Possible relocation to Alexandria - HELP! (Monroe, Pineville: extended stay, for sale, real estate market)

[TexasMama]

My husband has a job offer in the Alexandria/Pineville area. I was needing some info please! We are taking a trip down there this weekend, but I feel so lost. I have never lived outside the DFW, Texas area, and feeling a bit overwhelmed.

First off, we have 3 small kids. Our oldest will be in 1st grade this year. Where are the best public schools?

Can someone tell me the "bad" areas of town to avoid?

How is the shopping? I'm not a big department store shopper. If I have a Walmart and a dollar store, I'm good, LOL.

Currently we live in a small rural 'burb of Fort Worth, and love the small town feel, but also like being able to get to places within 20-30 minutes. And the traffic here is HORRIBLE no matter what time of day, so I'm not worried about that. Which areas should we look at? We plan on renting for a year or so (until our house here sells) and then buying. I have been looking at the Town Talk...is there anywhere else where rentals are listed?

I have read that there is "nothing to do in Alexnadria" on this forum. We're not big entertainment type people. Out to dinner and a movie once in a while, take the kids to the park or zoo, that's about it. Are we going to be bored?

Right now I am a medical office manager. Do you think it would be difficult to find a job out there once we move?

How much are utilities in LA? We have a 2100SF house, all electric, and it costs us nearly $500 in the middle of the summer to cool the place off. I am hoping with all my might it will be cheaper in LA.

I know that is a lot, but thanks in advance for any info you can give me!

[Rmaf623]

Two of the best public elementary schools in Alexandria are Cherokee and Brame, which includes anything in the region bounded by Hwy 28 West, Macarthur Drive, and Masonic Drive. This is also the safest place to live. Phoenix Magnet is another highly rated school in Alexandria. JI Barron, I believe is the best school in Pineville. I am not sure how to rate the other schools on the Pineville side of the Red River.

Places to definitely avoid in Alexandria are

1.) the Lee Street vicinity and points eastward
2.) the Monroe St. and Rapides Avenue area
3.) parts of the Highway 1 North corridor with an abundance of low rent housing.

Questionable areas include
1.) most of the region bounded by Masonic Drive and South MacArthur Drive (such as Martin Park, Deerfield, and Airview Terrace subdivisions)
2.) the Garden District which is generally considered the area between MacArthur Drive and Bolton Avenue. (some parts are very nice but other areas have become run down and crime infested)

Pineville is generally safer than Alexandria, but the Wardville and Smithville areas and some of the older parts of Pineville are somewhat questionable.

Woodworth, a small town to the south of Alexandria, is a nice area but only Timberlake subdivision is zoned for Cherokee (the rest is zoned for Horseshoe Dr. Elementary, which is not as good of a school).

The 28 West corridor towards Kincaid Lake is a rapidly growing area, but most of this region is zoned for Mabel Brasher Elementary, which is a so-so school from what I understand.

There are three Wal-Marts (2 in Alexandria and 1 in Pineville) and a number of dollar stores. There are plenty of stores and restaurants along MacArthur Drive in Alexandria and the mall area.

There are some things to do in Alexandria. There is plenty of outdoor recreation (lakes, Kisatchie National Forest, hunting). There is also a zoo, the Alexandria Aces minor league baseball, a movie theater, Fun Zone (a mini amusement park with go-karts, putt putt golf, and an arcade), some small museums, plantation houses. There isn't much nightlife in the area and besides museums and a couple of restaurants, and small festivals downtown doesn't have much to offer.

I'm not sure of where you can find more info on rentals in the Alexandria area. Do you want to live in an apartment or house?

The economy is mostly healthy in the area. There has been considerable growth in the medical field. There has been much industrial growth over the past few years.

Utilities are most expensive in the city limits of Alexandria.

Hope this post helps.

[Rmaf623]

In my previous post, I meant to say that Cherokee and Nachman are the two best elementary schools in Alexandria. Brame is not an elementary school; it's a middle school.

[TexasMama]

Rmaf623, thank you so much for that info! We would need to rent a house as we have 2 dogs.

