Moving from the DC Area to DFW (Dallas, Plano: apartments, rentals)

[DC2DFW]

Hello and happy new year to all! Just discovered this website and think this is just GREAT!!!!! I am sure I'll get some good advice . . .

African-American family here; currently working and living in the Washington, DC area (Northern Virginia suburbs). Wife and I are moving to the DFW area (job change) with our 2 boys (3rd & 5th grade), as I have accepted a job offer doing IT work. I will work in northwest Dallas area, not far from Love Field. Wife is currently a stay-at-home Mom, but has plans to return to work 6 mos or so after we've gotten settled (she has a background in the healthcare/medical records field). Thought I would post here to see if I can get some helpful info.

1. Our 3rd grader has autism, but is very high functioning. Can anyone speak on which public school districts are pretty good with autism resources?

2. Looking to rent a home first. Don't want a long commute to/from the Love Field area, but I understand that part of town is OK to work in, but not-so-great to LIVE in. Any suggestions for low crime neighborhoods/areas with school districts that have good reputations and within a 30 min drive or less commute to/from Love Field area? I live in the DC area (the worst traffic in the country!!!), and although I know most major cities have traffic, I want to balance a short distance work/home commute with my kids attending schools with good reputations. Looking to spend $1300 or less, if this is at all possible.

3. Anyone relocated from the DC area to DFW? What was easy for you to adjust? What was hard to adjust? How does traffic compare, esp. in the Love Field or Texas Stadium area in the AM/PM? I absolutely, positively doubt we'll EVER miss the DC area, but just sorta curious to see what other ex-DC area folks have to say about the change moving from the DC area to DFW. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed a lot about the DC area, but I will not miss the ridiculous traffic here, the high cost of living here, the "rush" here (everyone here seems to be in a rush ---- to go where???? is often my question), and the fact that they don't seem to want to expand the roads here to accommodate the masses of people who move here every year. I've been here 15 years, and the traffic has gotten worse and worse; although the population has increased, the planning/expansion of roads and/or mass transit seems non-existent. They finally finished one of the major highway bridges here (Woodrow Wilson Bridge), but the planners bickered about building it for so long, I thought it would never happen. All they seem to do here is "conduct transportation feasibility studies" but not much action is ever taken. Why the DC area continues to conduct "transportation feasibility studies", when you can clearly see there are traffic backups in BOTH directions every AM/PM rush (and sometimes on Sundays, too!!!!) that stretch for miles???? Apparently, there is a traffic problem, why must you do a study to see if there is a demand? I am sure the DFW are has its traffic problems, but why do I suspect you guys are "on the case" trying to address your road infrastructure/transporation issues, while the DC area just continues with "feasibility studies."

4. Outside of downtown Dallas, what are the major business districts? As my wife has a healthcare/medical records background, what are the major medical/hospital employers in the DFW region?

5. Can anyone name some of the realty/realtor companies that rent homes? Again, looking to rent a home first. For example, in the DC area, Long & Foster Realtor is one of the largest realtor companies here, but they also manage rentals also. I can go to the L&F website and search for properties they manage/rent. I was hoping to find something like that in the DFW area.

Sorry for the long rant at the end of #3 above . . . . Anyway, any advice/info would be most appreciated . . . I look fwd to reading any/all responses, esp. folks who have relocated to the DFW area from the DC area.

Many thanks . . .

[FalconheadWest]

My brother moved from Dallas to DC about 3 years ago. He says DC traffic is SO much worse than Dallas traffic!

There are healthcare facilities all over, almost every corner. Tons of hospitals in actual Dallas including Parkland, Methodist, and the Children's hospital. Presby is right off Greenville and Park, northern from the downtown area.

Richardson schools are great for autism and any learning disabilities. It's probably the closest district to where you're talking about. Richardson also has many retirement and "old folks homes" as Richardson is a very "homestead" area with many original homeowners, so there would be plenty of healthcare for your wife to do. Plus, Richardson Regional Medical Center just opened a brand new "cancer hub" in NE Richardson with a full ER and many medical condos within 1/4 mile of George Bush and Renner Rd.

As for Realtors, there are many of us around, and we're not "allowed" to solicit.

Hope that helps with some of your questions.

[FarNorthDallas]

I would have to strongly disagree that Richardson is a school district for autistic and learning disabled kids. I would look at Plano schools instead.

Be aware that we have independent school districts in Texas meaning they are not tied to any city or county, although may carry the name of a city. So you can live in the city of Dallas, but be in the Richardson or Plano school districts. Verify with the districts when you have some potential housing options to make sure of the schools. Sometimes the realtors don't have it right.

[DC2DFW]

Thanks, Falconhead West.

Hope your brother acclimates to the DC area soon. I hate to belabor the points I already made, but the traffic here in the DC area IS absolutely AWFUL. I am prior military, so I've had the chance to live in a variety of different places, and the DC area, in my view, is the worse with the traffic problems! If they (the powers-that-be) don't get it together here and real fast, I can see attracting people to move here will become a big problem for employers/businesses (not to mention the high housing costs; but that's another story). I see it as a "quality of life" issue. I don't see the traffic getting any better here either (the traffic), b/c there does not seem to be a plan ACTIVELY being laid down to address the congestion. Just studies. Studies. Studies. And MORE studies.

Again, sorry for the DC area/traffic rant . . . Hope your brother will be able to deal with the traffic. Most other things here are really nice, though (lots of things to do/see, etc) . . .

