Panic attack set in motion starting......NOW. Help with relocation questions please? (Dallas: rentals, new home)

[chrteam]

Hello Texas friends.

My husband just got a job located at the Dallas morning news building in Downtown just this past weekend. I have lived in the same Southern Calif small town for 36 years have an 8yr old and a 2 yr old. Im so nervous I can barely breathe. Im feeling so blessed for this opportunity but so scared of uprooting my family. We live in the Inland empire so we are used to the 100+ days for a few months of the summer. I went onto your relocation thread read it all. I read the thread on whats the good and bad on Dallas and I think 18 pages of it was talking about how hot and miserable it is. I know there is some good some where in there but not a lot was posted on it. Why do you love Texas??

Also, If you can help here are some questions I have.

-Where he is located for business can you please tell me the best areas where he would have the most a 45 min drive I read Plano and Frisco but what are the others? (our rent budget maybe $1500 to $2500 max)

-We are looking to rent our home out here and then rent in texas what are the best places to look for rentals?

-Im hoping because our neighborhood is a ghost town now, a neighborhood where kids are playing in the street so any advice on some really great family neighborhoods?

Also a last question. I have my son in a private christian school out here but when looking out in the Texas area I almost spit my drink out. His tuition is $5200 a year out here and it looks like Dallas schools are in upwards of $11,000 +. That is double which is crazy to me. Why is a private education in the elementary level so pricey??

Thank you for any help you can give!!!! We are going there not knowing a soul and I am just so scared I was hoping someone can take a second to help me. I have to start looking stat!

Thank you
Christi

[Pooua]

Originally Posted by chrteam

Hello Texas friends.

My husband just got a job located at the Dallas morning news building in Downtown just this past weekend. I have lived in the same Southern Calif small town for 36 years have an 8yr old and a 2 yr old. Im so nervous I can barely breathe. Im feeling so blessed for this opportunity but so scared of uprooting my family. We live in the Inland empire so we are used to the 100+ days for a few months of the summer. I went onto your relocation thread read it all. I read the thread on whats the good and bad on Dallas and I think 18 pages of it was talking about how hot and miserable it is. I know there is some good some where in there but not a lot was posted on it. Why do you love Texas??

I wouldn't say love is the right word, but I prefer to be in Texas because it is a big, open country where I have some freedom to behave as I wish, without a lot of pushy people trying to force me under force of law to conform to their ideals. Also, I hate filing taxes, and it's great that I don't have to file state taxes in Texas. I like that I'm about in the middle of the contiguous U.S., so no place on the mainland is all the far away.

Originally Posted by chrteam

Also, If you can help here are some questions I have.

-Where he is located for business can you please tell me the best areas where he would have the most a 45 min drive I read Plano and Frisco but what are the others? (our rent budget maybe $1500 to $2500 max)

Depending on the time of day he travels, he could leave from just about anywhere around Dallas or its satellite cities. The DMN building is a 30-minute drive from my home in Plano, but I have to drive across Richardson to get there.

[TrueDat]

Can't help you with schools though, in terms of public schools, everyone raves about the Richardson school system. It's an older suburb just north of Dallas and that gives you a bit of a commute but nothing like going from the Inland Empire into Los Angeles.

In terms of making the adjustment from Southern California, it's not that bad, especially if you're coming from the IE.

Do you make use of all Southern California has to offer (beaches, skiing, entertainment industry) or do you pretty much just hang in the IE? If it's the former, then, yes, Dallas might be a bit of a shock to the system. But there are tons of former Californians here and Dallas is a big city with plenty to do.

[TurtleCreek80]

There aren't tons of neighborhoods where kids play freely outside, especially in the suburbs. I think the combination of rear-entry garages and over scheduled kids is the root problem.

There are some great neighborhoods near downtown that have an almost Norman Rockwell-esque vibe about them- kids playing freely in the neighborhood, a quaint "downtown" shopping center, neighbors sitting on porches drinking wine together at dusk, lemonade stands and ice cream trucks in the summer. I would recommend looking in the East Dallas neighborhoods of the M Streets & Lakewood Terrace (75206) or the Santa Monica / Hollywood Heights (75223). All are zoned to exemplary elementary schools- Lakewood Elementary, Stonewall Jackson, and Lee. All are within a 10 minute drive to Belo downtown.

You could also look in Lake Highlands (75238) in northeast Dallas. Very family friendly and about 15-18 minutes to downtown. It's zoned to Richardson schools which are also well regarded publics. Both LH and East Dallas are within your price range; just set your expectations that it won't be a 4,000sf brand new home.

