Southlake to Mansfield (Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington: real estate, low crime, house)

[chide]

Hey guys, I will be relocating to Texas from North Carolina with my family of 4 and considering accepting a job at Mansfield. I am thinking of living in Southlake because of excellent schools but worried about the distance. Are they other very good surburbs with excellent schools and close to Mansfield that you could recommend to me? what are your thoughts about living in Mansfield? Thanks!

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by chide

Hey guys, I will be relocating to Texas from North Carolina with my family of 4 and considering accepting a job at Mansfield. I am thinking of living in Southlake because of excellent schools but worried about the distance. Are they other very good surburbs with excellent schools and close to Mansfield that you could recommend to me? what are your thoughts about living in Mansfield? Thanks!

Southlake to Mansfield would be a horrible commute. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone.

I don't know the area down there well at all, so can't really make any specific recommendations. Cedar Hill is close by and beautiful, but the regular public schools there are mediocre if you're putting a really high premium on "good school metrics". That said, Cedar Hill Collegiate High School is a charter in the district that puts up very good numbers, especially given its mixed demographics (a substantial percentage of students are in less affluent families). IIRC, Martin high school in Arlington also has good metrics and is well-regarded. You'd have to research the feeders into that school.

I'm sure there are others, and I'd defer to the opinions of people more knowledgeable about the area. The commute from Southlake would be a deal-breaker to me. I think even a commute from the southern parts of GCISD would be too much to handle on a regular basis.

[ChristieP]

What's your budget for a house?

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

What's your budget for a house?

That's what I was going to ask. Mansfield has perfectly good schools for someone on a budget.

[WorldKlas]

I would just live in Mansfield and make sure my house was zoned to Mansfield HS; which is the best HS there.

[chide]

About 500-600k. I would love to get a house in place with good resale value. thanks

[chide]

How is life in Mansfield? I want to live in a place that is diverse, great job opportunities, safe( very low crime rate), good home resale value, excellent schools, Malls/shops, restuarants , close to the Airport and strategically located. Any idea of a surburb close to Manfield . Do you think that Mansfield have these ? thanks

[4Movingeast]

Your price range makes things a bit trickier. If I were going to spend $550K I sure as heck wouldn't buy in Mansfield.

[WorldKlas]

Mansfield is not close to the airport and the best route to take is Hwy 360 North to go to the airport in the mornings; this is the mainstream traffic pattern and a truely congested jam all the way. So if your travels require early morning flights, it would be quite a problem.

However, you indicated that your job will be in Mansfield. The schools in Mansfield are not top tier schools - better schools in a reasonable commute are in Midlothian (a community with little diversity) and the difference is not significant enough to make driving there worth it. Another good option is the SW Arlington schools that feed into Martin high school. The elementaries that feed into Martin, and both the middle schools, are all highly rated but not significantly more so that its worth the drive if your job is in Mansfield. Mansfield has grown tremendously over the past 2 decades. it has all the usual suburb shops and restaurants. Housing is affordable and there are many lovely properties there. It has a little downtown area. Real estate will typically appreciate more rapidly in locations closer to the city, Mansfield is not very close to Dallas, but a decent drive into FTW. I think if you want a good commute you should go with Mansfield. A better investment with more of the things you desire is Colleyville -- but its quite expensive. Or, you could look at Euless in zip code 76039 where parts of Euless are zoned to the Grapevine/Colleyville school district which is among the best districts. Both Colleyville and Euless meet more of your criteria and the commute to Mansfield would be reverse of traffic -- but still a trek.

I recommend you avoid driving any farther than Colleyville and even that will be hard. All the DFW communities have diversity. However, the SW Arlington is more diverse than all others mentioned here including Mansfield.

[WorldKlas]

Here is an active listing in Colleyville (very strong resale market there, highly rated schools) that you can use to calculate your drive from a typical home there to Mansfield.

You would not want to take hwy 820 to Mansfield because it is full of Fort Worth commuters; south on 360 would be the better route.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...92-34041?row=8