Hi all (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio: real estate, homes, neighborhood)

[lifertexan]

respjaCK I would suggest you look into Crane, McCamey, or Monahans, Texas.

I'll be honest.I am not knocking the people there,but I live only a couple of hours from this area,and if I were moving to Texas and could pick anywhere to live,this area would be dead last.And I'm not alone.See the Odessa/Midland thread for other's input on the area.Whereas in most other areas of texas you can assume that most everyplace in that area is good and look for the bad ones to avoid,in the Midland/Odessa/Big Spring and surrounding area,you assume the bad and look hard for the good.

[Cedar]

Hi, what about Tool, Tx on Cedar Creek Lake, just about 50 miles southeast of Dallas!

Planning on buying a home there! Hows theyear around weather, I currently live in San Diego, Ca where it is about 70 year round!

[ElizabethD]

I wonder if anyone here knows anything of Paris, Texas. We have been told it's a nice place to live.
We are retired. Trying to get away from California with all it's troubles, gangs and crime.
I'm English. Hubby orig. from Oklahoma.
We will not have very much money when we sell our trailer home here in California and we do live on our SS.
We would love to find a little home - fixer-upper ok. with maybe an acre or two. Country area preferred rather than homes on top of each other.
We would like to have a decent hospital close by, since my Hubby is a heart patient. Shopping not too far away tho.
Somewhere quiet, so we could have our animals.
My questions are...
What are the temps like in Paris? Winter/Summer?
Crime statistics?
Services like Police, Fire, Ambulance etc?
Is it a friendly town?
Anything else anyone would like to add would be much appreciated. We have only just started considering Paris.
Thanks so much
Elizabeth.

[CA2TX]

Hi Elizabeth, I'm new to this forum too. Did you try to find Paris at city-data.com but didn't get a search result? If so, that's odd, because I tried and got the stats and info, like what you're looking for. Bon chance!

[ElizabethD]

Aww. Thanks so much. Someone gave me the url to this forum, so I hadn't even looked further.
I did a ton of research on Paris last night.
I liked everything except that it is no. 77 of all the cities in the US with the highest crime ratio to number of residents. Waaay above the national average. Too bad. Their crime rate currently is 850.8 whereas the national average is 329.7.
Only two cities in Texas are in the top 100 worst crime areas to live in the US. The other is Dallas which comes in at no. 89.
I guess I'm going to have to look more. Too bad, since I was sort of getting excited and especially looking at housing prices there.
I even found the perfect house which was worth investigating.
E.

[Amanda]

Elizabeth, don't give up on Paris. I was born and raised in Paris, Tx. The crime rate may be high, but it is mostly secluded to the west side of town. If you want to be close to the hospital, in a quiet area where you can raise animals, try Powderly, just north of Paris. It's just what you are looking for!

[shannon94]

Originally Posted by californiamom

We are also moving to Texas from California, Fontana to be exact and my husband is all set ready to move and excited but I am a bit nervous, I am scared I will regret and then won't be able to move back. We are looking at Laredo because he has a sister living there and some friends who say how great it is, we have visited once and I enjoyed it a bit laid back to what I am use to, which was nice and people were friendlier where ever we went, can anyone give me an honest opinion.

If you decide you don't like it you will be able to go back. Prices are starting to go down and they are going to plummet over the next couple of years. I moved here from San Diego and Texas takes some getting use to, but it's better than living in the rat race of Cali now. I don't know if I would live in Laredo though. DFW is where I'm at. I need city.

[i_catch_tree_bass]

Originally Posted by ElizabethD

Aww. Thanks so much. Someone gave me the url to this forum, so I hadn't even looked further.
I did a ton of research on Paris last night.
I liked everything except that it is no. 77 of all the cities in the US with the highest crime ratio to number of residents. Waaay above the national average. Too bad. Their crime rate currently is 850.8 whereas the national average is 329.7.
Only two cities in Texas are in the top 100 worst crime areas to live in the US. The other is Dallas which comes in at no. 89.
I guess I'm going to have to look more. Too bad, since I was sort of getting excited and especially looking at housing prices there.
I even found the perfect house which was worth investigating.
E.

I've travelled through Paris and I have family that lives a ways down the road from Paris, but I don't live there so I'm not certain what to say about those crime stats. I would suspect that they are a little misleading, but I don't know what all might be causing that. Paris isn't a city that's really thought of as a "high-crime" area, so I don't know that you should rule it out based on those numbers. After all, statistics can be used to prove anything, 80 percent of people know that.

Hopefully someone from that area could give us a little more insight as to why Paris is rated so poorly.

Also, keep in mind that particularly since you want to be in a slightly more rural setting, you could move outside of Paris fifteen or twenty miles, keeping you close to shopping, health care etc. but opening up several other smaller towns as options for you. Just a suggestion.

[lifertexan]

If you look at the crime stats in the "per 100,000" category,which gives you a pretty true feel for the city,Paris is much higher than most non-metro cities like Abilene or San Angelo.The violent crimes such as murder,rape,armed robbery,and assault are very high compared to other towns.The total counts for each of these violent crimes is very high also.I don't understand why these numbers are high,but I don't think they should be ignored.197 rapes is 197 rapes however you look at the numbers,and when Lubbock,a city of 200,000 , totals 101 rapes something is going on.

[Martie A]

Well, I live about 40 miles south of Paris in Sulphur Springs. I am really unfamiliar with the crime in Paris. I go there for the food (they are larger and have some restaurants we don't have). They do have a very nice downtown area, but the town is a little strange in layout. Because they have a Junior College, it is kind of like 2 towns in one. The east side, where all of the manufacturing plants are i.e. Kimberly Clark, Campbell Soup, and then the side where there is the High School (Only 4A) and the College, shops, restaraunts, etc. Google Paris Junior College Paris Texas to get more info.

If your husband is a Heart Patient, he may want to consider being closer to a major cardiac care hospital. Trinity Mother Francis in Tyler is the best. Towns like Quitman or Mineola would be a nice small town within 45 minute drive of Trinity and East Texas Medical Center, which have small branch hospitals in both towns. If you have a heart condition, ETMC will transfer you to Trinity Mother Francis.

Of course, we would love to have you in Sulphur Springs!!! We have a very good hospital, and it is affiliated with the Baylor Health Care System. We have a medivac unit for transport to Dallas or Tyler if needed.

Check out information Sulphur Springs on my website at www.martieabercrombie.com or visit www.century21firstgroup.com We will be glad to help.