Gainesville (Denton, McKinney, Spring: houses, neighborhoods, new construction)

[POAlover]

Hi,
Can anyone share any information about Gainesville? Jobs, economy, the people, would you consider it a pretty area of the state?....etc. Thank you

[940]

Gainesville is a nice town just north of the DFW metro. It's in the next county north of Denton (which is part of DFW) so it's pretty much in the path of a lot of growth and new construction. Gainesville is very close to the Oklahoma border and it's also near huge Lake Texoma which straddles the two states' borders. Horse farms, otherwise known as horse country, surround the town on all sides. IMHO, Gainesville will evenually be lumped into the DFW area officially. It's already considered a part of the ADI (area of dominant influence) that most marketing and media types use in deciding which counties are more influenced by the most dominant city or cities nearby.

The joke here is that eventually DFW, especially its suburbs, will reach all the way to the Oklahoma state line. As it is now, the border is only 30-35 miles north of Denton or McKinney and some of the new housing neighborhoods are already being platted north of these two large suburban cities (both over 100K now)!

More info can be found here: http://www.gainesville.tx.us/

[POAlover]

Can you tell me what the landscape is like? Green, dry, rolling hills, flat etc.

I read they more Tornados than average. When is the tornado season and how long does it last?

Thank you...

[940]

The topography is very similar all around North Texas...some rolling hills and definitely not totally flat. Nice views all around on some of those hills. There are trees but just not like you're used to, I'm sure. It stays fairly green during the spring and summer but after the first freeze around the end of Oct/first of Nov, everything turns brown and will stay that way until at least end of March or first of April. Grass doesn't stay green as it does up north unless you plant winter rye. Clay soils as in most of the DFW area...can be very red clay similar to Oklahoma in fact. Tornadoes are more of a threat further west of the area..especially those areas west of I-35 most anywhere in Texas. The highway seems to be the delineation between the more humid and moist eastern half of Texas and the drier western half (see map below). Gainesville is in the area of Texas that roughly receives 32"-42" of rain a year..less as you head west..more towards the east. The Spring storms near this boundary where dry west winds meet humid east/se winds will bring tornado watches/warnings and there definitely have been tornadoes all over the state but after years of living here on and off since I was a child, I've never dealt with a tornado first hand (keeping fingers crossed so far)! Plenty of watches though and strong and loud spring thunderstorms.

[POAlover]

940,
Thank you for all the information and especially taking the time to post a map of the tornado storms. That is something to consider.

[twisterintexas]

The area around Gainesville is beautiful if you like rolling prairie. The Gainesville has a lot of history, and has a fairly active downtown. Most neighborhoods in the city are older, which is nice because each house has a distinct character.

Gainesville has a very active junior college and some industry. It does get bad weather, though tornadoes are rare. I think it's fair to say that North Texas is in the "hail zone." Just this year Gainesville was pelted with baseball size hail that did some damage to the houses there.

The only draw back to Gainesville is I35. I think the interstate creates a lot of problems, not just with traffic noise, but with bringing unsavory characters and such. I know, I live only a few blocks away from that road.