Keller to Carrollton (Dallas, Plano, Irving: for sale, apartments, new house)

[TexasNewbie]

I am so excited that my husband will have a job transfer to Carrollton from CA soon. But based on the previous discussions I have read, Carrollton school district is not very favorable. Tarrant County seems to have good rating schools. If we buy a house within the areas of Keller, North Richland Hills, Hurst, etc, what would the traffic be like for my hubby to go to work from Keller to Carrollton? This is important for us. We want to find a place that is in a good school district and takes less commute time to work. If the traffic is really bad going that direction, we would need to consider elsewhere. Once we move there, we can test drive and find out. But any insights or suggestions to help us plan ahead are greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[GoPadge]

I don't drive that side of town in the mornings, but just by looking at the map, there's no great or direct path between Keller and Carrollton. Even with out morning rush hour traffic you should expect the drive time to be 35 - 45 minutes.

Looking closer to your husband's work there are a number of choices for schools that are as good or better than than those in Keller, Birdville or Hurst-Euless-Bedford.

For comparison is the following chart and links.

Format School [Accountability Rating] [Percentage passing all TAKS for 9th] [10th] and [11th] grades and rating (out of 10) from www.greatschools.net.

Keller ISD
Keller AA 82 67 83 (9)
Central AA 67 50 66 (6)
Fossil Ridge AA 64 54 64 (7)

Birdville ISD
Birdville AA 61 60 72 (7)
Haltom AA 48 46 65 (6)
Richland AA 66 52 79 (7)

H-E-B ISD
Bell AA XX 67 76 (8)
Bedford JH Recognized 83 XX XX (9)
Hurst JH AA 72 XX XX (8)
Central JH AA 74 XX XX (7)
Trinity AA XX 62 77 (8)
Harwood Recognized 86 XX XX (9)
Euless AA 72 XX XX (9)
Central JH AA 74 XX XX (7)

Coppell ISD
Coppell HS Recognized 90 84 95 (10)

Plano ISD
Plano West HS AA XX XX 85 (9)
Shepton HS AA 88 84 XX (10)
Jasper HS Recognized 95 90 XX (10)

Richardson ISD
Pearce HS AA 89 84 88 (8)

Lewisville ISD
Hebron HS AA 82 73 90 (9)
Flower Mound HS Recognized 90 76 88 (10)

http://deleon.tea.state.tx.us/SDL/Forms/# (broken link) Click on Map for a zoomable maps of school districts in Texas.

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/reporting/taksagg/yr0506/bycampus.html (broken link) For TAKS results for 2006.

[TexasNewbie]

GoPadge, thanks for the input. What you provided is great! This list gives me a clear picture on what other options I have out there. I have been doing a lot of research lately. 35 - 45 minutes without morning rush hour from Keller to Carrollton does not sound practical. Coppell is now on my favorite list.

I did not find new house for sale in Coppell, but I find new houses are being built in Grand Estates at Northlake Hills in Irving. Any comment for Irving?

[TexasNewbie]

The community in Grand Estates at Northlake Hills in Irving is in Coppell school district. But somehow I am under the impression that Irving is not too popular. I could be wrong. Anybody think that this may be a good area, please let me know. Meanwhile, I am looking into other areas.

[TexasNewbie]

MomOf2DFW,

I saw your post about Valley Ranch in North Iving has lots of air plane noise. I assume the new Grand Estates community in Northlake Hills in Irving will be same. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.

[socketz]

I know Plano gets a bad rap here on this board, but seriously, the commute from West Plano to Carrolton is almost non-existent as the two border one another. If you stay east of Midway, you also map into the Plano schools with the best reputation. West of Midway you'll get some decent Lewisville schools (Arbor Creek, Homestead, Hebron), but they don't carry the same reputation.

The only downside is the homes here are along the Tollway and accessible to tons of ammenities (parks, shopping, accesibility to uptown dallas, airports, etc), so the the lowest prices ones will be in the mid to high 300s. On the flip side, if you stay away from busy streets and the railroad to the west, the homes sell fast.

It's definitely an area you could live fo many years and raise a family.

[momof2dfw]

I'd have to agree w/ socketz. For a commute to Carrollton I would stick w/ west Plano. Try to avoid the smaller homes right along the Dallas North Tollway in the Midway/Frankford/Rosemeade area as there are WAY TOO many apartments right there. Go to the other side, east of the DNT and look around there. Depending on where in Carrollton your husband will be working it could be a 10-40 minute commute. The longer being if he worked west of Stemmons I-35 and would have more school zones & red lights to deal with.

Or go up to the areas along Hebron Pkwy. Stay east of Josey though.

[dallasnative]

Hi, I live in the Carrollton/Plano area.

While Coppell is a great draw and the schools are superb, going from Carrollton to Coppell is going to be a bit of a hike, unless you don't mind that. Plano Schools rank well also, and there are more choices.

Make sure to always examine the SPECIFIC SCHOOL ratings and feedback from actual students of where your kids would actually go, not just look at overall ratings of a DISTRICT (although these overall ratings are nice to know).

To further narrow this down, I would plot the following on a map:

Keep North of George Bush (190), with some isolated exceptions (Any Bent Tree subdivision and a couple of others). I would start with around Midway as your border on the West Side and go as east up until about Coit. The closer you are to the Tollway (which goes North and South), the better for potential resale value, in general. Look at the PLANO WEST ISD map which I have attached below.

Park and Preston is a very attractive location that has non chain shops and draws a lot of traffic. There are some very reasonable locations NEAR there considering their exceptional location. The thing that i like about this area is not only the shopping, but if you go west on park, just a few blocks you quickly get to $500K and up homes. If you go just blocks EAST of Preston/Park (off Park), this is the area i am talking about. The homes are older, but they are not run down and the location makes them prime. 2,000 SF home for $170,000 for example. Use the attached map to plot the specific school and then do your research.

There are also some excellent neighborhoods south of there, which include Plano schools and even some others. Frankly, although I wish Richardson had the reputation it used to have school wise, they do have a top 10 rated school in ALL of DFW, called BRENTFIELD. People move to this school district because it is the closest thing to a private school...the school is affectionally called "BRATFIELD". This school district has some lovely homes , in great locations off of Campbell, which would be VERY convenient to Carrollton. It is east of the Tollway, but very close to the Tollway. Do your research on this too, including examining feeder schools. The homes are older there, but the area is very well manicured.

Again, the neighborhood and location is more important to me than a general rating of a school district. Use the general rating of a school district as a starting guide, then dig into the neighborhood.

[TexasNewbie]

Socketz and Momof2dfw,

As always I enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for the informative suggestion!

I did find some new houses are being built in Plano such as Hickory Ridge community by Drees (not sure if it is in West Plano) from http://www.newhomesource.com/. I am okay with its higher price range, but I am really worried about how fast I can sell it later. Maybe I should look into some of the old homes for sale as well. Thanks!

[TexasNewbie]

DallasNative,

Thanks for taking the time to write this long post. I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was so lost on looking for the perfect location. Without you and others' help, I will still be lost in a million years. My husband works at East of Carrollton. Now West Plano, Richarson, Lewisville and Frisco have my interests. Hopefully by continuing reading posts from this site and visiting these areas, I will be able to make a decision soon. Thanks!