Moving to Ft. Worth area in the next few months. (Fort Worth: 2014, low crime)
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I know, another thread of someone moving to the Ft. Worth area.
Me, my wife and our three kids are moving to the area at the beginning of summer (when the school year is over here). I work out of my home and my wife will be working at Lockheed in Ft. Worth. Our 3 kids are going to be in 8th grade, 9th grade and 11th grade so schools are super important to us as is low crime.
We would like to purchase a home and will go up to $350 but would rather stay in the $200's if possible. We are perfectly fine being the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood. We don't care what the "Jones" are doing but we know they usually live near the best schools.
We have looked at SouthLake and Carroll High School as well as Colleyville and Heritage High as options so far but want to know what other options are out there.
If she will be working at LM, you won't want any of those cities. That will be an hour each way for her. Look at Aledo. It's on the west side of Fort Worth and has homes in your price range and great schools.
I have commuted from Colleyville to LM Ft. Worth. It is a 40 minute commute each way. Of course, the freeway is pretty screwed up right now.
Exactly. Almost the entire direct route (183 and north loop 820) is torn up due to construction that will last a couple more years. I have to drive through the 183 part, and it is a real mess. The 820 part is even worse!
If she will be working at LM, you won't want any of those cities. That will be an hour each way for her. Look at Aledo. It's on the west side of Fort Worth and has homes in your price range and great schools.
Thanks.
Aledo seems kind of out in the boonies. I should add that I like to go to the gym 5 days a week and my son plays travel soccer so being near a soccer club and where they practice is important.
The problem is your price point is too low to get into the close-in neighborhoods in Fort Worth (like Tanglewood) with good schools. You might also look at Burleson which is on the SW side for Fort Worth. The Hulen area of FW has tons of shopping, gyms, etc. and is close by. The suburbs to the north of LM are not nice and do not have very good schools, and they are also much more rural.
the problem is that Paschal is the top rated high school in FTWISD and unless you live within its catchment area which is likely at the part of your price range it is almost impossible to get into as inner-district transfer...
your other two children are ready for middle school and middle schools in FTW are weak--
just check their TAKS ratings--would not recommend any area of FTW outside the Paschal zone although some others might say that is too narrow minded
Aledo has good ISD but it is still largely rural area without central town core and has few retail amenities-so finding a gym could be problem for you
there is no YMCA in Aledo area but there are sports for young people
just as there are strong soccer elements all over the Metroplex--
depending on your children's skill level, there are probably options and competition for travel clubs
if that is going to be important factor in your decision making you should probably do some investigation of where they are likely to be found before you buy--
You can't get into Carroll ISD for under 300K really--that is wishful thinking--
and Grapevine would be a stretch as well under 300K
if you really want to stay below 300K then Hurst and Bedford (HEB ISD or Birdville ISD areas) are probably your best options simply becuase of location--being closer to Lockheed for your wife's commute--check a map
the trip into FTW on Airport Frwy/183 will begin to be worse for Hurst/Bedford residents because the construction work is finally moving beyond Hurst but Hwy 26 into downtown is an option and there are some surface streets you could take to get south to I-30 and go across FTW to Lockheed...since that is the destination, not downtown area
it just depends on where you might choose to move
HEB ISD and Birdville ISD both have demographics that include low-income, minority students but their schools are strong--they aren't perfect though...but frankly I don't think the Carroll schools are perfect either
You MIGHT consider the north of FTW area--where your wife can use the back/west side of 820 Loop to get to work--going west of the I-35 bottleneck--
I am not really familiar that much with that area--I would rate Northwest or Keller ISD over Eagle Mtn-Saginaw ISD but lot of the housing might not be to your taste
again--that area lacks city center but it has scattered retail/commercial along main roads
Burleson south of FTW on I35 has been growing by leaps and bounds in past 10 yrs--lots of retail/commercial
ISD I would rate below most 5A districts in Tarrant county but above FTW
and you could probably find house below 300K in fairly nice neighborhood--might be older but there is hospital in Burleson and other retail/commercial places with I am sure several fitness clubs
You could also look at the SW part of Arlington in the Martin HS catchement area--and Mansfield--some areas are pretty nice and I20 is not under construction at the moment
IF soccer is pretty important then I would say make some searches and talk to people with your current travel clubs--they would likely know clubs you might target in FTW area or at least give you some suggestions for where to look for info--
you could also check which area ISDs have strong soccer teams -- many times those players are on club teams with their ISD team mates since they have grown up in area and played together for years
PS==I would suggest your wife ask about Lockheed's policy for adjusting work hours--
if she can come in to work early and miss most of normal work hour traffic then that improves your search area--
Morning AM can be improved upon--frankly after 1PM because construction is going full blast and traffic has grown proportionally larger there is no easy afternoon commute on 183...big bottleneck right now around NE Mall--would suggest she checks out surface roads that might be used and understand that even they are really becoming crowded as people use them for alternate/overflow travel routes...
