Best DFW suburb for 2nd-gen Pakistani-American family? (Dallas, Plano: homes, buy)
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We are at St. Mark's and South Asians are strongly represented - I feel like most of the parents I meet are 2nd+ generation. Most live in Preston Hollow and if you look at the sports teams on the website, you see South Asians on all the varsity teams.
Greenhill and Hockaday are similar. That said, I don't know how many are Indian vs. Pakistani.
Houses in PH are either over your budget and huge, or in your budget and done-up granny ranches. That's why we stayed in East Dallas...so much nicer for the money.
Good luck!
Quote:
Originally Posted by relocating2dfw
The National Merit stuff tends to take care of within most South Asian communities, irrespective of which schools we attend, so we tend to dismiss that outright as a consideration.
What percentage of the student body would you guess is Pakistan-American at any of these private schools?
If it's 5% or less, we would probably not value the school in the same way you do.
We would probably be more inclined to send our kids to a full-time Islamic school rather than one in which they are an extreme minority, not only in terms of ethnicity but also cultural values.
However, you bring up many excellent points for us to consider when deciding on a school.
We are at St. Mark's and South Asians are strongly represented - I feel like most of the parents I meet are 2nd+ generation. Most live in Preston Hollow and if you look at the sports teams on the website, you see South Asians on all the varsity teams.
Greenhill and Hockaday are similar. That said, I don't know how many are Indian vs. Pakistani.
Houses in PH are either over your budget and huge, or in your budget and done-up granny ranches. That's why we stayed in East Dallas...so much nicer for the money.
Good luck!
Thank you for the insight! Very much appreciated and we will certainly look further into St. Marks and the all girl equivalent (we have one son and two daughters).
We would not want to go over $1M on the home purchase, so definitely thank you for pointing that out.
You also bring up an interesting point regarding Indians vs Pakistanis, and yes, I would confirm that we perceive a huge difference between the two respective communities on the basis of religion.
For example, Pakistanis will neither drink alcohol nor want our children to marry outside of our faith, while Indians in my observation are generally fine with both.
However, both 2nd generation communities value academics, sports, and social considerations equally so there is a lot in common as well.
We really do love everyone and value diversity!
Just want to ensure that the 3rd generation continues to value our culture and religion as well.
Here is my 2 cents, rent in Frisco before buying a million dollar home. I rented for a year, bought a small house in a desirable neighborhood and then decided where to drop my million dollar. I am happy where I live. As long as your avoid Richwoods type neighborhood, you’ll be fine.
Depending on your job, you can also look into Prosper. Second and third generations are heavily involved in community work and running local cultural and faith based groups. I believe you’ll be fine. There are many new immigrants in Plano, Frisco and Prosper but perhaps equal amount of second generation Pakistanis and Arabs.
In the neighborhoods mentioned by others, you’ll find Indians aplenty but less of Pakistanis. Except for Richardson, most don’t have mosque in that particular suburb and you’ll have to drive to Richardson, Plano, FM, Irving etc.
My wife and I have a similar background and can provide you our perspective when we were deciding on a town to settle. We had mainly choices (based on good schools, close to airport and centrally located to all of DFW) between Flower Mound, Coppell or Southlake. We decided with FM in the Lakeside DFW community (very south side of FM).
For us, we ruled out Coppell because it just was not diverse enough for us (Indian majority - mainly 1st gen by quite a bit in all the new home communities we were looking at) and taxes are considerably higher than FM. Southlake was the other direction in not as diverse for us and prices were on the higher end when we were looking six years ago. Our community ended up great for us since it was centrally located, diverse enough, have several 2nd gen friends that live in the neighborhood or adjacent to it, taxes are some of the lowest in DFW and the schools are great and right across the street from us.
I will admit that food options are not great in the immediate area, but we are 10 mins away from Irving and Carrollton where there is plenty of options for desi food. We are also about 3 miles away from the new Flower Mound/Lewisville mosque (much larger, more parking and amenities) which they should have complete by 2021 Q2, current one is right next door. Our school we are zoned for Bluebonnet elementary seems to be well regarded by our friends that have kids at the school and in looking at the metrics, it seems great in their results. I would say most if not all FM schools will be similar.
I would advise just driving around your top towns you are considering and try and get a feel for the area. Specifically in FM, we absolutely love the Town Lake community by Toll Brothers. The price may be a little higher now than your price range, 1.1-1.2 all in but it certainly is worth a drive around. They are now in the second phase of their build out. Toll Brothers will also be building in a pocket community very close to us in 2021 (not on their website yet) which I believe will be more on the 700-800 range starting. David Weekly is building homes as well very close to us in their Magnolia Court community. This community is the best priced (starts at 590s) new home community in FM that sell 80FT wide homes (10K+ lot size).
If you are considering non new builds in FM, I would focus in on communities and houses (zip code 75022 and 75028) that are not too far away from 121 and as south as possible within FM since FM is quite large. The further north and west you go the lower the price point gets, but the more away you are from the rest of DFW.
Feel free to DM if you have any other questions. Goodluck on your search. Good suggestion by previous poster to consider renting before committing to such a big decision.
We are a late 30s (and this part is really important...) AMERICAN-BORN "Pakistani" couple with three young kids.
Accordingly, I would say we are 75% "American" and maybe 25% "Pakistani" in terms of what we are looking for.
We have up to $1M to spend on a home (but ok spending half of that too), don't have a fixed daily commute, and will be flying out of DFW airport two or three times a month.
Well-intentioned advice for "Pakistanis" does not seem to differentiate between families like ours and those who immigrated recently.
