Possible Relocation to Dallas area (Fort Worth, Plano: 2014, apartments, condos)

[Chicago5]

We are considering a relocation to the Dallas area and would love any info on the top three areas in: raising a family, kids sports (mine play travel soccer and basketball), excellent schools and friendly and safe neighborhoods. Our price range is $550K-700K. Thank you!

[TurtleCreek80]

Where will your office be and how far (in minutes) do you want to commute each way? DFW is larger than some of the states in New England so desired proximity to your office will drive our recommendations.

[Chicago5]

My husband works out of our home and I am a self employed writer, so commute time isn't important to us. Walkable and friendly neighborhoods with close proximity to Dallas matters, and most important are schools and sports. Thank you so much!

[TurtleCreek80]

There are not many walkable (as in, walking distance to shops, restaurants, etc ) in the Dallas area. You are priced out of the most walkable neighborhood with excellent schools (Highland Park ISD in central Dallas, 75205 & 75225) unless you are willing to look at condos or single-family attached homes.

The next neighborhoods in Dallas that may meet your needs are the M Streets /Hollywood Heights/ Lakewood neighborhoods (Dallas ISD schools feeding into Woodrow Wilson HS) in East Dallas or the neighborhoods in North/Northwest Dallas (but still inside the 635 inner "loop") feeding into Dallas WT White HS. Zip codes are 75214, 75206, 75223 for Woodrow Wilson HS and 75230, 75220, 75229 for WT White. Beware there are a wide range of opinions on both these high schools due to them being minority-majority (mainly Hispanic) and having a lot of low-income kids despite being mostly in wealthy middle to upper middle class neighborhoods with avg home prices north of $500k. (lots of apartments on the fringes of the attendance zones and some lower income neighborhoods feeding into the middle & high school zones). That being said, both are excellent high schools with a "school within a school" environment for the academically competitive kids.

If you want to lower your housing budget, you could still look in the Woodrow & White zoned neighborhoods, but opt for private school. Catholic schools run $8-15k per year and private schools run about $20-25k. If you stayed at $500k you'd have $200k for private school which would afford Private middle and high school for 2 kids as the local elementary schools are excellent quality.

If you decide to pursue suburbs, Southlake, Flower Mound, Coppell, Colleyville, & West Plano all have the home prices and schools you're looking for, yet at 30-60 minute drive times into Dallas. None of these areas are remotely walkable nor is there public transit linking to the city of Dallas.

Just tossing out several different routes you could take:
-condo or single-family attached in best rated HPISD and being in the city
-East Dallas or North/Northwest Dallas with good urban schools and being in the city.
-East Dallas or North/northwest Dallas with less expensive home and private school
-Suburbs with good schools and 30-60 minutes from Dallas

There are tons of threads on the Dallas forum about each of the areas I mentioned. You should run a search and see what strikes your fancy.

[HOAPRESIDENT]

TurtleCreck had great advise. With your price point, you could get something great in Lakewood or the M-Streets. Check out 75206, 75214 in the Stonewall Jackson and Lakewood Elementary school zones. The schools are good. It is a suburban single-family home area. It has unique shops and restaurants and it also has White Rock Lake which is a city park with miles of jogging trails. Lakewood is one of the most family friendly areas possible. In Lakewood "proper" there are no major streets and it borders White Rock, so kids often ride their bikes by themselves down the street. It's a great area.

[FarNorthDallas]

Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Plano, Keller, etc. are typical family-oriented places, but these subdivisions they build now are not walkable other than walking in circles within the subdivision. They have big retaining walls all around them and only 1 or 2 entrances. People just can't walk out their front door and head down the street to a neighborhood restaurant, for instance. It's just not done and usually not even possible.

Friendliness can vary street by street. It's kinda a crapshoot and just depends on if your neighbors are friendly or not, if they have same age kids or not, if their parents allow their kids to play outside or not or with your particular children, if the houses are even occupied. I have a teenage son and we are surrounded by other teenage boys in the neighborhood and no two are friends, much less the group of them. Don't get me started on what happened there....

