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Old 02-11-2011, 10:31 AM
 
8 posts, read 18,977 times
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Hello All

In April my wife and I will be relocating to the Dallas area from Kansas City. We currently live in Overland Park (SW Kansas suburb of KC). If you’re familiar with the area, we enjoy where we are. It’s close to shopping restaurants, good schools, etc. With only a few contacts in the area I've found this forum to be very helpful and am now looking for advice on where to focus are search for a house given some of our preferences.

My office will be in Lewisville (at I35 & E Corporate Dr.). I'm looking to try and stay within 30 minutes on the commute side. One of the consistent things I've heard about Dallas is that the traffic is horrible

My wife is a registered nurse and will be looking for employment as well. She currently works in a clinical environment. Where she works now has been nice since they have several locations around our house now and she has been able to work for several different specialists as well. She has also been applying for FNP programs in Texas, so she may end up going to UT-Arlington

My wife is also pregnant with our first child and due in August. One her biggest stresses is finding a good OB doctor in the area and finding very good hospital for delivery. When the time comes, we'll need to find a good daycare and would prefer one with some form of curriculum

We’ll be down in Dallas at the beginning of March, but currently have been looking online in Plano (75093 & 75024 zip codes) & within the Coppell school district. We’re in our late 20’s and our budget is up to $350k. We’re both very social and without knowing many people in the DFW area, we want to be in an area where we can make friends with those in the community. Some other general items we’re looking for
- Good schools
- Close to the interstate
- Close to shopping, restaurants, and a good gym that provides daycare on the grounds. I know there are several Lifetime gyms in the area.
- An area that is established and will probably hold its value for when it may come time to sell.

Flower Mound is an area that seems to be mentioned a lot. It’s close to my work, but at least from the map appears to be rather isolated being flanked by a lake. We’ve also been told avoid Plano because of foreclosure issues. Not sure if that is true because I haven’t seen that discussed much

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to get everything out there. We see this big wave in the distance coming our way and looking for any advice we can get.

Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-11-2011, 11:10 AM
 
Location: DFW - Coppell / Las Colinas
40,152 posts, read 45,849,204 times
Reputation: 52620
You will be working in a great location which will offer you a lot of good options. You need to find an agent who is familiar with the areas and can give you at minimum a quick tour and show you the highlights.

Every city you've mentioned is good with good schools. Coppell, Flower Mound, Castle Hills, Plano, Frisco all work. Forget what you hear about Plano & foreclosures, the market in the desirable parts is steady and should return to strong in the next year or so. Coppell is wonderful, is a small town and can be rather difficult to find a good home there. It has the perfect location and outstanding schools.

Frisco is loaded with young couple like yourself, great schools & close to much entertainment. Castle Hills would be good. It's a high end development and $350 might be hard to find but doable.

Another nice area is Lantana. You can get a very nice brand new home there but it might be to far out since it is past Flower Mound. Flower Mound is one of my favorite cities and areas. Beautiful trees & hills and good house pricing with a well planned city.

Main thing is you need to hook up with someone (a good RE agent) who will give some time in showing you around and educating you on the positives and trade offs of each area. Every area I just mentioned is true suburbia, has good schools and is loaded with families and many young kids.
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Old 02-16-2011, 06:43 AM
 
473 posts, read 1,140,653 times
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I moved from Overland Park too .For housing & lifestyle perspective, if you are looking for something similar to Overland Park, Flower Mound is the closest with family & kids environment, open area with less population density, lots of soccer moms, excellent schools and close to DFW airport, generally 30 - 45 mins from all major locations in DFW. Once the DFW connector project is completed the overall commute time will further improve.
OP to Dallas is certainly a transition. After living in OP (not sure about you) I wanted to live in a similar place with an easy transition to my family. Property taxes are very high in DFW ranging from 2 to 3.2%. Its 2.1 % in Flower Mound. Traffic is bad everywhere in DFW during peak hours. You will also find auto ,home insurance, water and energy bills higher than Kansas. Your work location seems very close to FM, Lewisville and Coppell. FM is attracting a lot of new hospitals recently. Check the Presbyterian Hospital of Flower Mound. If you are willing to commute 30+ minutes there are other cities as well. I suggest you visit here and see some cities/ neighborhoods before closing on the areas you want to focus based on your personal choices.
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Old 02-16-2011, 09:10 AM
 
Location: Simmering in DFW
6,951 posts, read 21,876,349 times
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I have heard from many new moms that the Las Colinas Medical Center has the most upscale and over the top birthing environment. It is a small, very personal hospital.

