Moving from small Panhandle town for job at Dallas VA - looking for perfect home/neighborhood on a budget! HELP! (McKinney: fit in)

[LuvsTexas]

I've decided this whole business of trying to find a home in a town you know nothing about is extremely frustrating!

My husband is transfering to the Dallas VA Hospital, which is located at 4500 South Lancaster Road in south Dallas. These are the things we are looking for in a neighborhood:

Big Backyard
Lots of Trees
Not close to any major highways or old duplexes, apartments
Fairly new homes (built later than the 80's)
Short commute to the Dallas VA
Prices less than $175,000
Not too much culture shock (like I said, we're coming from a very small Texas Panhandle town that is anything but diverse in it's culture - we're just not used to the diversity in the Dallas area)

I know this is a lot to ask for and is probably impossible, but I was hoping for some direction on where to start looking. I have read all the posts about how bad South Dallas is getting, but without ever having seen the different areas of Dallas I don't know which ones fit into our wants/needs. Thank you in advance!

[FarNorthDallas]

Look at Forney, Crandall, Red Oak.

[Grainraiser]

Sounds like you want a fairly rural setting. You will not find that in the city of Dallas proper and there are not many nearby burbs that fit the bill. I was suggest places like Waxachie, Palmer, Red Oak etc. The VA is in a pretty bad part of town (I grew up in the area) so look at some of the small communities in the southern sector of Dallas.

[Acntx]

You may want to look in Glenn Heights as well.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by LuvsTexas

Big Backyard
Lots of Trees
Not close to any major highways or old duplexes, apartments
Fairly new homes (built later than the 80's)
Short commute to the Dallas VA
Prices less than $175,000
Not too much culture shock (like I said, we're coming from a very small Texas Panhandle town that is anything but diverse in it's culture - we're just not used to the diversity in the Dallas area

If you don't mind my asking, what small town are you coming from? I'm pretty familiar w/ most of them and my own mother moved from a teeny map dot of a town up there to Dallas when she was a kid. She was in culture shock THEN and that was back in the 1950's.

1. If you go w/ the "popular" suburbs of Frisco, McKinney, Allen, etc your not going to find the BIG backyard to give you the space your probably wanting. Are you wanting closer to an acre or two? Or just the BIG subdivision lots?
2. NOt going to be possible unless you move into an older existing neighborhood or stay to the northeast portion of Dallas County or go far east of Dallas.
3. Can keep you away from the old apartments and duplexes. But, how far away do you want to be from a highway? Around here you are going to be w/in a few miles of ANY highway. Being your probably going to be located out a bit your going to want to be near some highway. There are also areas w/in Dallas that fit all of your other points but are close to several highways (although you wouldn't know it as they are kind of secluded).
4. No problem here unless you really like the closer in neighborhoods of Dallas that would give you your other likes.
5. Your going to have to give up something to get this one. It might be the BIG backyard and for sure the close to highways and possibly apartments.
6. Okay, not much of a problem depending on what area and how long of a commute you want.

Then there are PLENTY of places to avoid.

[southern living]

its going to be really hard to avoid "diversity" in whatever neighborhood you move into as the area in general is very diverse.

waxahachie, red oak, crandall e.t.c might not be "diverse" now but what if somebody from another culture moves next door to you? are you going to move?these areas will become increasingly diverse in the coming years.

the only truly monolithic community is Highland park and its environs though youll need alot more than 175k to move there