Moving to Edmond July 2013 (Howe, Arcadia: hardwood floors, best suburbs, real estate)
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Hi everyone! Well, my husband and I have decided to move our family from our current residence in Fort Worth, Texas to the OKC area in July of 2013! We are very excited, but nervous about how to find a house to rent in a city we don't live in. That's why we have decided to start the search now, a year ahead of time. After doing some research, we have come to the agreement that we want to live in Edmond, Oklahoma. The house that we get MUST be within the Edmond school district boundaries. Below is a list of what we are looking for. Please feel free to contact me via email (amber102083 at gmail dot com) if you have a rent home in the Edmond school district that fits my criteria that may become available on or around July 15, 2013 or if you live in the area and could give me any leads. Thanks in advance!
3+ Bedrooms, 2+ Bathrooms
Single Family Home preferred (NO apartment. Will consider duplex)
Must be in Edmond School District
Rent in the neighborhood of $1000/month...would consider slightly higher for the right place
At least 1000 sq/ft, but the more the better
Garage
Large Back Yard w/Privacy Fence
Small Dog Allowed (Chihuahua: well behaved, potty trained, doesn't bark much)
Non-Smokers
Family Neighborhood
Not too close to a busy street
Not too many trees nearby...I like the sunshine
Hardwood Floors are a plus
Lots of windows are a plus
Open floor plan is a plus
Upstairs/Downstairs is a plus
Edmond is not even that big of a place, yet it's about the only place people want to move to in OKC?
Does Edmond have outdoor mixed use devleopments like those that are popping up in major suburbs all around the country? Or is it just 1980's style strip malls and big box centers?
I look for more in a community than living around lots of other white collar people with a bachelor degrees. What makes it a good suburb besides having OKC’s best demographics?
That’s why I asked if there are any modern mixed use developments there. All I see on google is big boxes, big parking lots, strip malls and what looks like an older regional indoor mall and a lot of very big churches. No lifestyle centers, mixed use etc. Maybe I missed them? While often fake and cheesy, at least that type of development is somewhat walkable. Is the area developed with tons of dedicated bike trails and paths? Are the parks in the area high quality and do they have good public aquatics centers and other community centers? How nice are the armature sports facilities (baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer etc). Most nicer big city suburbs have nice indoor athletic complexes for indoor soccer, batting cages etc. Does Edmond have this? Many nicer big city suburbs have ice skating rinks (indoor and outdoor). Does Edmond? Are the roads improved and do they have sidewalks, bike lanes etc? Or is it just a bunch of subdivisions connected together with unimproved roads? What kind of shopping and what stores does the area have? Are there any health food grocery stores? Are the schools really good or are they just better than most of OKC? What makes the schools good? Do they offer tons of college prep courses etc? Are the schools generally well funded and the teachers paid well? How well is Edmond connected to metro OKC? Is access to the city good? Is there commuter bus service? What is the topography like? Is it heavily wooded are there lakes nearby that are more than just ponds of water (marinas, beach areas etc). Does edmond have a nice dog park? What about disc golf, any courses in the area? Are there any good off road mountain bike trails? What kinds of fitness centers are in the area? Is the area clogged with stop lights and small town low speed limits making it annoying to get around and take forever to get to the freeways?
One more thing. As cheap as homes are in OKC and as much room as there is. What is with the TINY lots? Big homes crammed into tiny lots with no pocket parks to make up for the lack of yards. Not very good urban planning in my opinion.
This is some of what I look for in a nice suburb and I honeslty don't know if Edmond has any or all of this stuff.
I look for more in a community than living around lots of other white collar people with a bachelor degrees. What makes it a good suburb besides having OKC’s best demographics?
That’s why I asked if there are any modern mixed use developments there. All I see on google is big boxes, big parking lots, strip malls and what looks like an older regional indoor mall and a lot of very big churches. No lifestyle centers, mixed use etc. Maybe I missed them? While often fake and cheesy, at least that type of development is somewhat walkable. Is the area developed with tons of dedicated bike trails and paths? Are the parks in the area high quality and do they have good public aquatics centers and other community centers? How nice are the armature sports facilities (baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer etc). Most nicer big city suburbs have nice indoor athletic complexes for indoor soccer, batting cages etc. Does Edmond have this? Many nicer big city suburbs have ice skating rinks (indoor and outdoor). Does Edmond? Are the roads improved and do they have sidewalks, bike lanes etc? Or is it just a bunch of subdivisions connected together with unimproved roads? What kind of shopping and what stores does the area have? Are there any health food grocery stores? Are the schools really good or are they just better than most of OKC? What makes the schools good? Do they offer tons of college prep courses etc? Are the schools generally well funded and the teachers paid well? How well is Edmond connected to metro OKC? Is access to the city good? Is there commuter bus service? What is the topography like? Is it heavily wooded are there lakes nearby that are more than just ponds of water (marinas, beach areas etc). Does edmond have a nice dog park? What about disc golf, any courses in the area? Are there any good off road mountain bike trails? What kinds of fitness centers are in the area? Is the area clogged with stop lights and small town low speed limits making it annoying to get around and take forever to get to the freeways?
