Where to move? Typical question (Dallas, Plano: condo, house, neighborhoods)

[brainofjjj]

So i've been a lurker on here for years, back before i lived here and was in Charlotte, Nashville and San Francisco.

My wife (native texan) and I moved here 18 months ago, have a 1 yr old and bought a house last May near Forrest and the Tollway. Back when we figured we would send them (newly pregnant) to private school at first and move later. Lately we've been leaning towards moving before she enters 1st grade, so maybe 3 years from now. We love living in the middle here and are 6 blocks from the Tollway but given what we pay for our house and taxes we hate to spend $35-$50k per year to send 2 kids to private school. We also don't want them feeling privileged or spoiled.
Neither of us went to private schools so i might be overly generalizing here, sorry.

Anyway, i work Uptown right off the Tollway and also travel a few times a month from DFW and Love. My wife works from home and has an office downtown she rarely goes to. I won't be changing jobs but she might at some point.

Our main things are commute and schools like everyone else it seems. I most definitely can't do more than a 30 minute commute but my work times vary and i can leave early on most days.

We think somewhere in Plano or Coppell would be best given it's closeness. Our budget will be somewhere around $500-$700k by then, cheaper always being better.

We both love the mature trees of this area as well and that seems tough to find to further out you go.

Anyway, sorry for the long post and I hope that gives everyone an idea of our situation. Yes, i know it's way early to be talking about this but unless we move to London we'll be calling Dallas home for a long time!

[fwsavemoney]

A 30 min commute from West Plano, even if you leave early, is very difficult. More often than not, you will encounter traffic as the rush hour window keeps expanding. Richardson may be a better option IMHO.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by fwsavemoney

A 30 min commute from West Plano, even if you leave early, is very difficult. More often than not, you will encounter traffic as the rush hour window keeps expanding. Richardson may be a better option IMHO.

I agree. I suggest the Reservation or Canyon Creek/Prairie Creek. The Waterview area between Belt Line and Arapaho is also spectacular. The Res and CC are zoned to the Pearce feeder pattern if you're in Dallas County (PISD in Collin) and I think Waterview Preservation is zoned to the RHS feeder pattern. People will say PEARCE PEARCE PEARCE until the cows come home, but there's actually not a whole lot of difference between the schools in terms of performance when you look at the actual test scores, and the last year that they published ratings RHS was about even with Pearce and ahead in some areas. So there's that too. I wouldn't rule it out without doing some homework. Plus, RHS is where the RISD's magnet programs are located.

A lot of neighborhoods in FND are zoned to RISD too. Might want to check out Highlands North, on the Dallas side of Coit south of Campbell. That's a beautiful neighborhood. I think the zip is 75240.

[BombayDoc]

Really? I find it surprising. I drove from a listing near Parr Library in West Plano to my realtor's office near Forest@DNT in 15 minutes during rush hour.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by BombayDoc

Really? I find it surprising. I drove from a listing near Parr Library in West Plano to my realtor's office near Forest@DNT in 15 minutes during rush hour.

In the morning or evening? There is usually lots of traffic in the morning on DNT headed south just after George Bush Turn Pike.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by bencronin04

In the morning or evening? There is usually lots of traffic in the morning on DNT headed south just after George Bush Turn Pike.

^^What he said. DNT southbound from just south of 121 all the way down to Addison is normally very crowded.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by BombayDoc

Really? I find it surprising. I drove from a listing near Parr Library in West Plano to my realtor's office near Forest@DNT in 15 minutes during rush hour.

Did you drive from Plano to Forest in the afternoon rush hour? If so, you were traveling against traffic. S/B rush hour isn't great but it's twice as fast as n/b Tollroad.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by brainofjjj

So i've been a lurker on here for years, back before i lived here and was in Charlotte, Nashville and San Francisco.

My wife (native texan) and I moved here 18 months ago, have a 1 yr old and bought a house last May near Forrest and the Tollway. Back when we figured we would send them (newly pregnant) to private school at first and move later. Lately we've been leaning towards moving before she enters 1st grade, so maybe 3 years from now. We love living in the middle here and are 6 blocks from the Tollway but given what we pay for our house and taxes we hate to spend $35-$50k per year to send 2 kids to private school. We also don't want them feeling privileged or spoiled.
Neither of us went to private schools so i might be overly generalizing here, sorry.

Anyway, i work Uptown right off the Tollway and also travel a few times a month from DFW and Love. My wife works from home and has an office downtown she rarely goes to. I won't be changing jobs but she might at some point.

Our main things are commute and schools like everyone else it seems. I most definitely can't do more than a 30 minute commute but my work times vary and i can leave early on most days.

We think somewhere in Plano or Coppell would be best given it's closeness. Our budget will be somewhere around $500-$700k by then, cheaper always being better.

We both love the mature trees of this area as well and that seems tough to find to further out you go.

Anyway, sorry for the long post and I hope that gives everyone an idea of our situation. Yes, i know it's way early to be talking about this but unless we move to London we'll be calling Dallas home for a long time!

You live in such a great neighborhood that I wouldn't want to move at all! We live not too far from there and are SO happy - even with that future private school price tag looking in the future.

Couple of things to consider:
1. Private school does NOT make your kid spoiled or entitled. I have heard that upwards of 1/3 of students at St Mark's, Catholic schools, etc are there on need-based scholarships. Private schools are much more diverse from an ethnic and economic perspective than HP, Coppell, Southlake, Plano West and other top public districts. For every one of Mark Cuban's daughters at Hockaday, there is a family driving a 10 year old Suburban to make room for tuition in the budget. There is also a young lady riding a bus from a sketchy part of Dallas and another one who lives at Hockaday's boarding house from South Korea or Peru.

I would highly recommend visiting a wide variety of private schools before PreK - from the über-elite ones to the Catholic ones to some of the smaller, off-the-radar ones. Just to see what is out there and what could be a good fit for your kids if you go that route.

2. Private school IS expensive so you might have to consider cutting back on other parts of your budget or even moving to a less expensive neighborhood like the Midway / Marsh corridor over by ESD and Good Shepherd's campuses. You also have to evaluate as a family if you want to make those financial sacrifices. Not everyone does and that is ok, too.

3. Consider DISD magnet schools as a way of staying in your current neighborhood. Dealey Montessori is on Royal between Preston and Hillcrest. While admissions are competitive, it is a great school and is considered a pathway into the elite magnets that DISD runs (Townview, SEM, Booker T Washington).

4. Other public school options:
-Buy a condo in HPISD. It's the best public school district around and super close to your office.
-Move to Lakewood and do Lakewood Elementary for K-5 and then either play the "wait and see" game for Long and Woodrow or go private for grades 6-12. Though you may not like what $500-700k buys in Lakewood these days. You'd definitely be giving up what I assume is a 1/2 acre lot in your current neighborhood.
-Suburbs: Richardson's Pearce and Richardson HS feeder zones are the closest in. After that, Coppell or Plano are the next closest though likely not consistently in your 30 minute commute criteria.

[BombayDoc]

I did drive from West Plano to Forest around 4pm.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by BombayDoc

I did drive from West Plano to Forest around 4pm.

That's the faster direction. And southbound rush hour doesn't get bad until 4:45ish so you were a bit early.