Best family neighborhood, 30 minutes from downtown (Dallas, Fort Worth: apartment, renting, home)

[beakreed]

Thanks Jekutz -- that is really helpful. I have looked really hard at Coppell because of the school and general reputation, so it is nice to hear the commute can be managed. I am also from Los Angeles, so I imagine the traffic will be a little less shocking to me than most.

[khfar]

Originally Posted by GibboK

Hi everyone...can someone give me the zip code for Lake Highland so I can look up some homes there?

75238, 75231 and 75243 are all Lake Highlands. Anything else is not going to be considered LH. And I agree with the other poster who told you to stay south of 635. Definitely. Too much crime on the other side of it.

[Lemastre]

If you want to have a shot at consistently short commute times, stay inside hwy 635E. It's possible to drive into downtown from Richardson and beyond in less than 30 minutes when the traffic gods are with you but not if any sort of fender-bender takes away one lane of the road you're on. Lakewood and Lake Highlands neighborhoods are good choices, as are pockets of homes south and west of White Rock Lake. You have to seek out these areas, and school quality may be iffy. I have no kids in school, so have little idea about that.

[Lakewooder]

School quality is also iffy in many areas outside LBJ - check out Frisco's dearth of National Merit Scholars.

[GoPadge]

Before you start knocking the outlying districts for their performance, you might want to know how many National Merit semifinalist DISD had. While Frisco only had 4 semifinalist they also only had ~1025 graduating seniors.

DISD faired far worse. Out of the ~9800 seniors, only 10 were named semifinalists.

[MaryS80]

people sure are touchy about their school districts. A students success depends a lot on the parents, and the student.

[Lakewooder]

Woodrow in 2007 had a class of 250 with two semifinalists - that beats Frisco by quite a percentage. Last year we also had two who went on to become National Merit Scholars. I think Frisco only had two semi-finalists that year.

In any case Frisco is not keeping up with Plano, by a very long shot..

[Debsi]

Originally Posted by MaryS80

people sure are touchy about their school districts. A students success depends a lot on the parents, and the student.

I totally agree! This obsession with school districts has really struck me since I moved to this area. I learned so much more from my very involved parents and my love of reading than from my schools and I was in a very well-regarded district.

[lh_newbie]

I grue up in a krappy school distrikt and it didn't uffect me none.

[turnbun]

We live in Lake Highlands and really like it. For proximity to downtown, great schools (in an overall great district -- Richardson), and bang for the buck, you can't beat it. We are in the 75243 zip and are zoned to Moss Haven Elementary.
Best of luck in your decision!