The Heritage area in NWFT Worth has alot of LM people it's Keller ISD.
But know that 35 is a mess!
Soccer is huge here, lots of club soccer, rec soccer and Academy soccer. search threads for names of club soccer sites. also check on NTXsoccer.org lots of good info and links.
Also for a HS kid to make Varsity soccer now is REALLY tough! with 2000+ students teams are very competitive.
As others have mentioned Sothlake is out of your price range. Colleyville is most likely out as well, some offerings at the high end of your budget. But with construction and trafficthe commute would not be fun.
I don't know anything about Benbrook, but it's a much closer commute than other areas.
Benbrook has mixed ISDs--think some parts are in FTWISD with Western Hills HS which would be negative for me like I said--
Reatta Place at Team Ranch has nice homes but is in FTWISD
some south of the lake could be in Godley ISD--district is rated Recognized by TEA--better than FTWISD's rating--smaller district--more rural than urban or even suburban really--they have ag teacher at the high school...but doesn't mean their other programs are lacking--just that interests/needs are different in that area
part of the district is in Johnson county--not Tarrant--so again you have the "divided loyalty" issue that crops up a lot in Texas...
rarely see anything about Godley ISD in my paper because of its location-- Godley ISD » Cleburne Times-Review, Cleburne, TX
closer to Cleburn really for most of the district so that newspaper has more info
boys' basketball going to state though--
don't know how the state's cutback on money to education impacted Godley ISD--could have revenue from gas wells in the area to offset the state's reduction
Mustang Creek development in Benbrook with Godley schools was done by local "custom" builders and you can find some well-built homes in there with larger (acre) lots around 300K
most travel would be on 377 north to FTW to Lockheed--less than 30 min
probably no construction but 377 is 2 to 4 lane road that can have quite a bit of traffic moving N in am and S in pm cause there are people living toward Cleburn/Granbury who work in FTW
if you need strong internet available you would want to check on that with any outlying areas...
and yes--the part about being ACTIVE player on varsity soccer coming in as junior/senior is very difficult
because of age stipulations any student who can make the team as senior would be on varsity--but getting playing time would be problem
some of these teams have been playing together since they were 5 yrs old and moved up through the school system as well as playing travel ball
just depends on if you are looking at making soccer into college scholarship situation where you need coaches' referrals--sometimes travel team is better than ISD team because coaches are better placed to influence college coaches' choices...
don't know that much about soccer...
If you can get into McLean Middle and Paschal High then school should be fine. The schools are urban so the demographics look different that what you will see in Southlake, but kids come out as well prepped as Southlake schools and more and more of the area's families that could do private are going through McLean, and Paschal is highly desired. Some parents do private for middle school and public for high school.
Finding a house in the $200's might be hard, unless you are OK with a little or major reno, but if you are willing to look through out Paschal's feeder area finding something in the 300's should be fine.
The Hulen area is very nice, along with the Berkeley Heights area (off of Forest Park Blvd), the whole area around LM is undergoing major construction so that might impact communting a bit, but it should be done by 2014.
You're best bet is to visit the area and see if it fits what you are looking for.
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