Minnesota Family moving to Dallas area...Help! (Plano, Irving: real estate, how much)

[Scout3]

Can someone identify the boundaries of the Lake Highland area? Where is the sweet spot in this area? Is it around the high school?

[pepper131]

Originally Posted by Big G

I noticed you said you are looking for a "cool" place to live. Since "cool" is in the eye of the beholder, why don't you give some Minneapolis examples of what you would find "cool" up north, and I'll try to give you the DFW counterpart.

Yes!
Usually my cool is not everyone's cool.
I would also assume coming from MN, you'd like to be an an area with lots of trees..as a comfort. True?

[Scout3]

To Minnesota Charlie:

We did a road trip from CA in May and stayed with my dad in Tyler. Twice a week we drove into DFW to explore the neighborhoods with a GPS and a couple of realtors.

We finally localized our search in the Allen and Mckinney areas because of the green space available in the neighborhoods and the amount of house we could get for our money. Also, these exurbs have all the infrastructure one would want (stores, schools, parks, community activities).

Closer in, we liked Lakewood and M Streets a lot for the older neighborhood feel and quaint/charming homes. As we do not have children, our move will be less complicated than yours but our move will be complicated. DFW is a very large metroplex with good neighborhoods butting up against not as good neighborhoods. If you want urban living, look to Munger Place with its fine old historic homes. We saw a beauty for $369K. Plenty of yard for the kids and nearby parks in which to play. Watch out for the tax you will have to pay though.

You may consider renting at first just to get into the area then find your home once you get established in the area. We have gone back and forth with the idea of renting first to get the feel of the area BUT we cannot find lease terms for less than 6 months. (I suppose anything can be had for a price though).

Good luck to both of us!

[minnesota charlie]

Cool: hmmm--definitely in the eye of the beholder. I guess I'm looking for an area that my wife can nicely settle into---we like the outdoors--lakes, hiking, trails, sports activities--not really an "inner city concrete type area". looks like a lot of areas have nice parks, sidewalks, etc. which is great.

nobody has mentioned addison---what do you think of this area?

Cool in minnesota--hmmm. I live in maple grove right now, previously lived in sw minneapolis by lake harriet. I really like the SW minneapolis area--mature trees, less chainy-restaurants, pretty diversy demographic. we like maple grove for the square footage and parks, but the restaurants are a little old--less character, but still good food. we like sushi, thai food, but also like good 'ol american burger and fries too.

I think I'm looking forward to this as an adventure--I'm simply trying my best to understand/define an area where my wife can (hopefully) make some cool connections in the neighborhood (as we don't know anybody in your area). I think our two oldest (going to 2nd grade and Kindergarten) may naturally provide a few opportunities. we want to have a good time...and not feel like temporary transplants (harder said than done, I'm sure).

My hope is to have a shorter commute to make the move less disruptive for my family. I commute 45 minutes right now and it sucks. any improvement to this (preferring 30 i guess) would be awesome.

final question: what does the tollway cost? I'm still hopefull I can office out of plano, but think this is unlikely---which puts me downtown.

[needsomeinfo]

your commute is going to depend a lot on what time of day you travel. if you have flexibility in that, you could do w. plano to downtown in 30 minutes (if you leave by 7 am, etc.) the tollway from plano would be about $2-$4 each way as a ballpark (specific amount depends on where you enter and exit). if you could commute down 75, it would be free.

not liking concrete is a concern for the burbs. there are parks and some nature areas (check out arbor hills nature center in plano), but by and large, there is a ton of concrete.

I think you would be best suited to somewhere around white rock lake, within 635 (preston hollow, etc.), m streets, or knox-henderson type areas. I have never lived down in that area, and am not sure what you could get for your $$, but it sounds like your ideal spot to me. you would just need to check out the specific schools you kids would attend. and it would significantly cut-down on your commute.

[Big G]

I also lived over by Lake Harriet. I can tell you pretty confidently that there's no neighborhood like that in Dallas.

Addison would be everything you don't want. It's aimed at singles, and it's a densely populated faux-urban area.

It's ungodly hot here all summer, so the idea of taking a stroll in the neighborhood isn't as popular, unless it's at sunset or first thing in the morning.

Plano would be a good choice for you, but I don't think I've ever heard it called "cool".