Women's Services - Las Colinas Medical Center
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Old 02-16-2011, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Texas
44,252 posts, read 61,368,486 times
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It's Frisclosure, not Plano... *grin*

Sounds like you picked a lot of great areas and probably can't go wrong with any of them.
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Old 02-16-2011, 10:09 AM
 
1,256 posts, read 2,377,110 times
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I have a cousin and a couple of close friends in Overland Park, and I immediately thought of Flower Mound as the most proximate of DFW suburbs. Great schools and family environment. Coppell is wonderful too. With your work location, both are high and above any other choice.

I wouldn't completely rule out Plano -- school are top notch, and there are some good houses in your price range.

Frisco -- not bad. Some very nice neighborhoods and you will likely get more home for the money. Has some growing pains. Traffic is awful there because of all the shopping and restaurants. Seems like the schools are not quite at the same level as FM, Coppell, or Plano.

You'll have lots of good options in your price range. Welcome to DFW.
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Old 02-16-2011, 01:06 PM
 
13,117 posts, read 26,515,964 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rakin View Post
Every city you've mentioned is good with good schools. Coppell, Flower Mound, Castle Hills, Plano, Frisco all work. Forget what you hear about Plano & foreclosures, the market in the desirable parts is steady and should return to strong in the next year or so. Coppell is wonderful, is a small town and can be rather difficult to find a good home there. It has the perfect location and outstanding schools.
Just to add the recent (Q4 2010) Home sale statistics onto this post, here's what's going on in the north burbs vs 1 year ago:
Dallas Area Home Sales - Business News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News


Plano
# of Home Sales -11%
Median Price +3% ($222k)
Median DOM 67 days
Median Price Per Squre Foot = $96

Frisco
# of Home Sales -10%
Median Price +5% ($242k)
Median DOM 71
Median Price Per Square Foot = $93

Coppell
# of Home Sales -5%
Median Price +7% ($282k)
Median DOM 57
Median Price Per Square Foot = $116

Lewisvile-Flower Mound (encompasses Castle Hills)
# of Home Sales -11%
Median Price +5% ($201k)
Median DOM 71
Median Price Per Square Foot = $94

Sales prices are on the upswing again across the metroplex, but the bad factor still indicating weakness in the market is that the # of sales is down double-digits to LY (which has been the case since the tax credit expired). If too many buyers pull out, prices will fall.

Based on TODAY's market health, Coppell would be the safest bet with # of sales off slightly (-5%) and price up a healthy 7% to LY. I'm sure pockets of Plano / Frisco/ FM are seeing similar activity, but those burbs as a whole are weaker than Coppell as a whole.
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Old 02-16-2011, 01:42 PM
 
8 posts, read 18,977 times
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Thanks...great information.

We are looking forward to getting our feet on the ground down there in a couple weeks. I'll let you know what we thought.
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Old 02-16-2011, 01:56 PM
 
3,478 posts, read 6,178,033 times
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Coppell is good. Don't count out Grapevine either. I'd probably stay away from Lewisville proper--it can be a little run down in areas and the schools are quite as good as those that feed into Flower Mound High School and Marcus High School.

I think you would really like the western half of Flower Mound & Highland Village. With your office location, it's really a great fit.

Check out Wellington. It's a master planned community and the home values have risen and seem to be holding well based on what I've seen (parents live in the area). It's surrounded by 2 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school--all exemplary. Depending on which part of the neighborhood you are in, you can walk to some of the schools easily. It has 2 community pools and a decent community gym included in your HOA fees. It's a 3-5 minute drive to Lifetime and 10 minutes from all the shopping off 407/2499. Your budget will give you a very nice selection of homes in Wellington and the surrounding neighborhoods.

You might like Bridlewood too, though it is a little more pricey. There are tons of other great neighborhoods in the area as well--I just point out Wellington because of the amenities and proximity to Lifetime Fitness.
Quote:
Lewisvile-Flower Mound (encompasses Castle Hills)
# of Home Sales -11%
Median Price +5% ($201k)
Median DOM 71
Median Price Per Square Foot = $94
That's kind of an odd grouping. Flower Mound and Lewisville are very different and those numbers probably don't represent either side accurately. I feel more like I'm in Frisco when I'm in Castle Hills, too.
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Old 02-16-2011, 02:30 PM
 
13,117 posts, read 26,515,964 times
Reputation: 12983
Quote:
Originally Posted by mSooner View Post
That's kind of an odd grouping. Flower Mound and Lewisville are very different and those numbers probably don't represent either side accurately. I feel more like I'm in Frisco when I'm in Castle Hills, too.
They're all in MLS area #41 - that's how the info is organized, by MLS area.
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