Moving to Texas, considering Southlake, Colleyville and Flower Mound

[CREW747]

We were going to do Southlake but decided on Prosper instead. We relocated here from Greenwich,Ct and Southlake and Prosper felt most like home to us. You and your family will love Southlake. If you need to be in a Fort Worth suburb, Colleyville, Southlake and Trophy Club are the top 3 to look at in my opinion.

[5stones]

Just 2cents FYI here...

Colleyville Heritage HS really outpreforms Southlake Carroll HS with National merit scholars etc...

Also Southlake Carroll is divided into 2 HS 9-10 campus and 11-12 campus the kids take a shuttle to the other if needed.
Colleyville Heritage is 9-12 more tradional HS.

Both are great areas, I perfer Colleyville. But it too is not without it's "keepng up with the Jones' attitude as well" North Texas as whole has alot that attitude, we have found. And for most HS kids here it is quite common for them to get cars for 16th birthday.

We moved our daughter here in the middle of 8th grade and it was somewhat of a culture shock that girls had coach bags and 100.00 jeans etc... but she made some great friends and all of them are pretty down to earth kids and work part jobs etc... She knew that even if we could afford it she was NOT getting a car for her birthday and she would have to work to earn her spending money.

[LJB670]

Gino, thanks that is great to hear! Did you move so your kids could start at the beginning of the school year? Does your son play sports? It seems like that is an important factor for boys fitting in. If not, that is fantastic to hear that he did so well!!

[LJB670]

5 Stones, my son is just starting 8th grade...not sure of the timing but it will obviously be somewhere after school starts. We are coming from a good school district but even when we moved here when he was in 3rd grade there were differences in the curriculum that he needed to adjust to. With the schools being exemplary and competitive was it difficult for your daughter to adjust academically? I don't know how long you have lived there, but by starting in the middle of 8th grade, did your daughter have time to really find her "clique" before the next adjustment of high school? Thanks so much for your input.

[adixyz]

TC80 , padcrasher and 5stones are right on "Keeping up with the Jones". Its upto you to respond to that pressure. Irrespective of any area you choose you will see these pressures.
Since your son is starting 8th grade, its a perfect year to move specially from the high school perspective beginning next year. We moved from Kansas and our son started 9th grade here in FM High school. High Schools are tough depending on the number of AP courses and extra curriculars they are interested. Its very important to choose the right one specially for college preparation. We met the high school councilors of all schools (Coppell, Grapevine, Colleyville Heritage, Carroll, FMHS, Keller..etc) and I suggest you to do the same along with your son preferably during a school session or at least see the school in session if you do not get an appointment with the councillor which may not be easy specially during the start of the year . But overall you can the school environment and how responsive and helpful they are. All schools councilors agreed to meet us except Southlake Carroll HS. She said she'll meet us only after we buy a house in Southlake :-). I don't think we judged Southlake based on her comment and our budget was not high so the chances of us finding anything in Southlake was already grim. We also did'nt like the concept of spending 9th/ 10th grade in one school and 11th/12th 12th in another school.

Overall Southlake and Colleyville are great areas and you cannot go wrong on either of them. If you moved out of FM years ago check the updates on road projects on my response in the other thread.

//www.city-data.com/forum/dalla...mmute-dfw.html

[Gino'61]

Glad to be of assistance, jen333!

We arrived in the summer, so our kids started school for the full year.

Our son was a football player back home, Team Captain and the lot. He naturally wanted to check out the Dragons and spent a couple of weeks with them. He quickly realized that he wouldn't play much and didn't want to be a 2nd or 3rd stinger. He switched gears and joined the Drama and Chorus Groups, getting a secondary role in last year's play and singing his heart out in seveal venues.....I wonder how this guy grew up so versatile...I tell him it must be from his Dad, although I don't know who that is because I was never like that in my youth!

Our daughter had a great year also, even when she's not socially inclined and does not play sports. She loves drawing and cartooning, basically. She regularly got invitations for parties and invited back friends that she made. By now she probably has 2-3 good friends from school and she is very happy overall. My wife played a key role in this, of course.

Hope this helps and good luck with your decision!

[5stones]

LJB670...
Academicly was not really a challenge coming from Northren VA schools we found TX lacking until HS and full AP classes.

She played tennis and made top squad at the MS so right away she had a "group" to help her adjust. Really the kids were great and she really cemented her core friend group by sophomore year which can be hard with kids who have been together since kindergarten. she looked forward to the transition to HS wsince 2 middle schools merged and lots of "new" kids were everywhere. She loved HS and is living with one of her friends from HS in college. The summer before HS was hard and we were supportive in her need to go back to VA to visit etc... I think be able to go back and visit friends helped alot. her biggest adjustment was the sheer size of schools!! But she quickly adjusted and soon the big schools were the norm and her "old" school seemed very small!

My middle child had the hardest transition in 5th grade, alot had to do with the school etc... but she is now a sophomore in HS and had some great friends.

Good luck! moving a teenager is never easy or fun, (we are once again going to do it next year!) but as long as you respect thier need to complain and keep intouch with old friends etc... they will adjust.

My then 8th grader who came kicking and creaming to TX is now a college freshmen and LOVES TX...go figure!

[adiani]

If you fall into the average range of household income and own a median priced house in Southlake, would that be survival deal in such a great community? What if someone wants to buy a 550-650K range house, would they survive in the 'keeping up with Jones' atmosphere?

Market data and research clearly shows that 65-70% of houses in Southlake are priced in the range of 400-650K, I really want to understand the reality of the influencing factor of 30% millionaire families on the entire community? How realistic is it?

[matteo81]

I'll echo what most people have already said; Southlake isn't any more odiously rich than other affluent communities in DFW. It's worth noting that Southlake & Colleyville are communities more concentrated in the higher rung of incomes than say Coppell, West Plano or Flower Mound, where there's a mix of housing and/or apartments in those communities. It's mostly comes down to the crowd your children end up running with; there are pretensious folks at all income levels and communities in the metroplex, but I think we're better about the subject than most other regions of the US.

[Norfolktotexas]

Ljb670 just curious to know what you ended up doing? We are between Southlake and colleyville