You mentioned the Richardson schools for autism. I mapped Richardson using mapquest/google maps to my job location (near Love Field), and it comes back with about a 20 min drive. Is Richardson only 20 mins from the Love Field area during AM/PM traffic or is that just during non-rush hour times?

Also, are there any parts of Richardson that have a better reputation (schools, crime) than others. For example, does the north side have less crime, than say, the west side or south side or viceversa? Is there a general rule/boundary, like, "stay north of Main Street and you'll be fine" OR "avoid anything east of Elm Street." Hope that makes sense. I realize crime can happen anywhere, but I am just trying to get a general idea/feel for Richardson . . .

[I am also hearing good things about Plano schools/neighborhoods, too, but that seems a little far (traffic-wise) to Love Field. Are my suspicions right?]

Thanks again . . . any info is most appreciated . . .

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

My brother moved from Dallas to DC about 3 years ago. He says DC traffic is SO much worse than Dallas traffic!

There are healthcare facilities all over, almost every corner. Tons of hospitals in actual Dallas including Parkland, Methodist, and the Children's hospital. Presby is right off Greenville and Park, northern from the downtown area.

Richardson schools are great for autism and any learning disabilities. It's probably the closest district to where you're talking about. Richardson also has many retirement and "old folks homes" as Richardson is a very "homestead" area with many original homeowners, so there would be plenty of healthcare for your wife to do. Plus, Richardson Regional Medical Center just opened a brand new "cancer hub" in NE Richardson with a full ER and many medical condos within 1/4 mile of George Bush and Renner Rd.

As for Realtors, there are many of us around, and we're not "allowed" to solicit.

Hope that helps with some of your questions.

[DC2DFW]

FarNorth, thanks for clarifying the "independent" schools thing.

[zatires]

If your wife is in healthcare and you will work around Love Field, she can find a job in Southwest Medical Center area. It is not far from Love Field, maybe 4 miles or so. And Southwest Medical Center is one of the largest employers in the city of Dallas.

You can also find places to live around there, there are many apartments and condo/townhome/single family for lease withing 5-6 mile radius. Traffic around there is not bad at all, it is much much much less than the rush hour traffic in DC. It is pretty close to downtown as well, I think from Love Field to downtown is like 6-7 miles.

But when it comes to schools in that area, I do not know much about school districts etc. On the other hand if you live 3-4 miles east of Love field, you may end up in a good school district, because the are has many higher income population, with expensive housing (compared to DFW overall), so I would presume the schools must be pretty good.

[GayleTX]

Re: Southwest Medical School is part of the University of Texas system......and UT's pay scale is really low compared to most places. Please compare salaries among several hospitals before making a decision.

[loves2read]

did not see any mention of what you are willing to pay
that would have significant bearing on where you might be living

you could also consider tarrant county
Grapevine Colleville ISD, Coppell, Lewisville ISD, HEB ISD are all good districts

you can check the FTW board for posts about autism--there have been quite a few lately with input from people about ISDs...
will PM a web site with good MLS info and think it has rental/lease info

[FalconheadWest]

I grew up in the Richardson school district and their "special ed" programs were far superior to Plano's, and probably still are to an extent, but right now it's probably mainly do to Plano's high school enrollment and having a higher student to school ratio, where as Richardson has less students per school which makes for less crowding... also, the OP said he wanted a close proximity to Love Field and Plano would add another 10-20 minutes to that drive, depending on where in Plano.

As for the mapping, 15-20 minutes sounds about right for regular traffic. Depending on what hour you consider rush hour, you might need to add 10-15 more minutes. Rush hour can be as early as 6am and go until 9am. Rush hour in the afternoon starts at about 3pm.

The other school districts mentioned would put you at an easy 45+ minute commute, if not closer to an hour going up as far as Lewisville.

As for my brother, he's trying to get back to Dallas as fast as he can. His wife got commissioned and lives in the reserves these days and is never around, and she has decided family is not important to her, so they're going to get a divorce, but law up there states you have to separate for a year first, so they're waiting for that year to end.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by DC2DFW

Also, are there any parts of Richardson that have a better reputation (schools, crime) than others. For example, does the north side have less crime, than say, the west side or south side or viceversa? Is there a general rule/boundary, like, "stay north of Main Street and you'll be fine" OR "avoid anything east of Elm Street." Hope that makes sense. I realize crime can happen anywhere, but I am just trying to get a general idea/feel for Richardson . . .

Sorry, I forgot to acknowledge this part. I can't answer this for you as I'm a REALTOR and not "allowed" to answer subjective questions like this. What's good to you might be bad to me, vice verse. However, I will say, drive the neighborhoods multiple times. Look at the cars parked up and down the streets. Go during the day, during the evenings, on the weekends. You can't go once and think you get a feel for it. To see the kids, you'll need to go around when school lets out. To see if there are hundreds of cars parked in the street instead of in their driveways and garages, you need to go after working hours.

Once you go two-three times, you'll know where to focus your efforts... however, it's also about price range. On average, West Richardson (75080) is higher priced homes, though East Richardson (75081) has some pockets of higher end. NorthEast Richardson (75082) is about 95% Collin County and feeds to Plano schools, though it might be an option. Also, part of North Dallas off Coit and Campbell area feeds to Richardson schools, but is also in a higher price range. Without knowing your range, I'm not sure which area would suit you.