Compare/Contrast/ Discuss: (W. Plano) El Ranchero Country Estates or Normandy Estates? or Murphy or Lucas? (Dallas: rent, houses)

[greyhoundrescuer]

After a great job offer, DH and I are considering a move to the DFW area. We currently live in the North Atlanta Suburbs and have lived in very rural, very urban, and very upper-crust suburban areas in the past. I would classify our current neighborhood as upper middle class suburban, homes selling between the low 300's to well over 900's. Our budget is 2mil+.

I was raised in GA, DH is from Ireland. We are both young professionals, though I am planning to stay home with our children when the time comes (we are expecting next February). We are committed to either sending our children to private, likely parochial, schools, or homeschooling, so local schools are only relevant in regards to property values. DH travels frequently for work (4 out of 7 days most weeks) so commute to Love Field is important. I work from home and my work is portable. We plan to either rent or live at a relative's nearby lake house during construction.

Our goals are a safe neighborhood that is fairly stable economically (as much as any neighborhood could be in this economy), a commute to Love Field under an hour (DH spends almost 1.5 hours on the road both ways to the airport right now), family friendly, and convenient to grocery stores, Target/Wal-Mart or the like. Diversity is important, but we would sacrifice it to meet our other needs. A nearby Episcopal church would be a major bonus, as would a good dog park (we have two large dogs).

We are hoping to build and have looked at lots in several areas. Based on your experiences, what sounds like the best fit?

-1-2 acre lot in El Ranchero Country Estates (I can find little outside of our realtor's comments on this subdivision).
-.5-1 acre lot in the developing, gated Normandy Estates.
-lot in Murphy, probably Rolling Ridge
-2+ acre lot in Lucas

[FarNorthDallas]

Are you sure you only need Love Field and not DFW? Love Field flights are only allowed to fly to a few states (for now).

[greyhoundrescuer]

Yes, Love Field. DH is lucky enough use chartered flights or a company plane for his business travel.

[ATLHRLGUY]

What part of Atlanta do you live in now, Duluth, Alpharetta, Roswell? Are you looking for something similar? From the communities you've mentioned I'm thinking you're wanting more suburban, but I could be wrong. With your healthy budget and need for relative proximity to Love Field I would suggest also putting the Park Cities(University Park/Highland Park) or Preston Hollow area of Dallas on your list. These would be the "Buckhead/Brookhaven/Sandy Springs" areas of Dallas. The area and communities of Normandy Estates and El Ranchero in Plano would compare to the Alpharetta/Johns Creek area.

[greyhoundrescuer]

We're in East Cobb right now. I originally looked at Highland Park, but have struggled to find decent, buildable lots---anything over .5acre. Perhaps I'm missing something. Will look into Preston Hollow.

[greyhoundrescuer]

I'm hearing here (and from friends) that W. Plano is probably the best fit out of these four options, any thoughts on one over the other? Is one more or less prestigious? More or less family friendly? More or less convenient? Safer? All around better?

Really overwhelmed by all this right now and looking forward to some outside input. Spending next weekend down in Dallas again. Hopefully we will make a decision!

[momof2dfw]

The area you are looking in around Murphy and Lucas is great. Very nice family friendly area w/ people that are very outgoing and friendly. I know many that live in that area and they socialize all of the time w/ the neighbors. Kids are always playing, etc. To get the size of lot you are looking for you are going to need to go this direction over the Park Cities or West Plano. There are many grand estates in the Lucas, Parker, Murphy area with a lot of the higher level executives, young retired business owners, etc in the area. The only issue with your criteria is the distance to the best private schools in the Dallas area are IN Dallas. Same for a dog park but if you could find a lot that is over an acre then that might be a moot point. I'd look in Parker and see if you can find a lot that is over an acre as most are 2+ acres. And, no, West Plano is not any more prestigious than the Lucas/Parker/Murphy area. Actually, there is probably a little more "wealth" when it relates to actual wealth not just on paper in the Parker area .

[FarNorthDallas]

Yes, West Plano is very nice and quite affluent. Schools are excellent in the area, but still plenty of kids in private school (at the private school my son attended in Dallas, after the large group of kids from Park Cities and Preston Hollow, the next highest group of kids were from West Plano). Great retail. Access to Dallas North Tollway to get to Love Field fast. Golf courses. Gated communities. I think the biggest/most expensive houses are in the Willow Bend area.

There is another neighborhood you might check - where the older [large] houses are being torn down and replaced with new construction and the lots are a bit bigger is the Bent Tree area around the Bent Tree Country Club. It's just south of West Plano in the city of Dallas.

[stan4]

Properties between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 - Page 1 (http://ebby.com/find_a_home/advanced_search/view//Acres/1/Max_Price/2000000/Min_Price/1000000/Zip_Code/75093 - broken link)

Each property is in West Plano, 1+ acre, and is between 1 million and 2 million dollars. One of the properties affords you the rare opportunity to build on undeveloped land...rarely an option in West Plano.

The reason this is a good investment is that even with the downturn in the economy, this part of town held its values relatively well. Love Field is 15 minutes away during non-traffic times and 45 minutes top otherwise.

This affords you the opportunity for a wise investment, proximity to BOTH airports and downtown Dallas all within 20 or 30 minutes (I can get downtown in less than 20 minutes), 3 different lakes in 20 minutes, shopping, restaurants, etc.

Move farther out of town and you can get much bigger plots of land. And more inventory for the price. Most homes in that price range in West Plano are not going to have that much land.

[MurphyPl1]

I live in Rolling Ridge. We have lots of upper level executives and there are a few families that do the private school route. But Murphy is served by excellent schools so most families opt to keep the kids local.