One more thing. As cheap as homes are in OKC and as much room as there is. What is with the TINY lots? Big homes crammed into tiny lots with no pocket parks to make up for the lack of yards. Not very good urban planning in my opinion.
This is some of what I look for in a nice suburb and I honeslty don't know if Edmond has any or all of this stuff.
This has nothing to do with the OP's questions. You are just hijacking yet another post.
But to answer your question with another question. How big a lot are you looking for? My lot is 1/2 an acre, with a greenbelt and a park just behind it. Just remember. The bigger the lot, the bigger the water bill in the summer.
KCMO,,,,,,All these "mixed use" developments you want don't fit Edmond because Edmond has a lot of space to expand. People don't want increased density there. They want to maintain the core area as a sleepy little college town. As a result the suburban part of Edmond continues to sprawl. Since Edmond's main market is family oriented and the college is a commuter school it really doesn't make sense to have those types of developments for residential. They are starting to build some higher end retail areas for botique stores and things in Edmond.
However, downtown OKC is moving that direction hard and fast. The core to shore thing is going to be nothing but those mixed use developments you seem to want. They will have the market for that down there.
And to the OP, I think the west side of town is probably your best bet for your list of things. Still might be hard to get all that. You might be able to find something in the part of town developed in the 60s and 70s that would fit. (Area roughly bordered by 15th and Memorial north and south and Bryant and Kelley east and west.
My parents live there and have some rentals that are roughly in the ballpark for what you want but I don't know if they have any open right now.
I look for more in a community than living around lots of other white collar people with a bachelor degrees. What makes it a good suburb besides having OKC’s best demographics?
That’s why I asked if there are any modern mixed use developments there. All I see on google is big boxes, big parking lots, strip malls and what looks like an older regional indoor mall and a lot of very big churches. No lifestyle centers, mixed use etc. Maybe I missed them? While often fake and cheesy, at least that type of development is somewhat walkable. There were several of these in the pipeline when the market crashed in 08, so everything ws put on hold. Is the area developed with tons of dedicated bike trails and paths? there are trails, not sure if there are any dedicated to just bikes. More are being developed. Are the parks in the area high quality and do they have good public aquatics centers and other community centers? The city/school dist. and YMCA are currently building a new aquatics center at Mitch Park. Yes, we have nice parks. How nice are the armature sports facilities (baseball, football, lacrosse, soccer etc). Most nicer big city suburbs have nice indoor athletic complexes for indoor soccer, batting cages etc. Does Edmond have this? Plenty of sports facilities, currently nothing indoors but the city is about to begin construction on a large indoor/outdoor soccer facility. Many nicer big city suburbs have ice skating rinks (indoor and outdoor). Does Edmond? Yes, there's an ice skating rink, and at Christmas there is outdoor skating at the city pavillion/farmers market in downtown Edmond. Are the roads improved and do they have sidewalks, bike lanes etc? Yes, we have sidewalks most places, no real bike lanes but there are bike routes. Or is it just a bunch of subdivisions connected together with unimproved roads?Yes, we have nice roads. All of the major roads through town are either 4 or 6 lanes wide. The only place some of the roads need work would actually be on the west side of town, in a small area which is technically in OKC. OKC doesn't see much value in improving those roads because it's a wierd no mans land. Edmond adresses and schools, some services are OKC, some are Edmond. What kind of shopping and what stores does the area have? Quite a few nice local boutiques as well as national chains. There's also downtown Edmond. It's the original old downtown, which has been revitilized with shops and restaurants. We have stores like Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc. No large dept. stores like Dillards, but they are just across the line in OKC at Quail Springs Mall, in an area generally considered to be Edmond. (see my comments above concerning the west side of town). From my house it takes me about 20 minutes to get there. I usually just drive to Penn Square Mall in OKC. I prefer it and the drive time for me is about the same. Are there any health food grocery stores? Yes, there's a Sunflower Market/Sprouts and a very nice, upscale local grocery which is a combo of both a regular grocery and health food store Uptown Grocers. If thats not good enough, there's Whole Foods in OKC, about 20 or so minutes from Edmond. Are the schools really good or are they just better than most of OKC? We moved here from Houston, where our kids were in one of the top districts in TX, and we found them to be just as good. What makes the schools good? Do they offer tons of college prep courses etc? Yes. Are the schools generally well funded and the teachers paid well? I have no idea how well they are paid, but money never seemed to be a problem at our school. How well is Edmond connected to metro OKC? Is access to the city good? Yes. Look at a map. Edmond's entire southern border is connected to OKC. All major roads running north and south, run directly into OKC. There are 3 freeways going from Edmond into OKC. Just depends on what side of town your on. Is there commuter bus service? No, not really. Yes there is limited bus service (Citylink) around Edmond but there's no commuter service. Traffic is not bad enough to warrant it. It only takes about 30 minutes in morning traffic to go from Edmond to downtown OKC. What is the topography like? Is it heavily wooded are there lakes nearby that are more than just ponds of water (marinas, beach areas etc). The east side of town is more treed and has rolling hills. The western side of town tends to be more flat and less trees. On the east side of town is Lake Arcadia, which is part of the city water supply. It has beaches, picnic areas and camping areas. Don't know if there's a marina, but my guess would be "no" since it's part of our water supply. I personally have never been there because they do not have a large are for pwc, which is what we own. However, I see very large ski boats headed out there all the time. Does edmond have a nice dog park? Yes, we have a large dog park. I don't go there, because it's not convienent for me. I have a friend that loves to take her dogs there. What about disc golf, any courses in the area? I have no idea. Maybe at UCO. Are there any good off road mountain bike trails?No clue. What kinds of fitness centers are in the area? YMCA, Gold's Gym among others. Is the area clogged with stop lights and small town low speed limits making it annoying to get around and take forever to get to the freeways? Parts of town are slower speed limits, but generally driving through town, the speed limits are 40-45. Yes there are red lights and sometimes driving all the way across town at 5:00 can be frustrating. How long it takes you to get to a freeway, really depends on where you live. For us, we aren't but 1 1/2miles from I-35. It's a piece of cake, but we paid attention to that when we bought.
