from los angeles to ennis,tx (Dallas, Richardson: sales, real estate, apartments)

[maimazda]

Can any one help out on what it like in Ennis,tx. My cocern is school for my young daughter. how pre-school to 8 grader. How school rate in the erea. Will probably commuting to Dallas for work. My other cocern is also the weather. specailly in winter time. Are there going to be snow or icy condition?biger concern is tornado. Are there alots of it in this and surounding city?and my final cocern is race hate crime. Is this city have a good mix of ethnic back ground live here. And are they getting along fine. To sum up, weather I guess I can learn to live with(not sure for tornado), but how people getting along are important especailly, I have a child going to go school pretty soon. if any one live there or close to there(Ennis,texas) ca fill me in would be awsome. Thank in advance.

[GoPadge]

From what I've seen personally there do not appear to be any issues with race relations. I also do not recall any news stories highlighting issues.

The elementary schools are well rated, both via their TAKS scores and on www.greatschools.net. Middle and High School didn't fair nearly as well.

Wintertime weather will usually include one storm that produces snow/sleet/ice. The great thing about Texas is that by tomorrow the weather will have changed. (Well at least until August, when it's just hot!) This year we had three storms that I recall. One with freezing rain in the Northern cities around Thanksgiving. One very cold spell ran from Saturday Jan 13th through Thursday Jan 18th saw several days of freezing temps with drizzle and light rain. On Wednesday Jan 17th much of the Metroplex saw snow. Finally we had snow flurries, (at least in the northern cities) on February 14-15, but they didn't amount to more than a pretty view.

Tornados are a concern, but they are not the norm. I believe the last Tornado to hit the City of Dallas was in 1957. Between 1950 and 1995 there have been 244 days with tornados in the Metroplex. But that's almost 9,000 square miles and is bigger than the state of New Jersey, (which has had only 88 days with tornados in the same timeframe.) April and May are the worst months for tornados, with 105 tornados over the timeframe. (Ellis county's only had 27 days.)

(The data I found was broken down by county and didn't track individual storms across county lines, so I collapsed the data down to individual days with at least one tornado.)

[ladyjay73]

I too will be relocating to the Dallas area in July. I am strongly leading towards the Ennis area since my family is already there. Much of the information that I have found out has been through this website, & different sources on the internet. I have 3 children that are school age, & from everything that I've read about, the lower grades are good. (k-5). But the middle & high schools are not as good, but still ok. The weather there is nice as well. I talked to my father & it was about 77 yesterday. That's perfect weather. My parents are African American & they seem to be adjusting just fine so far. No major concerns. Their neighboors are great, & very friendly.

When are you planning on relocating?

[maimazda]

Thank for the info GoPadge & Ladyjay73,Well I see couple property well with my reach. With the way real estate in CA are tooo expensive. A 1930 home in the erea I live in would cost over $500K easilly and you dont have much of land to go with it. From the way I calculate payment. It look like you can get into a nice property with decent size land for about or may be cheaper than to rent a house in Calf. How real estate in Tx? have they steadly going up.

[LastDallasNative]

Californians who move to DFW to save money complain that California is better. Saving money is not everything if being Californian is important to you. The beaches! The mountains! All that is not here in DFW.

Saving money is not everything.

[maimazda]

Hi! LastDallasNative
Well, I just asking question about people getting along in general in Texas. Schoolling for my kid. Over all, a safe place to settle in. I guess it important to every one who move into a new city. Thank to website like this, where we can ask question, learn about the people who live there all thier live, who can help out with concern question. For me I seldom go to the beach, very rare if you catch me up on the mountain. I work long hrs, entertaiment is not part of my list. By the way, what are Calif people complaining about? But you are right, saving money is not everything.

[GoPadge]

Moving from California to Dallas, is in many ways, like moving to another country. As long as you approach it with that mindset, you should be fine. But for some odd reason, some Californians move here and then are shocked and dismayed to find that Malibu, the Angeles National Forest, Rodeo Drive and In-N-Out didn't move with them.

[AZ_singlemother]

Originally Posted by maimazda

Thank for the info GoPadge & Ladyjay73,Well I see couple property well with my reach. With the way real estate in CA are tooo expensive. A 1930 home in the erea I live in would cost over $500K easilly and you dont have much of land to go with it. From the way I calculate payment. It look like you can get into a nice property with decent size land for about or may be cheaper than to rent a house in Calf. How real estate in Tx? have they steadly going up.

--------------

That's the typical Californian who moves to Phoenix for "cheaper housing"; however, they ran up the housing prices in AZ so much I have to move to Dallas soon to "survive." Can't afford a 2-bedroom apt for 1100/month at the cheapest for much longer.

Same Californians move her then complain about the heat and nothing to do, ie. no beaches and hot night life like it is in Cali.

[Debsi]

I moved from San Diego to Dallas 3 years ago.

I do miss lots of things about California (such as In 'N Out & Mexican food Gopadge), but I don't think most Californians have close to the amount of pride in their state as Texans do and that's why it's so resented when you say "I miss..." It is taken as a personal insult to the beloved state. I think it's perfectly normal to pine a bit for the place you were born and grew up.

Let me say, however, I am very happy to have moved! I recently bought the first home of my entire life in Richardson, and I am thrilled that my 'American Dream' has come true and that Texas allowed me to achieve it.

Don't blame Californians, AZ. They were doing the exact same thing you are - "moving to survive."

[AZ_singlemother]

I don't blame the Californians moving to survive, I blame the ones who invested in property here and raised the rents and flipped properties to make money. Certainly other investors from other states participated in the Phoenix housing destruction; however, the majority are Californian speculators. I blame the system for allowing this to happen and am irritated with these people who personally came into here saying their from California. Have to move 3 times in 3 years because the californian companies purchased our apartments to convert to condos and saying that our rents should be at least 1200 per month - a bargain for Cali but the salaries cannot pay to live off.

3 years having to move in 110 degree weather and rents continue to increase 100/month is enough to drive me to survive.

Californians jacked up the market so bad in California that the native Californians have to move to survive. And now it is spreading throughout the west.

I hope they do not spread to TX as myself and several other AZ natives are moving to different sections of TX to survive and to stop working 2-3 jobs in order to afford the Cali rents.

And yes, the companies who did purchase the vast majority of apts were cali companies and the sales people whom I dealt with were personally from there.

AZ is not the same as it was before, western environment turned into wannabe los angeles.