Is Texas the right choice? (Dallas, Arlington: apartment complexes, house prices, high schools)

[Justin_agee]

My wife, two children and I currently live in galt ca. Which is a small rural city 25 mins outside of sacramento. We are looking to move to the plano,dfw, Arlington or Dallas area. My wife is currently a stay at home mom and I am a automotive mechanic. We are looking in the 250k range for a house. We're a young family me being 26 wife 25 kids 5 and 3. We're moving due to the lower cost of living mainly. We don't want to live in a rough area and schools are important. I am looking on advice for which areas are the best? Thanks.

[banal]

If you have to ask then it's probably not a good fit.

[Justin_agee]

I was asking more about the cities I listed I typed the thread name wrong.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by Justin_agee

I was asking more about the cities I listed I typed the thread name wrong.

Your good Justin. To anwser your question the best I can since I do not live in the DFW area. I would recommend Dallas or Plano. There will be other posters from DFW that will help you out.

Best of luck!

[Westerntraveler]

I would look at the Martin High portion of Arlington.Not too sure about housing in that area but I used to live there but that was a very long time ago lol but I do go back from time to time.

[texasdiver]

Arlington and Plano are not remotely similar.

Arlington has a reputation for relatively rough schools, especially at the HS level. Lots of big apartment complexes and lower income housing around the Arlington area so the schools can be ethnically diverse, rough and probably pretty similar to many urban parts of California. Similar perhaps to a place like Richmond in the Bay Area. Not bad per se, but not exactly the sort of place one moves across country for.

Plano is in a much wealthier part of the DFW area just north of Dallas proper and is now a pretty full built-out suburb. Most of the big new subdivisions and growth is now happening in the newer suburbs further north such as Frisco, Allen, and McKinney. Plano has become something of a magnet for professional Asian-American families and the high schools have a reputation for being ultra-competitive academically and churning out dozens of national merit scholars every year. They had 80 of them last year between the 3 high Plano high schools.

The DFW area is enormous and you don't want to be stuck commuting ridiculous long distances. But if you are just looking for possible places to relocate, this list of cities showing median house prices and median household income will let you figure out which places are going to be a closer fit to what you can afford

Moderator cut: Realtor website

[Justin_agee]

Thanks it's just crazy to me what you can get for 250k in plano compared to anywhere in Cali. Also thanks for the tip about Arlington.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Justin_agee

Thanks it's just crazy to me what you can get for 250k in plano compared to anywhere in Cali. Also thanks for the tip about Arlington.

You can do even better on 250k in Richardson. Great schools too.

[Wrecked]

The current median prices are higher than those in the link posted above. You'll want to look at more recent data.

Everyone on this board is going to suggest Plano because of its schools as they are the best outside of highland park and south lake.

Flower Mound would be another choice. I would choose it over Plano but that is personal preference. But it's harder to find something in that price range as inventory goes quickly in Flower Mound. You have to pull the trigger quick or you won't get it.

[mSooner]

You really need to know where you will be working before you can make a location decision, but given your price range, you should be able to find a nice home with a doable commute from almost anywhere in DFW