Guidance needed - where to live, 30-45 min. north of Dallas? (San Antonio: new home, buy)

[DHart]

We are a retired couple, looking for a home on treed property anywhere in the range of 30 to 45 minutes north of Dallas. We don't commute, so that's not a consideration. But we don't want to be terribly remote from the city either.

Ideally we would like to find an area where treed lots of 1 to 3 acres (perhaps more) would be available that isn't far from a town center having the usual amenities. Our home budget would be in the 400k to 550k range.

We are not from, nor living, in Texas at present, but we're hoping to get there as soon as we can! ;-)

We have visited the Plano area briefly, but we really don't know the general overall area well at all. If we had to guess... we might want to be somewhere in the region bounded by Denton, Grapevine, Plano and Melissa... that's a lot of area, I know.

We live in Washington State at present and plan to visit Texas soon to look for where we might want to live.

Can anyone give us some general bearings on where the nicest areas are that we might want to consider? We like hills, trees, water... if that's of any help. We aren't fixed on having to be on water or by water... it's just something that would be a bonus. Beautiful property that has trees and perhaps some rolling terrain would be great for us.

So... any guidance on where we should consider and what town might be the best to find a really good, well-seasoned realtor that might know the larger, general area really well would be much appreciated!

Thanks folks!

[ChristieP]

30-45 minutes north of Dallas is still in the heart of suburbia. Are you looking for that, or do you want something more rural?

Also, there are not trees lots north of Dallas. North of Dallas is the rolling plains, and trees are naturally scarce, especially in the area you're targeting. If you want trees, you need to look EAST of Dallas, or even southeast, and you really need to go at least an hour out of town. The east Texas pine and post oak woods are beautiful! If you want trees, and near a lake, I would look at Cedar Creek Lake, or possibly even Lake Palestine (if you are willing to be that far away from Dallas).

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

It takes me close to 1 hr to get to downtown Dallas and I live in the middle of suburbia to the north! As Christie said, there are NO heavily treed areas out here on the plains and your desired lot size does not exist anywhere close to the city - at least not in your price range.

[Squirl]

Please come soon. Best to experience the DFW area during our simmering months to see if you really can deal with the weather here. I do think you can find an area you would like, but make sure you like DFW first.

This is prairie, however, and much of the heavily treed lots (I used to own a couple of houses in Mansfield and there were many new homes being built on heavily treed acre+ lots) are not old, towering trees but rather young trees with maybe 12" diameter trunks. And, for the most part lots will never look like a forest.

Some thoughts on location..not all north, some of the most beautiful geography here is south....budget will be a consideration... Ovilla, Red Oak, Argyle, Colleyville, Heath, Rockwall (MLS#:11804583), Sunnyvale, Mansfield, Roanoke, Corinth, Double Oak, Prosper (no trees there but your target area).....

There ARE properties in your budget within 45 minutes of Dallas and Ft. Worth.....especially since you wouldn't be driving in rush hour traffic.... but it will just depend on what's available when you are really ready to search. Right now there's an outdated property with much land in Southlake. That's a highly desirable area for a retiree. Just do an advanced search on Realtor.com

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by DHart

We are a retired couple, looking for a home on treed property anywhere in the range of 30 to 45 minutes north of Dallas. We don't commute, so that's not a consideration. But we don't want to be terribly remote from the city either.

Ideally we would like to find an area where treed lots of 1 to 3 acres (perhaps more) would be available that isn't far from a town center having the usual amenities. Our home budget would be in the 400k to 550k range.

We are not from, nor living, in Texas at present, but we're hoping to get there as soon as we can! ;-)

We have visited the Plano area briefly, but we really don't know the general overall area well at all. If we had to guess... we might want to be somewhere in the region bounded by Denton, Grapevine, Plano and Melissa... that's a lot of area, I know.

We live in Washington State at present and plan to visit Texas soon to look for where we might want to live.

Can anyone give us some general bearings on where the nicest areas are that we might want to consider? We like hills, trees, water... if that's of any help. We aren't fixed on having to be on water or by water... it's just something that would be a bonus. Beautiful property that has trees and perhaps some rolling terrain would be great for us.

So... any guidance on where we should consider and what town might be the best to find a really good, well-seasoned realtor that might know the larger, general area really well would be much appreciated!

Thanks folks!

Honestly, you're not going to find what you're looking for that close to the city.

Have you considered Tyler or Athens? They're not so far from Dallas that you couldn't go there for the day.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by DHart

We live in Washington State at present and plan to visit Texas soon to look for where we might want to live.

Can anyone give us some general bearings on where the nicest areas are that we might want to consider? We like hills, trees, water... if that's of any help.

How did you land on Dallas? Family, I guess?! There are absolutely NO areas near DFW that resemble the lush & gorgeous trees of Washington state. The part of DFW you picked (near Denton) is even flatter and has less trees than other parts of DFW. Did you find the amount of trees, water, and hills in Plano to be acceptable on your visit? Because that's about typical for the area you have zoned in on.

If you do want to live in Texas, I would recommend the Texas Hill Country (stretches from north of Austin down through San Antonio and out west from both cities). It is hilly and has many lakes and rivers; some areas are more treed than others. Towns would include Fredricksburg, New Braunfels, Wimberley, Marble Falls, Kerrville. All but Kerrville are within an hour of either San Antonio or Austin. It is a really beautiful setting and probably won't leave you quite as homesick as the DFW area will!

[robmab]

Are you open to areas south of Dallas? The Cedar Hill/Duncanville area (as well of parts of Mansfield) that border Joe Pool Lake might meet your requirements.

Or maybe Sunnyvale to the east of town. The lots are larger there, with some mature trees.

The areas around Lake Lewisville (such as Flower Mound) have some larger lots and nice trees, but that's getting more like an hour away from downtown Dallas.

[RonnieinDallas]

Your going to have to make sacrifices or increase your budget. Plus, that amount of land is really rare and expensive within a 30-45 minute commute to Dallas. I would suggest Southlake or Colleyville, but not in your budget. That will buy I really outdated 70's or 80's house or a lot in those 2 towns.

Look south or east of Dallas. West of Fort Worth is nice too. Aledo, Weatherford, Granbury, Azle, and Mineral Wells. All of those towns are over an hour to 2 hours away from Dallas though.

[robmab]

Originally Posted by robmab

The areas around Lake Lewisville (such as Flower Mound) have some larger lots and nice trees, but that's getting more like an hour away from downtown Dallas.

I should've said Grapevine Lake (which is where Flower Mound sits), although there are some nice larger lots around Lake Lewisville as well. I think those are technically in The Colony or maybe Frisco or Little Elm.

[MurphyPl1]

Parker is an option. The larger lots are there, the random drives to Dallas aren't bad, there are trees but still nothing like south or east of Dallas.

There's just not going to be a ton of options.