I think because all of these are older neighborhoods (1920-1960's), there's more of a sense of community and tradition. Newcomers definitely move in every year but they assimilate to neighborhood traditions & handouts (ie, Lakewood July 4th parade or events at LH's Flagpole Hill, dinners out @ Matt's Rancho or Scalini's pizza in Lakewood Village). In newer neighborhoods, these traditions don't exist and folks seem to look elsewhere (work. School, church, erv) for community than to their neighbors. Whether you use public schools or not, the schools I mentioned in East Dallas all have "early childhood" PTA's which have the goal of connecting other neighborhood families with kids 0-5 through social and volunteer events. The volunteer events raise money and support the local schools, but you can use privates and still join the ECPTA My girlfriends who live there have met most of their closest female and couple friends through the ECPTA.

The Catholic elementary schools (St Thomas Aquinas is in East Dallas) are a bit under $10k through grade 8. First Baptist Academy downtown is about $10k. Highlander and Schofield are two Christian schools in Lake Highlands that are about $10k per year. I don't know why they're higher than in CA but it's definitely the going rate.

[barnabasc]

If you are working downtown, Lakewood and the M-Streets would suit you best and you won't have to worry about paying for private schools or freeway traffic.

[TurtleCreek80]

These are some current listings in the neighborhoods I mentioned above. *You can also find listings on Craig's list or by driving through the neighborhoods and taking #'s off "for rent" signs.*

East Dallas homes-->*
6341 Glennox Lane Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11704150 - Realtor.com®

6155 Richmond Ave Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11712735 - Realtor.com®

4333 Delmar Ave Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11716495 - Realtor.com®

Lake Highlands homes -->
10054 Faircrest Drive Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11716264 - Realtor.com®

9211 Briarhurst Drive Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11674965 - Realtor.com®

9103 Moss Farm Ln Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11717635 - Realtor.com®

10623 Le Mans Drive Dallas TX - Home for Rent - MLS #11714614 - Realtor.com®

[chrteam]

Thank You, Pooua, that state tax thing is AWESOME! love it, appreciate your feedback. Yes true, we are centrally located in the IE to all those things, and have seen and done all of it being a cali native but change is good, a new adventure as Im trying to look at it that way. Thank you Turtle creek for taking the time to post those. I got a couple and googled them and drove around the neighborhoods nice areas Also you brought me there with the norman rockwell painted picture of the neighborhoods. I wish it could be that way but I know its hard to find anymore I have so much research to do.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Most of the schools in the metroplex are very good so few people bother to pay for private schools. In Texas, the Independent School Districts (ISD) do NOT follow city or county lines. You need a realtor who knows the area to tell you which part of which town is in which ISD.

[busterkeaton]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

There aren't tons of neighborhoods where kids play freely outside, especially in the suburbs. I think the combination of rear-entry garages and over scheduled kids is the root problem.

There are some great neighborhoods near downtown that have an almost Norman Rockwell-esque vibe about them- kids playing freely in the neighborhood, a quaint "downtown" shopping center, neighbors sitting on porches drinking wine together at dusk, lemonade stands and ice cream trucks in the summer. I would recommend looking in the East Dallas neighborhoods of the M Streets & Lakewood Terrace (75206) or the Santa Monica / Hollywood Heights (75223). All are zoned to exemplary elementary schools- Lakewood Elementary, Stonewall Jackson, and Lee. All are within a 10 minute drive to Belo downtown.

You could also look in Lake Highlands (75238) in northeast Dallas. Very family friendly and about 15-18 minutes to downtown. It's zoned to Richardson schools which are also well regarded publics. Both LH and East Dallas are within your price range; just set your expectations that it won't be a 4,000sf brand new home.

I think because all of these are older neighborhoods (1920-1960's), there's more of a sense of community and tradition. Newcomers definitely move in every year but they assimilate to neighborhood traditions & handouts (ie, Lakewood July 4th parade or events at LH's Flagpole Hill, dinners out @ Matt's Rancho or Scalini's pizza in Lakewood Village). In newer neighborhoods, these traditions don't exist and folks seem to look elsewhere (work. School, church, erv) for community than to their neighbors. Whether you use public schools or not, the schools I mentioned in East Dallas all have "early childhood" PTA's which have the goal of connecting other neighborhood families with kids 0-5 through social and volunteer events. The volunteer events raise money and support the local schools, but you can use privates and still join the ECPTA My girlfriends who live there have met most of their closest female and couple friends through the ECPTA.

The Catholic elementary schools (St Thomas Aquinas is in East Dallas) are a bit under $10k through grade 8. First Baptist Academy downtown is about $10k. Highlander and Schofield are two Christian schools in Lake Highlands that are about $10k per year. I don't know why they're higher than in CA but it's definitely the going rate.

How do those suburban kids survive??? I've been out to a few(suburban areas) to visit friends and I always see kids playing, but if your "parkie" glasses can't see em, well, I guess my eyes must have been lying to me! You're fairly obtuse, but once a parkie always a parkie...I suppose.

[CREW747]

The Canyon Creek area of Richardson or west plano zip code 75093 would be great options since your husband needs to commute to downtown...