2 Day Scouting trip - Ideas (northern 'burbs) (Carrollton, Lewisville: house, buy)

[ChristieP]

There's no reason to commute from McKinney/Allen to Lewisville. The areas you mention are just as good and closer. I agree that a .5 acre lot is just not possible in suburban DFW.

Take Coppell off your list. Unless you luck into a foreclosure/short sale, or smaller/older home, your budget is too low for Coppell. Skip The Colony: old, cheap houses that are not well-maintained, and crappy schools. Flower Mound would be a GREAT place to look since Lewisville is just east of it.

Remember that "Asian" on the census also includes people from India, which is not your daughter's ethnicity at all.

[racehorse]

Flower Mound is good, as is North Carrollton--as I mentioned earlier. We live across the road from the North Carrollton area--literally Lewisville on one side of the road and Carrollton on the other--and are about 10 minutes from Vista Ridge Mall.

[jennifw]

If you are trying to "sell" your wife on a move, you might want to include a trip to NorthPark mall. It isn't too far from Carrollton/Flowermound, but a "premier" mall in this area and great for high-end shopping. There are several nice restaurants in the mall and nearby so you could tie it into dinner.

Good luck.

[Texafornian]

If she wants to see a lot of Asian people, take her to Costco on Dallas Parkway in Plano

[txgolfer130]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

There's no reason to commute from McKinney/Allen to Lewisville. The areas you mention are just as good and closer. I agree that a .5 acre lot is just not possible in suburban DFW.

Take Coppell off your list. Unless you luck into a foreclosure/short sale, or smaller/older home, your budget is too low for Coppell. Skip The Colony: old, cheap houses that are not well-maintained, and crappy schools. Flower Mound would be a GREAT place to look since Lewisville is just east of it.

Remember that "Asian" on the census also includes people from India, which is not your daughter's ethnicity at all.

While I agree partially that commuting from McKinney/Allen will get old after a while, there is a few subdivisions in McKinney w/ .5+ acre lots. But then again Lewisville is just 20-25 minutes down the road from McKinney/Allen, so it's really not that far in general.

But there's also Frisco, Plano, and Carrollton. All have needles in the haystack, but then again what place doesn't.

[racehorse]

There is a place called Super H Mart in Carrollton near George Bush tollway, and there's another Asian market on Josey Lane in Carrollton. I've lived in the area for 10 years and I can attest to the fact that there are tons of Asians in the area.

[Texafornian]

Originally Posted by racehorse

There is a place called Super H Mart in Carrollton near George Bush tollway, and there's another Asian market on Josey Lane in Carrollton. I've lived in the area for 10 years and I can attest to the fact that there are tons of Asians in the area.

My wife just went there yesterday for the first time, and said it was the nicest Korean supermarket she has EVER been in. And we've gone to all of them from the Bay to LA multiple times.

[PlanoGirl]

For parks, maybe check out Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano.

City of Plano - Home (http://plano.gov/Departments/parksandrecreation/Parks/Pages/arbor_hills.aspx - broken link)

There's also a great park in Coppell with a h huge wooden play structure your daughter would love.

http://www.ci.coppell.tx.us/index.ph...728&Itemid=996

For shopping, Watters Creek is a nice center...very walkable with great restaurants and a more "green" vibe. But if you are going to live a lot further west than that I would go check out Shops at Legacy, Willow Bend Mall, Stonebriar Mall, downtown Grapevine, Grapevine Mills.

[CREW747]

In that price range and working in Lewisville, The eastern part of Flower Mound 75028 zip code,would be a good area to check out.Prosper is near Frisco and offers larger lots and strict zoning but with higher home prices,about $240,000 plus.Zip codes 75025 and 75024 in North Plano have a great Asian presence.The houses are crammed together on small lots, that would be the negative. The location would be good.Check out....

- Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.Great place to go during the Christmas season
- Southlake Town square
- Northpark Mall
- Uptown in Dallas
- Dallas Arboretum
- Galleria Dallas
- Stockyards in Fort Worth are cool to see

Some thoughts on Frisco......The suburbs around Dfw have alot to offer.When we moved to the northern suburbs from Dallas we did so to avoid paying for private schooling in the future, lower property taxes,more energy efficient homes to choose from and less crime.If we could have gotten 3 of the 4 in our old are of Lakewood we would not have moved.The northern suburbs are overall not diverse,but there are diverse pockets within Plano,Allen, Frisco and Mc kinney.As far as crime goes, I have heard stories and witnessed behaviors from the stay at home moms of Frisco that have frightened me alot more than passing by a sketchy character in Dallas.Frisco is an area I would avoid at all costs.Those who choose the suburbs to have a 4000 square foot house on a tiny lot and 3 leased luxury cars on $70,000 a year help give the suburbs a bad name.Frisco is the epitomy of this from what I have seen.It was quite strange going to a few football games ( supporting a friends child ) at the high school level on Friday nights and finding the stands practically empty.There are many renters and people here on temporary business that flock to Frisco. It is a bit hard to explain unless you see it for yourself

Places like Southlake,Coppell,Colleyville Flower Mound and Prosper seem a bit less generic and are overall more expensive to live in.Higher median home prices,lager lots,higher taxes.Many people likenmyself moved to the northern burbs from Dallas because it made more sense financially.

[mikeh19468]

Originally Posted by CREW747

Some thoughts on Frisco......The suburbs around Dfw have alot to offer.When we moved to the northern suburbs from Dallas we did so to avoid paying for private schooling in the future, lower property taxes,more energy efficient homes to choose from and less crime.If we could have gotten 3 of the 4 in our old are of Lakewood we would not have moved.The northern suburbs are overall not diverse,but there are diverse pockets within Plano,Allen, Frisco and Mc kinney.As far as crime goes, I have heard stories and witnessed behaviors from the stay at home moms of Frisco that have frightened me alot more than passing by a sketchy character in Dallas.Frisco is an area I would avoid at all costs.Those who choose the suburbs to have a 4000 square foot house on a tiny lot and 3 leased luxury cars on $70,000 a year help give the suburbs a bad name.Frisco is the epitomy of this from what I have seen.It was quite strange going to a few football games ( supporting a friends child ) at the high school level on Friday nights and finding the stands practically empty.There are many renters and people here on temporary business that flock to Frisco. It is a bit hard to explain unless you see it for yourself

So will this be your new cut and paste answer when someone inquires about the North Dallas Suburbs? If you can't pump Prosper, bash it's neighbors? At least it's a change from the Prosper Welcome Wagon pamphlet....

I've been living in Frisco for a couple of months now, and the people in my development are quite normal, and diverse (in the development, and even on my street).

That being said, for the OP, take a good look at any neighborhoods you're thinking about, regardless of what 'burb they might be in. Many of the suburbs are large, and not homogeneous throughout (unless you're in a tiny, northern suburb that hopes to grow larger someday, but is still small and not very diverse). Drive through the neighborhoods on a weekend and see who's out (preferably when the heat wave breaks a bit), check out some of the potential schools your daughter might go to, and eyeball what the diversity looks like at first glance. If you can find something in Flower Mound that's acceptable price wise, that would probably be a good first choice, with the Castle Hills area a good second, but several of the other suburbs you mentioned, and that others have mentioned are equally good options. Just don't get too far off the major highways if you're looking farther out, as that will make the commute much tougher. The census map is a good reference point too, but as other posters have mentioned, it doesn't differentiate between east Asian and sub continent Asians, and you'll find large pockets of both around town.