Moving to DFW area (Dallas, Arlington: transplants, rent, credit)

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by 5stones

We moved from NOVA a few years ago as well.

A few pointers... go under your budget. The 2.5 avg property taxes really add up. There are pleanty of areas with good schools where you can get a very nice home for 400k.
Also remember things like Home owners insurance are higher here, and the utility bills will be much higher. +3000sqft house will avg you 250-300/month then gas will be around 150/month. (we have had over 60 days of 100 degree weather this year....) A/C will run usually from May-Oct. But then Jan and Feb will be pretty cold (and thses houses are not insulated that well)

Taxes and insurance will add up if you buy a big house. And your electric bills will add up if you buy an older house. But if you buy a new house that is reasonably priced, then all will be low.

Originally Posted by YouKnowWho

Not sure what your source of info is, but Allen schools, for 2010, were rated "Exemplary." Plano was rated as "Recognized," a step below. Info pulled from Texas Education Agency's website. I would say both Allen and Plano are pretty good districts. But, in terms of performance, Allen's at the top.

Performance?

Just count the number of National Merit Semifinalists and % of class taking and passing AP exams. For NMSF, Allen has just a handful last year while Plano had close to 100 and Plano had a very high number of AP passes. Allen is not in the same league as Plano at all.

[novaite]

5Stones, yes I live in Great Falls. As for $600K, I was mainly using that as a "guide" because it seems that $900K will buy us a house about the size of our current home (my wife and I both now think that our house is sort of a waste of space so we want to "downsize" to a 3500 to 4000 sq ft home). Our electric bill for the last 3 months has averaged $1K per month anyway so I don't think we'll complain too much at this point if it drops to $500 per month. As for the winter months, one concern we had was does it get cold at all in DFW area but you answered that. Are car insurance higher or about the same as NOVA? No car tax will sure nice for a change but it seems that the 2.5% to 3% home tax will more than wash that compared to our 1% home tax here. As for work, I get to work 100% from home so no commute at all so if a great school district happened to b 90 miles away from Dallas, we're totally fine but that's just a figure of speech per se. It seems that Coppell and Plano seems to offer more of what we're looking for. While Highland Park is nice, it sort of reminds me of Chevy Chase and too close to the city which we're not all that excited about. Nice homes in HP by the way, probably nicer homes than McLean/Great Falls area, IMO.

Also, our plan to initially rent - ideally we'd like to rent a house $3K per month is fine for the 1st year i the area we plan on settling to. Meaning, we don't want to rent in say Plano when we are actually thinking of settling in Coppell. I was contemplating in renting in HP or UP but the homes there seem more on the 20+ years old side. Reminds me of HP, Wilmette, Northbrook in Chicago area and Chevy Chase sort of.

[CREW747]

If you have a $600,000 plus budget check out Highland Park/University Park as number one and Southlake as number 2.Those 2 school districts can not be beat right now.The only northern suburb I would spend $600,000 plus would be Prosper.No to Allen,Frisco,Mc Kinney & Plano in that price range....

[skids929]

Originally Posted by CREW747

If you have a $600,000 plus budget check out Highland Park/University Park as number one and Southlake as number 2.Those 2 school districts can not be beat right now.The only northern suburb I would spend $600,000 plus would be Prosper.No to Allen,Frisco,Mc Kinney & Plano in that price range....

I don't think that $600k gets you very far in the Park Cities does it? And I can't see why you wouldn't drop $600k in Plano. I sure would, if I had $600k.

[Philly12]

I highly recommend the Frisco/Plano area. The schools in my opinion, are tied between Frisco and Plano. But I'd have to say Frisco would be the best choice. Plano is a great city, but in my opinion, Frisco has better shcools and there are plenty of parks for the little ones.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by skids929

I don't think that $600k gets you very far in the Park Cities does it? And I can't see why you wouldn't drop $600k in Plano. I sure would, if I had $600k.

Crew would drop $600k in Prosper because he's the freakin' city booster club president That doesn't mean anyone else would. Plano is the ONLY CoCo burb I'd spend $600k in because of the schools and the fact that it's 99% built out.

$600k will either get you a tiny cottage (3/2 1800sf) or a fairly new construction single-family attached in the Park Cities. Not much bigger/more than that. You really need $750k to start looking at decent single family homes.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Philly12

I highly recommend the Frisco/Plano area. The schools in my opinion, are tied between Frisco and Plano. But I'd have to say Frisco would be the best choice. Plano is a great city, but in my opinion, Frisco has better shcools and there are plenty of parks for the little ones.

