Relocating to Dallas (Arlington, Plano, Irving: appointed, apartments, for rent)

[BadenBaden]

Hi Y'all.

My wife and I are moving to Dallas this semester. We have no children, but plan to in the future. I will be working in Irving, but the wife will work in downtown. Our ages are 33-27. We have been looking for houses/condos/townhomes to rent (we wish to wait a bit on buying anything.) Our budget is 1,000-2,000/month. We have two dogs. We also considered renting an apartment, but most of the locations we visited in Las Colinas did not have a dog park.

Anyways, we are clueless about which regions would be best in terms of commute to both locations, safety, entertainment, etc. As far as commute goes, we are willing to spend 40-30 minutes in the car. How safe is Grand Prairie? Why is rent so cheap there? Would Grapevine/Coppell be a fair commute for the both of us? Is there any area in Irving that we should avoid? Is Arlington too far? Is the commute to Plano insane? Any word on Mesquite, DeSoto?

Thanks!

[Rakin]

Irving has a great dog park just minutes from the Las Colinas area. I rented at the St Marion apartments in Coppell and they have several small fenced dog areas

Irving Dog Park

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by BadenBaden

Hi Y'all.

My wife and I are moving to Dallas this semester. We have no children, but plan to in the future. I will be working in Irving, but the wife will work in downtown. Our ages are 33-27. We have been looking for houses/condos/townhomes to rent (we wish to wait a bit on buying anything.) Our budget is 1,000-2,000/month. We have two dogs. We also considered renting an apartment, but most of the locations we visited in Las Colinas did not have a dog park.

Anyways, we are clueless about which regions would be best in terms of commute to both locations, safety, entertainment, etc. As far as commute goes, we are willing to spend 40-30 minutes in the car. How safe is Grand Prairie? Why is rent so cheap there? Would Grapevine/Coppell be a fair commute for the both of us? Is there any area in Irving that we should avoid? Is Arlington too far? Is the commute to Plano insane? Any word on Mesquite, DeSoto?

Thanks!

Woah. You are all over the place and mostly focusing on family- oriented suburbs (Coppell, DeSoto, etc). And yes- most of them are way too far for an easy commute.

I suggest given your ages, work locations, and the fact that you mentioned seeking "fun and entertainment" that you look in the neighborhoods immediately north of downtown Dallas. Focus on zip codes 75204, 75219, 75205, and 75206. The general geographic area is downtown to the south/ Dallas North Tollroad to the west, Skillman to the east (it's just across 75) and Lemmon Ave/Mockingbird to the north. Neighborhood names are Uptown, Turtle Creek, Uptown, M Streets, and Knox-Henderson.

The area is safe and full of young professionals (married and single) with some young families and empty nesters mixed in. Commute for your wife will be under 15 minutes door to door and about 20-30 minutes for you. It's easier for you to commute out to Las Colinas than for her to commute in due to traffic flow. You have a great budget for all those areas and can look at condos, townhomes, and duplexes for rent.

It's a VERY dog friendly area with many restaurants and bars having "dog friendly" patios (Dream Cafe, Katy Trail Ice House, Capitol Pub, etc). There is a great trail running north / south through Uptown/ Turtle Creek/ Knox-Henderson called the Katy Trail. There are many small dog parks and several big ones- the best being at White Rock Lake in East Dallas (5-10 min drive from the neighborhood suggested).

For entertainment, this area is the center of it in the DFW area. All the major cultural institutions are nearby (museums, theatre, musicals, art galleries, symphony, etc) plus all the major and smaller concert venues (from Big ones like House of Blues and the AAC to small intimate venues like the Granada Theatre). The Dallas Arboretum at White Rock Lake hosts many events and concerts year-round and Fair Park is home to the State Fair of Texas each fall, as well as other events throughout the year. Dallas has tons of great restaurants and it's not all BBQ and Tex-Mex by any means! Greenville Ave, Bishop Arts District, Deep Ellum, the Knox-Henderson cooridor and Uptown itself are all major restaurant areas and cover everything from sushi to farm fresh to upscale American to French to Greek to vegan to greasy spoon diners. There's also a burgeoning food truck scene! There's shopping galore, from discounters like Nordstrom Rack and Home Goods up to the highest grossing Neiman Marcus in their chain and the only flagship Barney's / Christian Louboutin/ DVF stores in the southwest. And many cute boutiques, too!

Come on into Dallas itself- you won't be disappointed!

[TrueDat]

Yes, Uptown or Oak Lawn, the neighborhood next to Uptown, to Irving is not a horrible commute and Uptown is right near downtown. It's certainly one of the liveliest parts of Dallas. But be warned that the rents are going to be higher for a 2-bedroom apartment than some of the other places on your list like Mesquite or DeSoto; you'll be at the upper end of your budget.

[Squirl]

I have a friend that owns a condo at [mod]Moderator cut: RE listings/addresses/links from any source cannot be posted within the forums - Send info by DM only in downtown. Its a really cool building with a dog park on the roof and also the whole penthouse floor is just one big open undeveloped space that all the residents use as an indoor dog park. There are a few units for rent in the building, too. Not a bad commute to Irving and your wife might even be able to walk to work. Google it.

[Squirl]

To respond to some of your other questions. Grand Prairie has some nice areas but in general is a sea of tract houses. It is an area where you can get a good value on home size but not a part of town know for having much character....same goes for Mesquite. Mesquite and DeSoto are too far from Irving for daily commute. Arlington is huge. North Arlington is about 17-20 miles from Las Colinas but a pretty bad drive to downtown Dallas. I think Grapevine is too difficult a commute right now; there is major roadwork going on and driving between Grapevine and Dallas in rush hour traffic is nothing short of torture. I would avoid neighborhoods in Irving south of Grauwyler and east of O'Connor. In general, I would focus on zip codes 75039 or 75063 in Irving. There are nice parts in zip code 75062 east of Story Road, too, especially the University Hills area near Northgate and Rochelle. Also the "hospital district" in zip code 75061 is a cute area.

There are some nice dog parks all over. I am quite involved in the world of dogs as I volunteer for four different groups as a foster home and do other things for the rescues as well. I have had bad experiences on several occasions at the White Rock dog park and caution you about that one dog park.....

Southwest Plano is still a long drive to Irving, but several folks do that commute....

[Willsson]

In the zip code 75219 mentioned by TC80 are three streets - Hawthorne, Prescott, and Herschel in which are dozens of fairly new townhomes as well as some fine yet much older duplexes. The area is probably the most densely populated yet dog friendly upscale area in Dallas proper, with residents walking dogs on all streets. In about the middle of this area is Erma Rangel Middle School which, after school hours is used by the locals as dog park as well as human socializing event.

Commute would be easy to both Irving and downtown. I've done both with no problems. There is a convenient bus to downtown from Oak Lawn Ave at the east end of the above streets, with a stop at the City Place metro.

Search google map by the above zip code.

As TC80 says, check it out.

[BadenBaden]

Hey thanks to all of you who have responded. We'll check out your recommendations and get to you with any more questions! This should give us a great start!