Little Rock ???? (Conway, Russellville, Benton: real estate, houses, transferring to)

[MRW3072]

Hello, My husband and I will be transferring to the Little Rock area at the end of this year (2007). We have 3 children. Our oldest is in Middle school, our middle child is in elementary, our youngest is two. We currently live in an subdivision about 40 min NE of Orlando, FL. My son rides his bike to school, it's a safe area with lots of young families. We would like to be with 45min of Little Rock. I haven't read many good things about the public schools. can anyone offer any advice? should we go private? Where are the best public schools? Also, if anyone can offer suggestions on places to live? We are thinking of an older home near the city or one outside the city with some acreage. We have some flexibility financially, so we are thinking about a number of options has far has a house. We do not have to repeat our living situation here, but we do want to be in a safe area. Thanks.

[Sam I Am]

MRW -

Within 45 minutes of Little Rock you will find Beebe, Cabot, Bryant, Benton, England,Conway, Perryville, Maumelle, Plummerville, Scott, White Hall....if you push it you could make Morrilton! There are a TON of excellent school districts in any of these smaller towns. Cabot has a lot of young families...if diversity is what you are looking for, that may not be for you.

I think England and Scott and Conway are your best bets for older homes - for all the things you've listed, you might consider Greenbrier - depending on what time of the day you are traveling, you may or may not be within 45 minutes of Little Rock.

If you live directly in Little Rock, I wouldn't even hazard a guess on the schools, although the Lutheran and Catholic schools, both boys and girls for high school, have excellent reputations.

I'm thinking Conway is probably your best bet for living in an actual town...outside of Little Rock, maybe the Garrison Road or Col. Glenn Rd. area? You could just keep going west toward Bigelow and Perryville - between the two the land gets much more reasonable.

[matto]

Benton seemed nice when we drove through, and it's close to LR.

[MRW3072]

Hello Again,
Thanks for your input. I've heard off a few of the towns you mentioned. I'll be sure to check the others out as well. Are there any specific neighborhoods direcly in Little Rock that we should look at. We would be open to a "fixer upper", some sweat equity. We are not opposed to diversity. I think we could live anywhere providing it was safe, people are friendly. We love city life as well as country living. Suberbia as been good to us as well. We are trying to decide what to do this time around. As a said we have a little more flexibilty as far as what we can afford this time around. One option we are considering is downsizing our primary reisdence and purchasing lakefront property as a second home. Get the best of both worlds so to speak. However, with three kids as far apart in age that they are, we really need 4 bedrooms. I think I'm all over the place here. Anyway, thank you so much for your input. If anyone else as anything to add that would be great too.

[Sam I Am]

Well....the Capitol View area is making a huge comeback and there are a lot of nice, bigger, 1930's and 1940's houses in there, some that need rehab...that area will be north and south off Markham, around Rice and Dennison, which are across from the deaf school and east of Stift Station. Just west of Stift on the south side - I'm not sure what that area is called, but it's Brown St. and Martin St.....lots of younger folks/families moving in there. It's good south to about I-630, then it gets a little dicey. You probably don't want to go too far west because you'll side up to the fire station and the Medical Center with ambulances coming and going all night.

Stift Station starts Hillcrest...go NW on Kavanaugh, and anything up through there is absolutely wonderful. There are houses from $120-1,000,000 up there - Liseanne Rockefeller, wife of the late Winthrop, the former Lt. Gov., still lives up there. It's a very funky part of town, a little hippy chick - there's the promenade where people skateboard or walk or whatever, and the park is there.

The Heights is on the north and south sides of Cantrell, going from Cantrell Hill all the way west to about 6 blocks west of University Avenue. It's older money and older homes and quite expensive (I guess, it sort of depends on where you're coming from whether you get sticker shock or not!).

Leawood is between Markham and Cantrell Road, west of Mississippi - always a very stable, family oriented neighborhood with 1970's and 1980's houses...it ends about Biscayne and is behind the city reservoir. The next neighborhood that's really nice is Pleasant Valley - there's a country club - for a while PV went into a property value drop as everything moved west, but it's come back - most of the houses are huge and on very large lots. The whole Chenal area you may be familiar with - the city has sprawled west and Chenal is the newest area. Around Hall High is also a nice area, but the better homes are very close to the high school and I doubt you want that much drama in your life...kids are kids.

There's an area down around Kanis and Bowman Rd., which is south and west...Kanis would be the next major E/W street after I-630 and runs on the south side of Baptist Medical Center, but Bowman is quite a lot farther out than the hospital. If you go west after I-630 stops, it turns into Chenal Parkway...just keep going west and you will run into Bowman in less than a mile or so. I've lost my mind and can't think of the name.....Cherry-something....sort of a little pocket neighborhood. I don't think it's gated - it may be - but most of the houses are replicas of deep South houses and it's really lovely too. You can keep going west out Cantrell/Hwy. 10 and it gets a little more rural just past Joe T. Robinson High School, but it's nice as well - the city is definitely headed that direction. Wye Mountain, home of the Daffodil Festival, is out there - that's someplace you might want to consider for the best of city and country. It's probably 30 minutes from Little Rock? Really, really nice.

You might consider Maumelle, across the river. Neighborhoods range in price - the city of Maumelle is on the north side of the river, Lake Maumelle is on the south, and you can't swim in Maumelle, only boat (it's a water source, go figure)...

Quite a number of people have moved downtown and they are trying to renovate it since we now have the Clinton Library and the River Market and the trolleys and all - still, I wouldn't advise it. I think it's just too unstable for you to feel comfortable about your kids being there.

Don't go south of I-630. I just wouldn't. There's still too much criminal activity for me to be comfortable recommending that to anyone.

So there's a quickie overview - if any of those areas appeal to you, I'll try to describe them in more detail.

[new_to_rville]

Just moved from Historic Old Conway to Russellville for my husband's job. Lived in Conway for 9 years and loved it! Love Old Conway and West Conway--much much cheaper than the Little Rock real estate. Conway public schools are fanastic. You'll want to check your elementary school zones, some are better than others. Conway's a great town, 3 different colleges, good restaraunts, and shopping, and close enough for a little rock commute (though it can be a crummy, drive, if there's an accident or something, same holds true for the other little rock "suburbs" though) Many people like Cabot, Maumelle, and Benton but I think they might be more bedroom communities compared to Conway.

[eric1]

I would look in the Heights or Hillcrest. Central High school was voted 25th best High school in the nation on msnbc.com.

[strumpeace]

Does anyone know the name of the neighborhood that's in West LR, between Col. Glenn and Kanis? There's a lake there, and the neighborhood is built around the lake. It's very hilly, and road is winding and narrow. It's like being in the country. I can't remember what it's called. I always liked that area.

[Sam I Am]

Are you talking about Lake Nixon? It's not the country anymore, strum! We lived out off Jack Mann, about 5 miles out Col. Glenn......and I wouldn't have recognized that area if you'd just put me in there blindfolded.

[MRW3072]

Thanks to all of you for the input. I liked Heights/Hillcrest from what I could tell from looking at homes on the internet. Conway looks nice too. My husband will start traveling to the area next week or the following week so he'll be able to check things out in person. We've got some time to look around and get to know the area before we have to decide. Thanks Again!