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

If you decide to pursue suburbs, Southlake, Flower Mound, Coppell, Colleyville, & West Plano all have the home prices and schools you're looking for, yet at 30-60 minute drive times into Dallas. None of these areas are remotely walkable nor is there public transit linking to the city of Dallas.

Take this with a grain of salt... Despite what some posters will try to tell you, the suburbs aren't complete hell.

Southlake has its "town square" development which is full of shops, movie theatres, and restaurants, and MANY people drive there to walk around, shop and eat. It is a VERY popular hangout with teens on weekends, too. I live in Grapevine, which is between Southlake and Colleyville, and I enjoy going to Southlake Town Square. Colleyville also has its own "village" that is similar to Southlake with restaurants, shops, etc. Both of these areas have a few single family attached homes and condos within them, too.

One HUGE advantage of living in the suburbs vs. Dallas is that you will not have to pay for private schools for your children. Schools in the suburbs are extemely competitive in athletics, and much better-rated academically (in most areas) than DISD.

Do keep in mind that Lakewood and M Streets, while very nice and charming, are full of OLD homes that were built anywhere from the 1920s to 1960s. Unless you enjoy the major home upkeep that comes with owning an old house (electrical and plumbing problems, termintes, etc.), this area might not be for you. There some tear-downs that are new, but these are few and far between, and the historical districts were put in place to keep this from happening. For the most part, suburban homes will be MUCH newer, although there are some suburbs (such as Grapevine) that have older, historic homes.

As for getting to/from Dallas, my suburb (Grapevine) is about a 30-minute drive. Southlake and Colleyville are a little less convenient, with about a 40-minute drive. Eventually, the T light rail will come up here (2014, IIRC) and will have connecting service to the Trinity Railway Express to go into either Dallas or Fort Worth. I know a downtown Grapevine station is planned, and last I hear, Colleyville was still squabbling over whether it wanted a station or not.

Good luck with your move!!

[HOAPRESIDENT]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

One HUGE advantage of living in the suburbs vs. Dallas is that you will not have to pay for private schools for your children. Schools in the suburbs are extemely competitive in athletics, and much better-rated academically (in most areas) than DISD.

The big lie.

[Macbeth2003]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Take this with a grain of salt... Despite what some posters will try to tell you, the suburbs aren't complete hell.

I don't think she was saying the suburbs were hell, but if the Op was looking fro walkability from the families neighborhood the suburbs are not where one would find it. You mention Southlake's town square, and yes many people do drive there to walk around, but the key there is DRIVE there to walk around. That isn't really a walkable neighborhood. When I want to go to a restaurant, the local hardware store, park, bar, etc, I have the option of walking there and back - and I have a cane . Different things.
I'm not running the suburbs down, that lifestyle appeals to many people, but TC80 was responding to someone looking for walkability, and the suburbs don't have that. Much like - as you pointed out - if someone said they wanted a new construction home with a three car garage, I wouldn't recommend my part of town

[ChristieP]

I was just trying to give the OP another point of view from what all of the other posters were giving. I've done the "live in a walkable neighborhood in an old 1940s house in DISD" thing and it just didn't work for me. I like living in the suburbs a LOT more!

To me, safety was the big thing. In Dallas, we heard gunshots near our house fairly frequently. My truck was broken into once, and my husband's car was broken into twice. Husband also walked in on a convenience store robbery (thank God he had his CHL!) in a "lovely" neighborhood. Here in the suburbs, the worst thing that has happened was someone stole our trash can off the curb while I was at work.

Second was the upkeep on that old house. Our house had antique plumbing fixtures, which were impossible to find new parts for, so every time something broke, we had to do a major tear-out to replace it. Our house had very poor insulation, and was not originally built with central a/c, and as a result, we froze in the winter and sweated to death all summer, and our utility bills were outrageous. Honestly, our suburban houses, which are about 40 years newer, are much easier on the upkeep and utilities!

As someone pointed out, OP's price range and need for good schools is not going to allow them to live in a "walkable" neighborhood. So, if they are choosing among non-walkable neighborhoods, and commute time is irrelevant, then the suburbs are a logical choice.