East Fort Worth Neighborhoods (Dallas, Arlington: apartments, renting, HOA)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are in our early 30s, no kids yet, and are both professionals working in Arlington.
We have been renting in the Ridglea area on the west side of Ft Worth, and it’s great, but our commute is a bear, so we’re starting to think about moving closer to work.
As a disclaimer, I’ll say that I know that, generally speaking, East Fort Worth is not thought highly of… I get that impression at least. I should make it very clear, though, that we are just NOT concerned about the ‘image’ of a place. We know another couple our age who just moved here and put all their savings into the down-payment on a 350k home in Fairmount after hearing it’s the trendiest area of Ft Worth. That’s just not our style. We moved from Pittsburgh a few years ago, and (if anyone here is familiar with Pittsburgh you’ll know this), it’s a city that is extremely ‘neighborhoody’… it’s quite easy to cross just one street, and go from a super nice neighborhood to a really, really dangerous one. My husband and I lived in an apartment building on one such street (a ‘dividing’ street) with no qualms for many years. Also, my experience living in Pittsburgh was that many neighborhoods get stigmas attached to them that they have difficulty shaking, even when they’ve started improving (or even if they’ve long had plenty of respectable residents committed to the area).
So this is all to say, I’m convinced that there must be such areas in East Fort Worth, and I’m looking for them! ;D
What we are hoping for in a neighborhood…
1) We’re be looking for a three bedroom, two-bath (ideally) home for around 100k.
2) Schools are not a concern for us whatsoever, for various reasons (one being we hope to have moved
elsewhere by the time our kids are school age).
3) It’d be awesome if it had a main street area… I’m finding these are few-and-far-between in Ft Worth.
BUT, this is one reason why Handley really intrigues me.
4) We love it when people give a crap about the neighborhood they live in, so even if there’s some crime
in an area, if we know there’s an active neighborhood association, that’s always nice.
5) We love neighborhoods that look interesting. We’d rather live in an area that’s a bit rough-around-
the-edges that has interesting (i.e. not cookie cutter) homes, than a ‘good’ neighborhood with
identical ranch homes.
6) I’d love for there to be a relatively nice pool within 10 minutes or so. The one thing I’ll miss most
about apartment living is that we have an awesome pool, but I’m not sure I love the idea of having
one of our own in our backyard once little ones come along.
East Fort Worth or Handley- Meadowbrook is one of the prettiest areas of FW in terms of mature trees and the hills (hence the name, Eastern Hills). I worked over there for about 5 years and never ever had any problems, but I wasn't there after dark. I think the area is due for a gentrification but it will be sloooow going. Lots of poverty and years of high crime. Your're right about the stigma- many people only associate it as "the hood" unless they grew up around here and are my parents age back when it was still a very nice place to raise a family. Good friend of mine moved from there and they tried to hang in as long as they could but she discovered that there were a high number of sex offenders living in the area right where they were and got freaked out understandably. Plus there was a "working girl" hanging around doing her business out of a truck in the alley behind my friend's house. I do think there are some great pockets where homeowners have maintained and updated property. Pretty close proximity to the Northeast Mall area for higher end shopping needs, etc. Proceed with caution but definitely don't rule it out! My husband and I have said for years we would like to be on that side of town- it's close to everything! Zip over to West FW or Dallas on 30, close to Loop 820, and TREES! Also a good supply of well built ranchers on decent sized lots (our favorite). And speaking as a parent that would love for my kids to attend Nolan Catholic High School if we end up back in FW, I would love for that area to revitalize!
East Fort Worth or Handley- Meadowbrook is one of the prettiest areas of FW in terms of mature trees and the hills (hence the name, Eastern Hills). I worked over there for about 5 years and never ever had any problems, but I wasn't there after dark. I think the area is due for a gentrification but it will be sloooow going. Lots of poverty and years of high crime. Your're right about the stigma- many people only associate it as "the hood" unless they grew up around here and are my parents age back when it was still a very nice place to raise a family. Good friend of mine moved from there and they tried to hang in as long as they could but she discovered that there were a high number of sex offenders living in the area right where they were and got freaked out understandably. Plus there was a "working girl" hanging around doing her business out of a truck in the alley behind my friend's house. I do think there are some great pockets where homeowners have maintained and updated property. Pretty close proximity to the Northeast Mall area for higher end shopping needs, etc. Proceed with caution but definitely don't rule it out! My husband and I have said for years we would like to be on that side of town- it's close to everything! Zip over to West FW or Dallas on 30, close to Loop 820, and TREES! Also a good supply of well built ranchers on decent sized lots (our favorite). And speaking as a parent that would love for my kids to attend Nolan Catholic High School if we end up back in FW, I would love for that area to revitalize!