Honest question- if Frisco has better schools than Plano, how do you explain that Plano's SAT scores rank 3, 4, and 5 in the DFW area and Frisco's high schools rank between 20-30? How can the schools be better when the SAT scores are 100-130 points lower?

If Frisco's schools are better, how come there aren't more National Merit Semi-Finalists? How do you explain that Plano ISD had 43 this year and Frisco ISD had 4? Even adjusted for size of graduating class, Plano ISD had about 3% of senior class named NMSF. Frisco had about .5% of the class.

If Frisco's schools are better, how come Plano West has the highest passing rate on AP exams in the metroplex (PWSH -72%, Plano Senior -62%, Plano East 50%)? Frisco's pass rates are terrible- 38%, 30%, 28.7%. How can the better district have only 1/3 of students passing college-level exams?

I've asked these questions to other posters who claim Frisco is "THE BEST" and I've yet to have those posters respond. I doubt you will either once you ponder that Frisco's "awesomeness" comes only from an Exemplary TEA rating (congrats, your lily white school kids can read & write and don't drop out of high school.....)

[novaite]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Crew would drop $600k in Prosper because he's the freakin' city booster club president That doesn't mean anyone else would. Plano is the ONLY CoCo burb I'd spend $600k in because of the schools and the fact that it's 99% built out.

$600k will either get you a tiny cottage (3/2 1800sf) or a fairly new construction single-family attached in the Park Cities. Not much bigger/more than that. You really need $750k to start looking at decent single family homes.

What part of Plano would be considered the "better" part per se? HP is probably not going to be considered by us at this point due to housing cost and being so close to downtown Dallas (that's actually a minus for us). We love to visit large cities but not live in or right by them. For example, we go to NYC a lot but we would never want to live there.

For the right house/home we'd spend the right amount of $. Wife is still insisting on private schools but I'm against it. Although I will say that my kids attended private and now attend public and they are bored out of their mind because they seem 1 to 2 grades ahead in terms of curriculum. But I really want my kids to grow up with friends that will eventually be going to same elementary, middle, and high school together. Private has its plus for sure, but their friends are all over the place and never in the same neighborhood.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by novaite

What part of Plano would be considered the "better" part per se? HP is probably not going to be considered by us at this point due to housing cost and being so close to downtown Dallas (that's actually a minus for us). We love to visit large cities but not live in or right by them. For example, we go to NYC a lot but we would never want to live there.

For the right house/home we'd spend the right amount of $. Wife is still insisting on private schools but I'm against it. Although I will say that my kids attended private and now attend public and they are bored out of their mind because they seem 1 to 2 grades ahead in terms of curriculum. But I really want my kids to grow up with friends that will eventually be going to same elementary, middle, and high school together. Private has its plus for sure, but their friends are all over the place and never in the same neighborhood.

1. I would at least drive through the Park Cities if you've never been there. Yes, it's close to downtown but it looks like Westchester County, not Manhattan! It's not even like Atlanta's Buckhead because there's no skyscrapers/high-rises/ office buildings in the Park Cities. It's residential, park space, and commercial (restaurants, shops, etc). There's more traffic near my office on the Frisco/North Plano border than in the Park Cities. I can't remember ever being "stuck in traffic" in the Park Cities- and I grew up there. Anyhoo, if you've visited and thought it was too city-ish for you, no big deal. But if you're just going on what you think it's like based on proximity to downtown, give it a try. Dallas' residential neighborhoods look VERY suburban with a few exceptions (Uptown, Turtle Creek/oak Lawn, Deep Ellum).

2. Most people perceive Plano West to be the strongest of the 3 "feeder" systems in PISD- based on SAT's, AP, NMSF, it's hard to disagree! The Plano West attendance zone mostly runs up the Dallas North Tollroad side of Plano (vs US75 side on the east) and extends a bit west of the Tollroad and all the way east past Preston Road. It goes from a bit south of George Bush Tollroad (190) almost all the way north to 121. The high school itself is on Parker midway between Tollroad & Preston.

[skids929]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Crew would drop $600k in Prosper because he's the freakin' city booster club president That doesn't mean anyone else would. Plano is the ONLY CoCo burb I'd spend $600k in because of the schools and the fact that it's 99% built out.

Totally!