SouthWest Frisco (Pulte) or The Tribute in colony (AmLeg or Meritage) (Carrollton: new home, water heater)

[twist3d]

Looking to buy new
Torn between The colony with STEM school (K-8) but no certainty after that
vs.
Across the street in Lone star ranch Frisco Pulte with guaranteed Frisco schools

Also help rank the builders (construction quality and service): Pulte , AMLeg (expensive, hope they negotiate), Meritage

Thx in advance for your help.

We like Coppell but don't want used and anything new is too expensive.
Castle Hills has crappy schools
FloMo has old houses
Las Colinas is too expensive/schools suck.
Lantana (though gorgeous with the Cross TImbers) is too far in other direction. I want to be east of airport.

Trying to stay 320-330K budget. ANy other new home areas you folks can recommend?

[pinipig523]

Lakeside in FloMo (near grapevine) is opening up.

[Sushi cake]

Forget the bling and stick with Coppell, great location and good schools.

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by twist3d

Looking to buy new
Torn between The colony with STEM school (K-8) but no certainty after that
vs.
Across the street in Lone star ranch Frisco Pulte with guaranteed Frisco schools

Also help rank the builders (construction quality and service): Pulte , AMLeg (expensive, hope they negotiate), Meritage

Thx in advance for your help.

We like Coppell but don't want used and anything new is too expensive.
Castle Hills has crappy schools
FloMo has old houses
Las Colinas is too expensive/schools suck.
Lantana (though gorgeous with the Cross TImbers) is too far in other direction. I want to be east of airport.

Trying to stay 320-330K budget. ANy other new home areas you folks can recommend?

Well the Colony High School is considered the worst in Lewisville ISD, so if you plan on staying long enough for high school to be in the picture then I would cross The Colony out. In regards to your other questions;

Coppell: Honestly for your budget I dont think you will find ANYTHING period, used or not, at least nothing desirable.
Flo Mo: Define "old"??? I personally think FM has far too much in the positive ledger; GREAT schools, wonderful area. Yes the houses will be around 10 years old, but as long as the previous owner kept up maintenance (even better, got through replacing all the expensive stuff like water heaters, roofs etc) that shouldnt be a deal breaker, but YMMV.
Castle Hills: Whether you end up with "crappy schools" would depend on what part of CH you bought in. If you buy in the older parts (which is considered the "better" part), you would be zoned to CH elementary, all the way through Hebron High, those are some VERY strong schools. Now if you buy in the newer part of CH, I believe its called CH North, then yes, you would have crappy schools.

Las Colinas: Yes from what I hear, new construction in LC is going to be WAAAAY over your budget, and I'm not a fan of the school district (Carrollton-Farmers Branch). Me personally, for half a million dollar houses I would expect top notch schools, not middling/mediocre.

I think if you at least reconsider the "new" requirement, you will find that some of the options you ruled out like FM and CH would be excellent, dont knock it till you have at least explored some of these options. They are both better than Frisco in my opinion.

[Funtastic44]

Lets face it, good location, excellent schools and nice n new homes are out of your budget, something has to give. Its up to you to decide if its the age of the house, quality of the education or commute, that has to be sacrificed.

[twist3d]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Well the Colony High School is considered the worst in Lewisville ISD, so if you plan on staying long enough for high school to be in the picture then I would cross The Colony out. In regards to your other questions;

Flo Mo: Define "old"??? I personally think FM has far too much in the positive ledger; GREAT schools, wonderful area. Yes the houses will be around 10 years old, but as long as the previous owner kept up maintenance (even better, got through replacing all the expensive stuff like water heaters, roofs etc) that shouldnt be a deal breaker, but YMMV.

I think if you at least reconsider the "new" requirement, you will find that some of the options you ruled out like FM and CH would be excellent, dont knock it till you have at least explored some of these options. They are both better than Frisco in my opinion.

Its Little Elm ISD in 'the tribute at colony' and its little elm High school

We want a new home, we cant deal with pet smells, and don't want to do updates. Not to mention anything over 4 years old is going to cost more in utilities.

Explored FM and ruled it out, also ruled out CH due to schools and no plans of a new one in sight.

SO my question again is between Frisco schools and STEM+Little Elm high.

[PISDstudent]

Originally Posted by twist3d

Its Little Elm ISD in 'the tribute at colony' and its little elm High school

We want a new home, we cant deal with pet smells, and don't want to do updates. Not to mention anything over 4 years old is going to cost more in utilities.

Explored FM and ruled it out, also ruled out CH due to schools and no plans of a new one in sight.

SO my question again is between Frisco schools and STEM+Little Elm high.

Castle Hills feeds to Hebron High School, no? Thats definitely better than what you'd have in Little Elm, and probably on par with the best Frisco ISD schools (which aren't all that great either).

On another note, you're looking at a STEM school. Without knowing the specifics of that school, I would advise you to be weary of the label, and concentrate on how good that school is at educating kids, using the traditional metrics (test scores, parent reviews, quality of the high school it feeds to). A bad STEM school isn't any better than a regular bad school.

[Sushi cake]

Originally Posted by twist3d

Its Little Elm ISD in 'the tribute at colony' and its little elm High school

We want a new home, we cant deal with pet smells, and don't want to do updates. Not to mention anything over 4 years old is going to cost more in utilities.

Explored FM and ruled it out, also ruled out CH due to schools and no plans of a new one in sight.

SO my question again is between Frisco schools and STEM+Little Elm high.

You can find clean, updated and energy efficient older homes. Compromising both location and school doesn't make much sense.

[Funtastic44]

So you are compromising on location, commute, schools, resale, neighborhood and quality of the builder because you don't want pet smell and high energy bills. These aren't that difficult to fix but to each its own.

[frenzyrider]

Originally Posted by PISDstudent

Castle Hills feeds to Hebron High School, no? Thats definitely better than what you'd have in Little Elm, and probably on par with the best Frisco ISD schools (which aren't all that great either).

On another note, you're looking at a STEM school. Without knowing the specifics of that school, I would advise you to be weary of the label, and concentrate on how good that school is at educating kids, using the traditional metrics (test scores, parent reviews, quality of the high school it feeds to). A bad STEM school isn't any better than a regular bad school.

Agreed but Killian middle sucks big time!!! Just saying..