Most people have told us to check out Frisco and Plano, but the homes seem overpriced, are on extremely small lots, and are way too close to each other.
We are also concerned that the school districts are more "recent immigrant" in terms of overemphasis on academics and not enough on "American" things like athletics, socializing, etc.
I have read that Coppell is now over 50% Indian, which would probably not be the right fit for our family.
We are thinking Southlake, but the concern there is that we would be extremely isolated far away from Pakistani culture, restaurants, mosques, and activities, so we are a bit lost in terms of where to turn.
Any help would be much appreciated!
Extremely devoted 10+ year lurker turned first time poster..
It would really be difficult to identify an area based on your requirements. For example, Frisco is dominated by Indians but yet again many American-born Pakistanis live here and are active in their communities, we have found allot of them to be Canadian-born as well. We are in Prosper and things are shaping out as they did in Frisco. We have a decent social circle among the few communities here and often do potluck, game nights etc to maintain friendships.
Last edited by Capitalprophets; 12-24-2020 at 11:40 PM..
Checkout Montgomery Farms area in Allen. Few last opportunities available I think, builders are Darling homes etc. Tour the area along with other options you are checking. It is next to upscale Watters Creek Shopping area, Offices on Bethany Dr, close to US 75 and easy access to 121 also, and close to all other shopping near by - Village at Allen, Fairview, Allen Outlet Mall, Stacey Green etc. Easy access to Plano, Richardson. Happening places in Frisco and McKinney are also close by if you need to go.
Very good schools - Not sure about Elementary school assigned, but Ereckson Middle and Allen High/Lowery Freshman Center/Allen ISD STEAM center are very nice. You can tour the schools, teachers, rankings, scores, facilities/infrastructure, courses offered, demographics etc. and see if you like.
My wife and I have a similar background and can provide you our perspective when we were deciding on a town to settle. We had mainly choices (based on good schools, close to airport and centrally located to all of DFW) between Flower Mound, Coppell or Southlake. We decided with FM in the Lakeside DFW community (very south side of FM).
For us, we ruled out Coppell because it just was not diverse enough for us (Indian majority - mainly 1st gen by quite a bit in all the new home communities we were looking at) and taxes are considerably higher than FM. Southlake was the other direction in not as diverse for us and prices were on the higher end when we were looking six years ago. Our community ended up great for us since it was centrally located, diverse enough, have several 2nd gen friends that live in the neighborhood or adjacent to it, taxes are some of the lowest in DFW and the schools are great and right across the street from us.
I will admit that food options are not great in the immediate area, but we are 10 mins away from Irving and Carrollton where there is plenty of options for desi food. We are also about 3 miles away from the new Flower Mound/Lewisville mosque (much larger, more parking and amenities) which they should have complete by 2021 Q2, current one is right next door. Our school we are zoned for Bluebonnet elementary seems to be well regarded by our friends that have kids at the school and in looking at the metrics, it seems great in their results. I would say most if not all FM schools will be similar.
I would advise just driving around your top towns you are considering and try and get a feel for the area. Specifically in FM, we absolutely love the Town Lake community by Toll Brothers. The price may be a little higher now than your price range, 1.1-1.2 all in but it certainly is worth a drive around. They are now in the second phase of their build out. Toll Brothers will also be building in a pocket community very close to us in 2021 (not on their website yet) which I believe will be more on the 700-800 range starting. David Weekly is building homes as well very close to us in their Magnolia Court community. This community is the best priced (starts at 590s) new home community in FM that sell 80FT wide homes (10K+ lot size).
If you are considering non new builds in FM, I would focus in on communities and houses (zip code 75022 and 75028) that are not too far away from 121 and as south as possible within FM since FM is quite large. The further north and west you go the lower the price point gets, but the more away you are from the rest of DFW.
Feel free to DM if you have any other questions. Goodluck on your search. Good suggestion by previous poster to consider renting before committing to such a big decision.
This was extremely helpful.. Thanks!
What are your thoughts on Prosper, Plano, Frisco, Parker, Murphy, McKinney and other areas?
It would really be difficult to identify an area based on your requirements. For example, Frisco is dominated by Indians but yet again many American-born Pakistanis live here and are active in their communities, we have found allot of them to be Canadian-born as well. We are in Prosper and things are shaping out as they did in Frisco. We have a decent social circle among the few communities here and often do potluck, game nights etc to maintain friendships.
The issue with Frisco is that some of their schools are 94% "Asian" (and predominantly Indian)!
That doesn't seem natural in a nation that is 1% Indian.
Accordingly, although we love the area, we may have to pass.
Am I missing anything? Really appreciate your input.
Have you looked into some of the mosques and perhaps asked where people tend to live? I think a lot of people on this board may think SE Asian (such as Frisco) and not recognize the differences for the Pakistani culture.
You mentioned before wanting more than 5% Pakistani for the school mix, but in an upscale community. That's honestly going to be a bit tough. I definitely would stay away from Frisco and many of the far-north exurb communities. I think the recommendation for Flower Mound sounds pretty good. I actually think that some of the Canyon Creek homes in the Pearce neighborhood are very nice and that school has a great diversity and is close to great ethnic restaurants. (I know people in 1M+ homes there).
I'm always pro-East Dallas (Lakewood area) and your price point would work well. That said, I'm sure the schools are below 5% - although I know several Pakistani (3+generation) who live here. My next door neighbor for one (but they are also pretty assimilated drinkers as well).
Now that I think about it - Plano might work well for you guys. A closer-in, well situated suburb - good schools and diversity. Access to restaurants and mosques...But definitely not in one of the rural suburbs.
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