Couple thinking about Moving to Dallas from NYC, any advice? (vs Forida?) (Paris: rent, pools)

[Mr. Chad]

Originally Posted by TX75007

I know a couple from NYC. I kid them all the time. Here is your next 12 years in so many words.

Move to Texas. Buy a house. Shop at Costco. Have four kids. Buy a gun. Vote for Bush. LOL.

We're hoping to do the same....buy a house eventually, shop at Costco, maybe have a kid if finances allow, buy a pickup truck, buy a few guns that we're forbidden from owning as nyc residents, and vote center-right..... I think we're the only conservatives in NYC.... Lol

[Mr. Chad]

Originally Posted by Manhattancouple

And buy a truck?? I'm already budgeting for the Hummer

The only true hummer is the H1 !

[Alkonost]

I'm with the others who encourage you to rent first and buy later.

I don't know where you stand on commutes, but where you work may determine where you'll end up renting if you don't want to spend more than a half hour on the road. One thing that pissed me off in Manhattan was the commute, being 2 miles away from the office took 45 minutes or more by train because of the congestion, train delays or not being able to board a train because it was too packed. I didn't want to trade one hell for another, so my spouse and I made sure we weren't more than 30 minutes from where we had to be for work.

My spouse and I moved from Manhattan in October and so far Texas has been very good to us- we're in Grapevine now. We feel much more relaxed, free and at ease. The amount of money we've saved in taxes alone during our time here has already paid for our cross-country move. We've gotten a costco membership, go down to the range with our guns to practice for our CHL, been enjoying all the great food (although we haven't found good bagels, pizza or sushi yet, DFW has just about everything else), and we're being reminded through the great improvement in our quality of life that we really do possess souls after all. Manhattan nearly sucked the life out of us.

Yes, NYC has changed. It's not the free place I enjoyed in my youth. Now it's an oppressive kleptocracy that's had it's free-spirit, politically tolerant and multicultural aspects bled dry years ago.

[Willsson]

I'd agree with renting for a year or so and would recommend Uptown or possible NORTH Oak Lawn, just across Turtle Creek from Uptown. You can search zip code 75219 on a google map for general location.

Oak Lawn is - generally - between Turtle Creek and Love Field, NORTH Oak Lawn between Lemmon Ave. and Highland Park.
Uptown is between Turtle Creek and US75 highway.

Both are very near downtown. My perspective is that living near downtown gives a wide view of the city and 'burbs. Where living in the 'burbs is a good excuse to NOT go into the city.

Good luck, travel safe

[Mr. Chad]

Originally Posted by Alkonost

I'm with the others who encourage you to rent first and buy later.

I don't know where you stand on commutes, but where you work may determine where you'll end up renting if you don't want to spend more than a half hour on the road. One thing that pissed me off in Manhattan was the commute, being 2 miles away from the office took 45 minutes or more by train because of the congestion, train delays or not being able to board a train because it was too packed. I didn't want to trade one hell for another, so my spouse and I made sure we weren't more than 30 minutes from where we had to be for work.

My spouse and I moved from Manhattan in October and so far Texas has been very good to us- we're in Grapevine now. We feel much more relaxed, free and at ease. The amount of money we've saved in taxes alone during our time here has already paid for our cross-country move. We've gotten a costco membership, go down to the range with our guns to practice for our CHL, been enjoying all the great food (although we haven't found good bagels, pizza or sushi yet, DFW has just about everything else), and we're being reminded through the great improvement in our quality of life that we really do possess souls after all. Manhattan nearly sucked the life out of us.

Yes, NYC has changed. It's not the free place I enjoyed in my youth. Now it's an oppressive kleptocracy that's had it's free-spirit, politically tolerant and multicultural aspects bled dry years ago.

Congrats on your move. I've passed thru Grapevine. I'm hoping to find a place in the West Plano area

[Alkonost]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chad

Congrats on your move. I've passed thru Grapevine. I'm hoping to find a place in the West Plano area

Plano is a great place, we would have considered looking there instead if we didn't need to be so close to the airport. Hopefully you'll relocate soon, before Bloomberg outlaws ipod headphones or worse

[Mr. Chad]

Originally Posted by Alkonost

Plano is a great place, we would have considered looking there instead if we didn't need to be so close to the airport. Hopefully you'll relocate soon, before Bloomberg outlaws ipod headphones or worse

Hopefully this summer if I can find a job, thanks!

[EDS_]

I don't know where some of the numbers above came from.


1. Short of a defective meter, a split water line (that would yield terrible pressure and the heads likely wouldn't pop up), a completely broken up sprinkler piping system, watering 24x7 with all heads on max or with all heads missing there is no way one could spend $600 watering a front yard. We live in Dallas and have just under and acre of yard. I water hard - keeping the grass solid green all summer - and we have a pool our worst water accurate bills are right at $325. And because we have a 2 inch service we pay commercial rates otherwise our bill would never be out of the $200s.

2. Aggregate North Dallas home prices were down maybe 8-11% not 20% or 30%. According to Case-Shiller, within the context we are talking about, Dallas has been the best performing big city residential real estate market in the US since the bust. Looking at some other data is seems much of (maybe all) of North Dallas has completely recovered from the downturn in terms of prices. Further, as of last September the cumulative home price decrease from all time highs across all of DFW was 5.8%.
*I can't find the CS graph I'm thinking about but IIRC the max entire DFW percentage decrease was 13% and that looked like a data outlier.

see the 3rd graph down
Calculated Risk: Case-Shiller: House Prices increased 2.0% year-over-year in August

[Muttontown]

Having worked in Manhattan for 20+ years for IT in tech, finance and media industries, we're commuting 30-60min one way from Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island or NJ. Manhattan is the center of jobs/companies.

For Dallas, where are company locations so that my house can be central location?

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by Muttontown

Having worked in Manhattan for 20+ years for IT in tech, finance and media industries, we're commuting 30-60min one way from Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island or NJ. Manhattan is the center of jobs/companies.

For Dallas, where are company locations so that my house can be central location?

Richardson, Plano, North Dallas, and Irving.