to the east, is generally low-income/working-class. It’s a diverse area, and as others have said, it’s not really dangerous in terms of violent crime. The housing is mostly old apartments and ranch houses. Those don’t command a high price.

I feel like a lot of C-D people who are young professionals are looking for cheap housing, and this area tends to have the lowest prices while still having good access to Downtown and other job centers along 75. What happens is that they get to know the area and end up in places like Addison.

I honestly cannot figure out why people on this thread keep saying that it’s “not really dangerous in terms of violent crime” when the Forest/Audelia neighborhood is consistently one of the top 5 highest crime neighborhoods in the entire city of Dallas. It’s one of the few neighborhoods in the city with a VIOLENT CRIME TASK FORCE assigned to it.

This is just a quick google of neighborhood headlines from the past 3 years.

https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...orest-audelia/
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...llmanlbj-dart/
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...illance-video/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dfw.cbs...ry-dallas/amp/
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crim...theast-dallas/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc...3.html%3famp=y
Man Accused of Brutal Rape at Lake Highlands Apartment | News Talk WBAP-AM
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/c...ve-us-from-it/


And the neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of 75/LBJ (Coit up to Spring Valley) is another crime cesspool. There is a crap ton of drug traffic (unfortunately we know the gory details all too well bc of a relative) in the motels, run-down apartments, and strip centers in that neighborhood. And with drugs, come robberies, rapes, prostitution, human trafficking, and murders.

You really have to get more North closer to Berkner HS or over in Garland to find what you’re describing as generally safe, working class, low price point neighborhoods. Not the immediate 75/635 areas.

[El Chingaso]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

I honestly cannot figure out why people on this thread keep saying that it’s “not really dangerous in terms of violent crime” when the Forest/Audelia neighborhood is consistently one of the top 5 highest crime neighborhoods in the entire city of Dallas. It’s one of the few neighborhoods in the city with a VIOLENT CRIME TASK FORCE assigned to it.

This is just a quick google of neighborhood headlines from the past 3 years.

https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...orest-audelia/
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...llmanlbj-dart/
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.co...illance-video/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/dfw.cbs...ry-dallas/amp/
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crim...theast-dallas/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc...3.html%3famp=y
Man Accused of Brutal Rape at Lake Highlands Apartment | News Talk WBAP-AM
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/c...ve-us-from-it/


And the neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of 75/LBJ (Coit up to Spring Valley) is another crime cesspool. There is a crap ton of drug traffic (unfortunately we know the gory details all too well bc of a relative) in the motels, run-down apartments, and strip centers in that neighborhood. And with drugs, come robberies, rapes, prostitution, human trafficking, and murders.

You really have to get more North closer to Berkner HS or over in Garland to find what you’re describing as generally safe, working class, low price point neighborhoods. Not the immediate 75/635 areas.

Because relative to many major cities, that area wouldn't even draw a second glance.

You ever lived to the southside of Chicago?
The favelas in Rio?
A real "hood" neighborhood anywhere?

People that don't have this scope seriously don't understand

[El Chingaso]

Originally Posted by aab7855

The beauty of my situation is that I´m a teacher, so I´m not shackled to a long commute downtown. In fact, I definitely would NOT live far from where I worked. I guess my maximum budget would be $130K, which I know is pretty low, but we´re cool with a 2BR condo. I´ve even seen a few houses at that price in Arlington, Grand Prairie, Garland and Mesquite. I was trying to live somewhere with a DART station at least somewhere within the municipality, and maybe I´ll offend someone, but the decision for certain cities to opt out of even being included in that is so short sighted! I speak more on behalf of my wife, who doesn´t know how to drive yet and obviously she´ll have to learn when we move to the States, but DFW will be a tough place to learn. I found drivers were very orderly out there on the roads, but the fast speed, ramps and sheer number of exits on the expressways would be tough for her to learn on...guess she´ll take the scenic routes for a while! I made it over to Garland on that same trip, and the city seemed fine...not flashy by any means, but good enough.

As a teacher, let me just say: Texas isn´t stuck on stupid. When I went overseas to teach, my Louisiana license expired and the state Dept of Education basically threw me under the bus. They wouldn´t let me renew it until I came back to work in Louisiana...what did Texas do for me? Well they gave me a brand new license with all my old areas of certification on it, and now I can even study their TExES exams to put new areas on my license. Talk about forward-thinking, no wonder Texas gets the teachers it needs and other states do without. I´ll teach anywhere (even the infamous Dallas ISD) but I just need decent schools for my daughter...it doesn´t have to be an A-rated school district like most ISDs in Collin County, just a decent and safe place. It´s too soon for me to nail down where I´ll be working, but I´ll certainly put in applications all over the map.

Don't get stuck on ISD rankings as the end all be all. Look at individual schools.

Also, expand that budget, the HOA's on your $130K condo would make the payment almost the same as a $180K SFH.

[WorldKlas]

OP, I think you should find a place to rent before you buy. You may find you can afford more, or not. Our property taxes are quite high! Insurance is also pretty high, although significantly lower for a condo. Some condos have very low HOA fees and some do not. Some condos have such low HOA fees that their reserves don’t cover major expenses and then owners get burdened with special assessments. There are many things to know about buying a condo, especially what rules there are to prevent transient rentals (Airbnb -type environment). So just plan on renting for a while.

I believe some of the best value areas are in Tarrant County:

* zip code 76039 in the Grapevine-Colleyville school district. Much of that zip is also served by the HEB ISD, and that’s also ok.

* zip 76016

* zip 76017 in the Arlington ISD (Martin High School attendance zone)

* zip 76063 for homes that draw into the original Mansfield High School Attendance

Also, in Ellis County is Midlothian......a very hot real estate market right now but still catching up because for a long time it had (now fixed) air quality issues. With some exceptions, it has good schools.