One more thing. As cheap as homes are in OKC and as much room as there is. What is with the TINY lots? Big homes crammed into tiny lots with no pocket parks to make up for the lack of yards. Not very good urban planning in my opinion. Most all of the newer neighborhoods have parks/playgrounds in them. They are not owned by the city, but rather by the homeowners associaitons. In the older areas, there are plenty of neighborhood parks.
This is some of what I look for in a nice suburb and I honeslty don't know if Edmond has any or all of this stuff.
Really? No, there's 100,000 people here with nothing to do, nowhere to shop. Yes, we have stores, and places for sports, and parks and decent schools and decent roads. We aren't known as one of the best suburbs in the state just because we have big houses.
Besides, I'm really confused by all your posts anyway. In all your other posts, you are all concerned about our lack of urbanism. You are complaining that we are not dense enough. Then here, you complain that by looking at google maps, our houses seem too close together. What do you want?
Really? No, there's 100,000 people here with nothing to do, nowhere to shop. Yes, we have stores, and places for sports, and parks and decent schools and decent roads. We aren't known as one of the best suburbs in the state just because we have big houses.
Besides, I'm really confused by all your posts anyway. In all your other posts, you are all concerned about our lack of urbanism. You are complaining that we are not dense enough. Then here, you complain that by looking at google maps, our houses seem too close together. What do you want?
I switched gears to what a nice suburb is in my opinion. Big difference between homes crammed into a suburban development with very little park space vs urban rowhouses etc. My point is that if you are going to be way out there and you are not going to have a lot of parks, bike trails/lanes etc, then why not at least have larger yards? Small lots are fine so long as the community is planned right. For the number one suburb in the nation, I just don't see much there besides good schools. Seems a bit overated to me. I didn't say there was nowhere to shop, I asked if there were health food stores (or places like whole foods, trader joes etc). I didn't say there were no sport facilities, I asked what they had? My kids play hockey etc. With the extreme weather, is there indoor facilities? I see a lot of big churches taking up prime real estate, but don't see too many other structures that could be those kinds of things. Only Walmart, Khols etc.
I really do think that I have just set the bar way too high here and I'm expecting way too much out of OKC and or its suburbs. It's just not the kind of city I'm used to and I'm not sure I'm ready to move to a city just to buy a big cheap home.
I'll stop posting in the OK forums because I know I'm kinda rubbing people the wrong way though. Thanks for all the info. We shall see.
I switched gears to what a nice suburb is in my opinion. Big difference between homes crammed into a suburban development with very little park space vs urban rowhouses etc. My point is that if you are going to be way out there and you are not going to have a lot of parks, bike trails/lanes etc, then why not at least have larger yards? Small lots are fine so long as the community is planned right. For the number one suburb in the nation, I just don't see much there besides good schools. Seems a bit overated to me. I didn't say there was nowhere to shop, I asked if there were health food stores (or places like whole foods, trader joes etc). I didn't say there were no sport facilities, I asked what they had? My kids play hockey etc. With the extreme weather, is there indoor facilities? I see a lot of big churches taking up prime real estate, but don't see too many other structures that could be those kinds of things. Only Walmart, Khols etc.
I really do think that I have just set the bar way too high here and I'm expecting way too much out of OKC and or its suburbs. It's just not the kind of city I'm used to and I'm not sure I'm ready to move to a city just to buy a big cheap home.
I'll stop posting in the OK forums because I know I'm kinda rubbing people the wrong way though. Thanks for all the info. We shall see.
thank you.
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Nothing has changed on this front since you started this thread last week: 