Thanks so much for the great feedback!! Since college, I've really only ever lived in areas on the verge of shadiness, tbh ;D But usually I've moved somewhere cause friends were taking a similar risk at seeing the potential in an area and not focusing on negative, and it's paid off for me in having lived in some amazing apartments for cheap, and meeting interesting people and seeing interesting things. And now that I don't live alone, I've become even less risk averse. I think a lot of it, too, comes from having been a case worker for many years in Pittsburgh -- I've gone into homes in some of the 'worst' areas of the city... I learned to see the humanity and beauty in neighborhoods. Truly, the last area we lived in in Pittsburgh was by far the sketchiest... my husband lived there when we met and I NEVER would have chosen it myself. But our apartment was in an old hotel from the early 1900s with the MOST amazing lobby and details in the apartment, and we never had any problems in the area whatsoever, though you'd hear about things ALL the time.
I've had my eye on Handley for a while, thinking some things MUST go into that neat little main street area, and sure enough, now there's a yoga studio and a little vintage shop (along with the antiques stores and such that have been there a while). There's also what appears to be a pretty active neighborhood association. I didn't know that about the Meadowbrook area being hilly and tree-filled -- that sounds like something we'd like. I really, really miss Pittsburgh's hills and all the green. When I go home, it's the first thing that really hits me.
I have looked around more on the boards since posting and see that there's definitely the people out there that just say there's no way anyone should live in East FW, ever... but it's all relative. So hopefully they'll just refrain from posting I've seen some comments about the Eastchase area having some cool old houses, so if anyone knows more about what particular area to look in there, I'd appreciate that, too
I think that, while it will take a lot of work (work that I think is/can/will/should be done), that certain neighborhoods (particularly Handley, Poly, East Rosedale, Eastern Hills) are on a path toward significant improvement. It will take a lot of patience because this one will definitely take some time to play out, but I believe it is going to happen and already see some early signs of it happening. Which is great because these neighborhoods have a lot of history (even if there are fewer structures around to prove it, due, among other things, to unnecessary street widening, neglect, disinvestment, major changes in neighborhood/suburban retail). A lot of people who are not familiar with Fort Worth's history know only the side of these neighborhoods found in the recent reputation and many who do remember the neighborhoods before that period think of it as unsalvageable (which it is not). I know a few people who have moved out that way and have been glad they did.
If I were you I would look in North & Central Arlington, zip codes 76012 , 76013, 76014, 76010
There are some really cute neighborhoods in the older sections of Arl with character
Also I would look in South Hills and Westcliff in FtW
Did you ever make a decision on what part of FW to live in? We're relocating in January (hubby is being transferred for work) and my husband and I are in a similar demographic. We also have the same idea about what we want. No cookie cutter neighorhoods, no HOA controlled subdivisions, reasonably priced. We drove through Handley and actually really liked it. The mix of everything from 1920's homes to mid century was really cute. And I can see that main street coming back big time. I've read about Handley in other posts and people seem to think it's dangerous and ghetto. But I didn't get that vibe at all. It seems like a neighborhood that will really come back when people discover how cute those homes are.
I'm gonna throw in my two cents about East Fort Worth. Would I live in most of East Fort Worth? Probably not. However, there are small pockets of East Fort Worth that are Wonderful, that I wouldn't hesitate to live in.
We rented in Mallard Cove for 1 year. This is at 820 and Randol mill, just outside of the loop. We never had any real issues. Although, someone stole pants out of my car when I left it unlocked one night. Yes, Pants. Other than that, I highly enjoyed living there. There's a park attached and we had GREAT neighbors. Non of our neighbors had issues, either. I actually really miss it! There are high dollar estates within the backroads of that area, as well.
We are now in the process of buying a home. We looked at a home in the Woodhaven Country Club. Luckily, when we went to see it, the neighbors were out. They had lived there for 20 years and the lady told us that she had never had any crime related issues. She said the area was getting much better - in the years past it had been pretty bad. We LOVED the house, however, it backed up to those dredded apartments everyone talks about. It wasn't the crime that turned us away, but the eyesore view.
There are several other homes in the Country club and in the Woodhaven area in general that we are looking at.
However, I get a little bit more cautious about the areas South of I30 (Handly, Meadow Brook). My coworker's grandmother lives East of 820 and South of Meadowbrook - she knows the area isn't as nice as what it was, but it's not so bad that she wants to move. She's been there since the 60s. I believe the furth east you go from 820, it gets better. Just East of Sandy Lane park is a development of newer homes (compared to the average house in the area) that are 250-300k homes.
I think I would only purchase a house EAST of 820 (outside of the loop) and try to get as far East as possible.
I can't say for sure about south of 30, but Woodhaven and Mallard cover BOTH had optional HOAs (Mallard Cove wasn't even an official HOA - Just a fund for cameras). Mallard cove was small enough that they had a little online neighborhood website. It was a great way to keep up with everything. Woodhaven also has a very active HOA.
I much rather live in the magnolia area of downtown then east side. Back pockets in magnolia but its much safer than most of east side neighborhoods. If you have any choice it would be one of the last sides of town id chose.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.