The closest thing to Maple Grove in Dallas would be Frisco or Allen. I'd vote for Allen over Frisco, but that's just my opinion. Either way, that would put you pretty far out.

You might think about doing the light rail to get to and from work.

Richardson or the Lake Highlands area of Dallas would give you a reasonable commute with Richardson ISD schools.

Unlike in Minneapolis, the Dallas ISD doesn't have the same boundaries as the City of Dallas. So it's possible to live in Dallas and avoid DISD.

[theloneranger]

Or to live in a suburb and be in DISD! I know there are several Addison, Carrollton, and Farmers Branch addresses in DISD, and there may be a few Richardson addresses as well.

I'd recommend Richardson as well, particularly the JJ Pearce HS. Pearce is an excellent public high school and isn't as large as many others (just under 2000 students) and does very well with college admissions, all with a relatively diverse student body and affordable, though not run-down, housing.

[MSPMom]

Originally Posted by minnesota charlie

Cool: hmmm--definitely in the eye of the beholder. I guess I'm looking for an area that my wife can nicely settle into---we like the outdoors--lakes, hiking, trails, sports activities--not really an "inner city concrete type area". looks like a lot of areas have nice parks, sidewalks, etc. which is great.

nobody has mentioned addison---what do you think of this area?

Cool in minnesota--hmmm. I live in maple grove right now, previously lived in sw minneapolis by lake harriet. I really like the SW minneapolis area--mature trees, less chainy-restaurants, pretty diversy demographic. we like maple grove for the square footage and parks, but the restaurants are a little old--less character, but still good food. we like sushi, thai food, but also like good 'ol american burger and fries too.

I think I'm looking forward to this as an adventure--I'm simply trying my best to understand/define an area where my wife can (hopefully) make some cool connections in the neighborhood (as we don't know anybody in your area). I think our two oldest (going to 2nd grade and Kindergarten) may naturally provide a few opportunities. we want to have a good time...and not feel like temporary transplants (harder said than done, I'm sure).

My hope is to have a shorter commute to make the move less disruptive for my family. I commute 45 minutes right now and it sucks. any improvement to this (preferring 30 i guess) would be awesome.

final question: what does the tollway cost? I'm still hopefull I can office out of plano, but think this is unlikely---which puts me downtown.

Hey! We're a family of four that just moved down here from MN a few months ago. I'm from the Twin Cities so I've lived in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Roseville, etc. Please feel free to PM me with any questions on how the neighborhoods here compare. I don't have much time to type now but I will say that we love Lakewood/M Streets because they were pretty much the closest to the SW Mpls vibe (with a lake, too!) and Richardson and Garland for close in suburbs. Everything else is simply too far in my opinion. The other poster was right that Plano would fit the bill if you liked Maple Grove -- you'll just sit in traffic for a while going to/from downtown.

But there's a lot to choose from and so many great areas here. We live in Uptown because we wanted a semi-upscale, convenient urban area close to parks, trees, the Katy Trail, work, school and the arts district. When and if we buy a house, we'll probably move to Lakewood or North Dallas/Preston Hollow. Gotta run, but feel free to send me any questions!

[5stones]

For the bestof your commute...and scenery that resembles in any way the north would be Lakewood area. But you are going to have to up your price a bit.

I also would look at Richardson you'll get more house and still be pretty close to Downtown.

If 45 minutes is a horrible commute now and you want under that...Plano would be out. Yes, some days you make it in 35-40 minutes but I am pretty sure (depending on where in Palno you live andwhere is the office) you will avg about 45+ for a daily commute. Plano can get pretty conjested.


Comming from the NE the summer heat here is amazing. Yes we get hot humid days in hteNE etc...but they don't last for weeks on end and it USUALLY cools off significantly in the evening. Here at 11pm it can still be in the 90's. You KNOW it's hot when hte news forcasts a cold front comming in and temps will COOL off to the high 90's!!!

Winters are nice...PUT away those snow shovels!!

Also no Hills...it's flat here. BUt...you get some great sunsets!

[Grainraiser]

Oh yeah you can sell all of your snow gear. We get snow ever other year and it is measured in inches not feet. It never last more than 2 days and you need to know the difference between ice and snow. A ice storm will shut the city down for a day.