Here it comes, another non Texan trying to figure out Fort Worth (Denton: how much, new home)

[WorldKlas]

Never heard of a town called Sedera Ranch. It must be a development.

Southlake has the top performing schools of the group you have asked about; also a rep for being a somewhat pretentious town because it is the wealthiest burb in Tarrant County.

Flower Mound has many traffic challenges, but schools are good.

Trophy Club has some good schools, most of the houses are older, shopping is mostly in nearby Southlake

I am so not a Keller fan, I can't give any unbiased comments. Just so overrated

You might also consider Colleyville -- which is a bit further east but good schools.

[bmlx]

With regard to Keller, it should be noted that parts of what is technically far north Fort Worth are popularly conceived of as part of "Keller," due to being in the Keller ISD (school district) and having Keller mailing addresses. The neighborhoods east of the railroad tracks and 377 would be Keller proper; the part of "Keller" that is actually within the Keller city limits seems a lot nicer than those areas that are within Fort Worth city limits.

[skyblu]

Lived in master planned community of Hidden Lakes of Keller proper for 12 years and loved the neighbors, schools, convenience and the area as a whole. Not overrated at all. Southlake overrrated, imo. Southlake has highly coveted schools but is over priced with "reputation" of being pretentious (not everyone is though). Roanoke may have the charm you're after but not sure about housing in Ronanoke proper, however, there are some very nice homes in Trophy Club and it's basically right next door. Argyle also has a lot of nice homes and has "country" feel to it, maybe not as convenient to shopping and entertainment, etc. though...yet. Only encounter the very rare harmless small yard snake, it's the fire ant mounds you want watch out for.

[TeamLynn]

Most people did not seem to hear your comment about the "old downtown" type feel.....
You might want to consider someplace like Decauter....maybe Denton.
or Ponder... every other place mentioned I think is cookie cutter tract homes.
That may be what you want, but then again maybe not.

[ChristieP]

They wanted "as short of a commute as possible." All of those would be at least an hour.

[WorldKlas]

Grapevine has a cute downtown area and is a good commute

[veetzvino]

I think that because the office is out by the suburbs, that will probably be where we will live. Yes, we'd love an area with more charm, fewer chains, but safety, schools, and commute are the most important things we are looking for.

Lots of great information, I really appreciate it.

What are the main differences between Flower Mound and Southlake?

I will check out the other suggested areas.

[masonsmom4]

FWIW, I haven't heard a single traffic complaint about going west out of Flower Mound since the completion of Cross Timbers with six lanes to 35W. And we love to complain about traffic on Facebook here in Flower Mound. I have been stuck many times (even in the middle of the day) getting to the TMS area on 114 from Southlake where the lanes reduce. I'm sure they're working on it and there probably are other ways around to get where you need to be from Southlake. Roanoke has a cute old town area with lots of good food that is close to there and nice to visit. I don't know about the real estate there though. There is also a large, new, development in west Flower Mound called Canyon Falls that would be closer to work than the rest of Flower Mound. It's kind of on its own right now and a little bit away from restaurants, and shopping, and its zoned Argyle ISD and not Lewisville ISD like most of Flower Mound. I personally would rather be closer to the heart of Flower Mound and put that 10 minutes on the commute. It's really not a difficult stretch of road to drive.

Southlake is more expensive housing wise, but it's really nice and the schools are great. It has great shopping around the Southlake Town Square. My husband's office is there and I go there often during the day but I personally don't enjoy it in the evenings or on the weekends. I find Southlake Boulevard extremely crowded other than mid-day. Both towns have all the chains, but also plenty of mom and pop small businesses sprinkled in to balance.

[skyblu]

Overall Southlake has higher priced homes than FM. Southlake is very upscale and convenient for high end shopping and diverse dining options but traffic on the blvd and the town square (open air mall) area can get very crowded, especially on weekends, holidays and and just nice weather! There's lots of year round activities on "the green" like live music, annual art show, octoberfest, holiday events etc. FM has a lot of nice neighborhoods and is getting more shopping/restaurants coming up I believe. Many posters call it "landlocked" and find it more inconvenient traffic wise to get out of FM to other parts of the DFW metro. SL, FM, Keller, Trophy Club, Colleyville, Grapevine, Argyle and Roanoke are all very safe and have above average to exceptional public schools. It's easy to go "visit" old town Roanoke or Grapevine on the weekends from any of these suburbs as well. Both have really charming Main Streets with non franchised restaurants and shopping also with lots of year round "events" to attend.

[skyblu]

BTW, we are also currently looking for homes; returning to the area from Oklahoma this summer and just looked at several very nice homes in Trophy Club built 2012 and 2014. So, not all are old. It's a pretty area, with a very nice country club that has golf, tennis, pools, etc. Definitely worth your time to explore.