Moving to the area and need to find great place for fam. (Dallas: apartment, rent)

[jessdine]

Thank you for the honesty. I know people don't want to say negative things but if it's a fact it's a fact. There are nice places and there aren't. When we lived in the San Francisco area we found a great condo during the day. It wasn't till after we signed the lease did we find out the apartment buildings behind it were state supported. When we got new neighbors that were attached to us and drug deals and guns were filmed coming out of there place it really hit home. A place can look nice and still not be. I had 13 year old boys coming up to my 6'5" hubby when we would be walking our dog threatening him. It was crazy. I have a three year old and am pregnant and don't want my kids life at stake because we mis judged the area. Once was enough.

THANKS!!!

[HappyinDallas]

Jessdine,
What a nightmare!!! I'm glad you got out of their safely. I hope you are able to find a safe place for your children. I advise contacting the Public Housing Authority for whatever city/town you're considering, ask about public housing, where it's located, and if there are plans to bring in any more units.

[jessdine]

One more quick question....if you were going to sub-let a place or get a short term lease where would you look? If we do this it won't be were we buy. We have a house in Austin and I am having a baby in 8 weeks so I am going to stay here and hubby will commute until the baby comes and we can then find renters for our house.

There are so many areas in Dallas it is really hard to judge. I have seen sub-lets in uptown and Lakewood that look nice on-line BUT that's online....

[lakehighlands]

Old Lake Highlands and Little Forest Hills are great neighborhoods near White Rock Lake. OLH feeds into Hexter Elementary-rated Exemplary 2008 and Little Forest Hills feeds into Sanger-rated Exemplary 2008. I definitely would not classify these as rough areas, so not sure when ChristieP lived there. These are both great areas with great schooling for the age level you have indicated.

[momof2dfw]

Don't give up on Rockwall. It is a GREAT family place to live. There are a TON of family things to do there. During the summer months the city has free concerts at The Harbor and movie nights in the park. A fireworks show at The Harbor for the 4th of July. The shops down at The Harbor stay open on weekends till 10:00 at night and some 11. We have many friends that live there and every one of them loves it and the schools.

Garland is another option. I live in Garland and it could be a bit further of a drive than Rockwall (depending on the area of each you decide on) but MUCH closer than Plano. The schools are great and it also has a great "hometown" feel. If your wanting a rental and don't mind an apartment there are some fairly new ones with "townhomes" and "condos" at the outdoor mall, Parkside at Firewheel. You can walk across to the park in the play area at the mall, to dine, shop, movies, etc. Stoneleigh at Spring Park in Garland is another nice option for an apartment. Apartments in Rockwall are pretty slim. Not many and they don't come up available often. Same for rentals in both cities. They are there but not a lot to pick from. People in this area LIKE where they live and don't move around.

As someone else mentioned, Sunnyvale is nice and does not have the apartments. We have some friends that had kept their house there and rented it out. I believe they have sold it now. But, even 10 years ago they were EASILY getting around $2K a month for it. Houses in Sunnyvale are not on the "cheap" side.

[jpeagle21]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Thanks for saying this. Grainraiser will deny it, but this is really true! I grew up in Mesquite and the town has changed SO MUCH since I lived there. I still go back occasionally, but it isn't somewhere I'd want to live anymore!

In your price range, DO look at Sunnyvale. They do require low-density housing on large lots, and the community has always been a good one! The schools there have an excellent reputation, and they have just built their own high school so the kids no longer have to go to Mesquite Poteet. Do a search here, but I believe the site is greatschools.net or something like that.

You can find houses in your price range in Creek Crossing, but be very careful of Horne HS and Mesquite HS. They are both pretty rough. I have some relatives who live in Creek Crossing, and many of the large houses in their subdivision are occupied by multiple families. (I was just there on Sunday.) You can hardly drive down the street for all of the cars parked everywhere, and it seems that MANY people there drive taxis for a living! My relatives love their house, but they wonder how the property values are going to hold up over the long-term.

You might have trouble finding a rental in Sunnyvale just because there usually aren't a lot of them there. Hopefully the real estate market has changed that! Finding a rental in Mesquite won't be a problem...

Good luck!!

Good'ole ChristieP.......never misses a chance to try and bash Mesquite. I'll take the reins from Grainraiser if you don't mind. First off, let me say to the OP that given your original post, Rockwall would fit well. I lived there and the only reason we moved was that the commute to downtown Dallas every day was killing us. The commute to Mesquite wouldn't be bad at all. Rockwall is getting pretty crowded right now, but it looks like they are working on addressing that with new roads, bypasses, etc. Having said that, we live in Mesquite now and have no complaints. Is it more run down than Rockwall? Sure it is. It is a more established town. Things get run down after a while, but they are in the middle of a revitalization effort. We went from a 1700 sq ft home in Rockwall to 3000 sq ft in Mesquite for a little over 200k. Pool in the back yard, park across the street, great neighbors, quiet neighborhood, and no, there are not cars parked all over the streets. I'm sure it irks ChristieP that they just opened one of the biggest Super Targets around, a BJs restaurant, and are working on a Genghis Grill in Mesquite. She seems to want it to fail or at least takes some guilty pleasure in it. But that's ok. You can see the type of person she is by the language in her post. Let’s examine some of her "code language."

