Is Fort Worth for us? (Dallas, San Antonio: for sale, insurance, attorney)

[phoenixlady]

We are an English/South African family who has been traveling through the states trying to find our "place'. My husband is a foreign attorney who still has to write the bar over here, but he will look for work as a Paralegal when we lay down roots.

We have three teens, one in 7th grade who I home school and two in 11th grade who want to go back to school. We are looking for a safe neighborhood (obviously) and I was looking at San Antonio first but was told that there is a lot of vandalism and breaking in to cars over there.

I will be honest with you (Please do not come down on me too hard) but I am terrified of the sound of tornadoes! I looked at the statistics and its extremely high in Fort Worth. Please tell me something that will put my mind to rest!

We cannot afford an extremely expensive neighborhood...just something affordable and family friendly where we can start all over again. Is Fort worth for us?

[bmlx]

Originally Posted by phoenixlady

We have three teens, one in 7th grade who I home school and two in 11th grade who want to go back to school. We are looking for a safe neighborhood (obviously) and I was looking at San Antonio first but was told that there is a lot of vandalism and breaking in to cars over there.

...

We cannot afford an extremely expensive neighborhood...just something affordable and family friendly where we can start all over again. Is Fort worth for us?

First off, how close to downtown would you like to live? There's pretty much only one high school close to downtown even worth considering (Paschal HS), so if you want to be "in the city" you'll have to make sacrifices on schools and the like. Many areas of the Paschal zone are either very expensive (Tanglewood, Colonial, Overton Woods, Riverhills, etc.) or are cheap and not very safe (35W west to the Hemphill corridor). Fairmount might be a happy medium, but there isn't that much in terms of "family" amenities there.

Next, do you have a particular budget in mind? I know you're looking at "affordable," but an exact figure would be helpful in order to get a better idea as what is affordable for you.

Most people looking on the City-Data forums are probably going to be considering suburbs, so let's break down some options here. If I were you, I would probably look into the portions of far north Fort Worth that are zoned to Keller ISD or Northwest ISD myself. This is a pretty vast area, but generally it will consist of those areas north of the 820 loop and west of 377. Looking further west, you might also look into the Saginaw area, which is zoned to Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, although Keller and Northwest ISDs have better reputations. If you want to look west of Fort Worth, I would probably look into the Morningstar development, which is zoned to Aledo ISD schools. Benbrook south of I-20 is also generally affordable and family-friendly, although the schools are Fort Worth ISD. The Benbrook Middle-High School is a combined middle and high school, and doesn't have the strongest academics, though there are likely to be fewer "inner city" type kids there compared to other FWISD high schools.

Originally Posted by phoenixlady

I will be honest with you (Please do not come down on me too hard) but I am terrified of the sound of tornadoes! I looked at the statistics and its extremely high in Fort Worth. Please tell me something that will put my mind to rest!

The odds of getting hit by a tornado, even here in Fort Worth, are pretty minuscule. Even in the unlikely case that you were to get hit by one, most tornadoes are small (EF0-EF1) and would cause some damage but wouldn't level your house to the ground. It's only the extremely rare EF4s and EF5s that completely level well-built homes; while EF2s and EF3s can cause serious damage, they are still rare. More likely are severe straight-line winds (60+ MPH), which can cause light-to-moderate damage over larger areas than the average tornado, and hailstorms. Outside of the highly-unlikely-to-hit-your-location violent tornado, you'll be fine if you're in a well-built house with a garage (you'll definitely want a garage to keep your vehicle protected during hail!). That said, living in Fort Worth you should be sure that your insurance (home and auto) covers severe weather-related damage like wind, hail, and tornado.

[abelinkkin]

I have lived all 32 years of my live in Fort Worth and have never seen a tornado first hand. They do happen but your chances of taking a direct hit from one are very very small. So small its not something to worry about.

Generally if you want "good" schools you need to look at suburbs outside of loop 820. Areas around DFW airport will provide decent schools with plenty of shopping. House prices in that area vary a lot from neighborhood to neighborhood but $250,000 for a standard builder type house can be expected.

[phoenixlady]

Thank you very much for your advice. It has been taken note of and I will chat with my husband.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by abelinkkin

I have lived all 32 years of my live in Fort Worth and have never seen a tornado first hand. They do happen but your chances of taking a direct hit from one are very very small. So small its not something to worry about.

Generally if you want "good" schools you need to look at suburbs outside of loop 820. Areas around DFW airport will provide decent schools with plenty of shopping. House prices in that area vary a lot from neighborhood to neighborhood but $250,000 for a standard builder type house can be expected.

HEB has solid schools at a much lower price point, and I think you can get into some neighborhoods in Haslet for less than that, can't you?

[phoenixlady]

Where is HEB?

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by phoenixlady

Where is HEB?

Sorry, that stands for Hurst-Euless-Bedford. It’s just east of Fort Worth. We could really give you more input if you gave us a budget you were comfortable with and what type of community you want to live in.

Arlington is also worth a look with a lower budget. Of course, if you’re looking at $500k+ houses id give different recommendations.

[phoenixlady]

No we have a very small budget at the moment. We are staying over in Plano tonight and then we will head out to wherever.... So if you think Hurst should be looked at or Arlington. Just looking for a family friendly community with job opportunities.

[Texascrude]

Originally Posted by phoenixlady

No we have a very small budget at the moment. We are staying over in Plano tonight and then we will head out to wherever.... So if you think Hurst should be looked at or Arlington. Just looking for a family friendly community with job opportunities.

Arlington will put you right in between Fort Worth and Dallas, so you'll be able to look for employment in either hub without an atrocious commute. Homes and neighborhoods are older there, but UT has a nice campus there (UT Arlington) with a lot of professionals. The area has some nice hills and mature trees. I'd definitely look in that area, and then drive down to Eueles / Bedford area.

Before you go, spend a few minutes on Realtor.com or Zillow and find a few houses for sale in your price range so you can see what types of neighborhoods you can end up with. If you just drive around aimlessly in Arlington you'll end up by Six Flags or the Football stadium and probably won't be too impressed.

[TeamLynn]

Welcome to Ft. Worth. I hope you might like it here. Plenty of South Africans here, some have been here a long time, some still arriving.

Tornados....despite living in Western OK and Texas for most of my life...never heard one. Chance are you will never hear one too. I've seen a couple, but chances are you will never see one too.

According to BookOfOdds.com "those odds [of being hit by a tornado] are 1 in 4,513,000. It is more likely a person will die from a fall off a cliff—1 in 4,101,000—or will be diagnosed with leprosy—1 in 2,930,000."