[rbayle]

Good luck is all I can say! My husband is already in Alexandria, and we are waiting to join him. We need to rent a house too, but there isn't much to rent. The real estate market there is pretty firm, their invnetory is low so their prices aren't falling. I am stuck in FL. trying to give away a house here. I was in Alex a month or so ago. We have to drive to Ft. Polk every day and with the price of gas we were looking more on that side of town where we could get right on Hwy 28. There was very little to choose from. We eventually expanded our search, and still couldn't find much. I hope you aren't trying to sell a current home in a soft market like me, becuase what you sell for and what you end up buying (or renting if you find it...) for there wont' balance out-unless the LA. market suddenly falls.
I had a hard time getting a feel for the town itself. The driving around was confusing to me-in a way it seemed big, but I guess it's not. The malll was nice in places and then there were sections that seemed old and no one (NO ONE!) Was walking around in them. That was strange...
We did like Woodworth (it is a farther drive for us every day to go to Ft. Polk) but it was nice and clean. Again, no rental homes.
On a better note-the people seemed real nice (easy to be nice when your real estate market is so strong people will actually pay money for your home Seriously, we went to Piccadilly and those ladies in there cooed over babies, made conversation, etc.. I hope I find people to be like that everwhere I go when I get there for good. Good luck.

[TexasMama]

rbayle,

I agree, everyone seemed so nice! Except for the cashier we had at Walmart. She didn't even say hello or anything.

Driving wasn't too bad for us, but those weird traffic circles sure thru us for a loop the first time!

My husband would either be working near the mall, or in Pineville. We we checking out Pineville so long that we didn't have time to check out the other side of Alexandria, on the other side of the mall. Is that the better area? Because I wasn't too pleased with what I saw near the highway (49 is it?).

Where is your husband staying now? We're thinking he might just rent an apartment or stay in those extended stay places like Value Place for the moment.

We do have a house to sell here in TX. The only thing for sale in my area are brand new houses going for more than $300k. Our house is 10 years old and we'll be asking about half that, so hopefully it won't take too long to sell. Thankfully, the job in LA would be paying him more than enough to rent something there and still afford the mortgage back in TX, so I'm hoping not to be separated too long. We have even played around with the idea of renting our house out instead of selling just in case things don't work out as planned in LA.

Do you have school age kids? What, if anything, have you learned about the schools out there?

[Rmaf623]

Yes, the interstate, I-49 cuts through some of the roughest parts of Alexandria. The best areas are in a region bounded by Hwy 28 West (Coliseum Blvd), MacArthur Drive, and Masonic Drive. Jackson Street Extension is the main street that cuts through this area. Alot of residential growth is occuring along Twin Bridges Road and along the Highway 28 West corridor.

[rbayle]

Right now my husband is staying on base. That will change when (if) we get there. You are lucky about the housing situation in TX. We are about to give a $800,000 house away! My kids are 13 and 16. I homeschool my daughter and my son chose a little rural school in Hineston that he wants to attend. He wasn't real comfortable at the big high schools-he is a country boy and will get along better with the country folks. I liked the Hwy. 28 area out by the lakes and Woodworth for houses.

[TexasMama]

Originally Posted by Rmaf623

Yes, the interstate, I-49 cuts through some of the roughest parts of Alexandria. The best areas are in a region bounded by Hwy 28 West (Coliseum Blvd), MacArthur Drive, and Masonic Drive. Jackson Street Extension is the main street that cuts through this area. Alot of residential growth is occuring along Twin Bridges Road and along the Highway 28 West corridor.

I need to get a map and mark all the "good" parts! We exited off I-49, and made a wrong turn, onto Lee street I believe, and got into a scary part of town. It's good to know that we didn't get a chance to see the nicer parts of the city.

[TexasMama]

Originally Posted by rbayle

Right now my husband is staying on base. That will change when (if) we get there. You are lucky about the housing situation in TX. We are about to give a $800,000 house away! My kids are 13 and 16. I homeschool my daughter and my son chose a little rural school in Hineston that he wants to attend. He wasn't real comfortable at the big high schools-he is a country boy and will get along better with the country folks. I liked the Hwy. 28 area out by the lakes and Woodworth for houses.

WOW! I hope it sells for you soon!

I thought about homeschooling. I have heard that LA ranks at the bottom when it comes to public schools. Of course, I have no idea if that is the truth. So we'll do public first, and then discuss homeschooling if necessary. I hope to go back to school one day as well.