“The town has changed SO MUCH" - Hmmm, let me guess what that means. I'm just going to go ahead and assume that diversity isn't one of the top priorities in her choice for a place to live. Just FYI - Rockwall is like 90% white and is one of the top places for "flighters" from Mesquite to move. Mesquite was once an overwhelmingly white cowboy town until the 80s-90s when folks from Dallas started inching out into the suburbs. Now it is very multicultural.

"Horn HS and Mesquite HS are pretty rough" - Refer to the previous paragraph. I’m sure she will say they are gang-ridden or something like that. They are not. Do they have some trouble-makers just like any high school? Yea.

"Many houses are occupied by multiple families" - Ok, let’s just come out and say it. This is her not-so-subtle hint that there might be some Hispanic and Asian people in the neighborhood. Also, how does she know how many people live in any one house? Generalizations and stereotypes......<sigh>

"MANY people drive taxis for a living!" - <Gasp>, not a working class family in the neighborhood! We can't have that! BTW, you know what race of people stereotypically drives taxis don't you? OPer, did you catch that hint? BTW, I have lived here 3 years and don't remember ever seeing a taxi parked in my neighborhood, not that it would matter to me.

Ok, you get where I’m going with this. As you can guess, I like it a lot better when people give the true pros and cons of an area instead of trying to scare people away from an area by using broad generalizations from an obviously narrow mind. Actually, it kind of ticks me off when people do that.

While you are in your apartment, you will have plenty of time to look at all the cities in the area and make your best choice. If I were in your shoes, I would start with an apartment in Rockwall just because the complexes are smaller and nicer in Rockwall than in Mesquite. They also have lots of older retired folks in the Rockwall apartments. Not that you won't have this in Rockwall, but in Mesquite apartments you have more young people, teenagers, loud radios, etc. Sorry about the “soap box” moment and good luck!

[jessdine]

Just a reminder to all... You have no idea what race I am....

I haven't taken offense to anything said. I appreciate the candor from everyone. I wouldn't get upset. If a person can't read between the lines then they don't want to.

Bottom line....will I have people next door with guns and drugs and my child in school with it? I have lived in NYC. LA, SF and now Austin. When I was younger with out kids I was more prone to not care. I care now. My sister had race riots in her high school and I will never be in an area where that can happen. It was horrible. There are troubled kids in every school but how do the schools rate? They might be fine and to be honest the only reason we would look at the HS is for resale of a home.

I just want to find out what people think about areas. I don't want to live with a bunch of retired folks either. Just looking for the balance of hip and cool with safe and secure.

Thks.

[pepper131]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Having lived in Casa Linda/Little Forest Hills for several years, I can safely say they do NOT have good schools, especially at the High School level. Bryan Adams HS was nice when my Dad went there in the 1960s but it is awful now. The kids who come from the Casa View area are primarily low income and rough. I would not send a child there. There were VERY few kids in our neighborhood when we lived there...that is usually an indicator that the schools are not so good. We left when our vehicles got broken into in front of our house and a motorcycle gang member (not the nice kind) moved in next door...

You haven't lived in this area for quite a while, if I'm remembering correctly. An entire motorcycle gang lived in a bungalow style home in Little Forest Hills?

[lakehighlands]

Originally Posted by pepper131

An entire motorcycle gang lived in a bungalow style home in Little Forest Hills?

Midget motorcycle gang...they fit well in a cozy 1,000 sq ft home.

Some of the things people say on here are absolutely ridiculous...I can't imagine someone actually using some of the advice at times...

[jessdine]

The person didn't say a motorcycle gang moved in she said a person who she assumed was in a motorcycle gang and not friendly moved in.

May I request that we focus on the reason for my original post. Instead of nit picking other peoples. Can people not just say WHY they like an area that someone else might not.

For example: Mesquite. Okay, there are nice parts. Where? I see a map and I have no clue what is nice and what is a place you wouldn't want to live. Like east of whatever street is a little harry but west of it is great.

As I mentioned when I moved to the San Francisco area we rented a place which was fantastic during the day and horrible at night. For what we paid it wasn't worth having drug addicts banging on my door at 2:00AM because they needed help and I was kind to them in the park. Nor was it worth having guns and drug deals coming out of the condo next to me. If we would have rented up the street we wouldn't have had to deal with crap like that. Unless you have been harrassed in your own frekaing house and had guns within spitting distance of your front door, crack whores walking up to your car in the AM while you drive work asking for some change then I really don't think you understand.

I lived in Spanish Harlem and had a drug addict who lived on my stoop. I expected that and was fine with it. He was a nice guy who was screwed up. I am just trying to make sure we live some place that we think is nice and is SAFE. I don't give a rats ass if people are green, as I have stated you don't know my race. I just want info on the safety of places.

SO PLEASE just tell me WHY YOU like or dislike a place.

Thank you.