Should I relocate to Park Cities from California? (Dallas, Plano: house, neighborhood)

[TurtleCreek80]

[quote=biafra4life;34436184]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Summers aren't as bad as people are making them out to be.

Really??? Ok we all know you love the Park Cities but telling a falsehood like that to get someone to move there is just wrong. Summers here are terrible. Period. This is not California high 60s summers. This is humid, brutally oppressive 100+ day after day summers. This guy is going to get the shock of his life when July hits. Put this way, I've NEVER heard anyone say they "moved down here for the wonderfully hot summers". Now like I said before, we working stiffs have no choice but to smile and deal with it. But this guy has better options. Way better.

Yes, it gets hot here. Yes, I would prefer to not have so many days over 100 degrees. However, the fact that the other 9 months a year here have mostly mild weather outweighs the high temps in July & August for me. Just like January - February are absolutely brutally cold in NYC; that alone isn't enough of a deterrent to me to nix the city.

Also, as I mentioned, a good chunk of the Park Cities is wealthy enough (or related to someone wealthy enough or has friends who are wealthy & invite them) to escape for long vacations and second homes during July and August so it's kind of a non-issue for them except for the first week or two of school. Seriously, try walking into the HP Village Mi Cocina in late July. There will be less than a 5 minute wait because all the regulars aren't in Dallas.

Some of the other cities recommended on this thread also have major issues. Greenwich, CT? Hope you like to shovel snow and don't mind 60+ days below freezing every winter. Some of the others have major state & city income taxes.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Yes, it gets hot here. Yes, I would prefer to not have so many days over 100 degrees. However, the fact that the other 9 months a year here have mostly mild weather outweighs the high temps in July & August for me. Just like January - February are absolutely brutally cold in NYC; that alone isn't enough of a deterrent to me to nix the city.

Also, as I mentioned, a good chunk of the Park Cities is wealthy enough (or related to someone wealthy enough or has friends who are wealthy & invite them) to escape for long vacations and second homes during July and August so it's kind of a non-issue for them except for the first week or two of school. Seriously, try walking into the HP Village Mi Cocina in late July. There will be less than a 5 minute wait because all the regulars aren't in Dallas.

Some of the other cities recommended on this thread also have major issues. Greenwich, CT? Hope you like to shovel snow and don't mind 60+ days below freezing every winter. Some of the others have major state & city income taxes.

If you live in Greenwich, you pay someone to shovel your snow for you. I'm sure if HP/UP residents could pay someone to shovel heat, they'd do it.

[RoadWarrior12]

Originally Posted by Captain Harlock

I have to agree, natural beauty becomes stale after awhile. I lived in Hawaii for some time, and you start getting island fever.

We're looking for an idyllic place to raise a family where we can plant our roots-- not a vacation spot.

The recommendation for Bethesda, MD, sounds like a good one. I've never considered it or visited. I'm also wondering about Greenwich, CT as an option. I wonder how Highland Park compares to both.

If you're looking for a place to raise your family, you've ****ed that equation up.


Regardless, don't move to Texas. You're looking for Pensacola Beach, and a long way from water.

[TheOverdog]

for Pensacola Beach

Florida is the mostly all the awful parts of California moved up next to the beach. Can't believe so many people are recommending there.

[TR95]

Originally Posted by London29

How about Greenwich or Westport in Connecticut? if you don't mind the cold weather, I do!

Palo Alto, California? Manhattan Beach?

I think the OP wanted out of Ca, but if not, then why not consider Del Mar,La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Olivenhain. Less of the vibe that you seem to want to get away from that you mention is in the SB area.

[Aggielina]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Check out Raleigh-Durham. Chapel Hill is particularly beautiful.

Don't move to Chapel Hill if you want to be around conservatives. They don't call it The People's Republic of North Carolina for nothing.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Move here when you have 2 mill to spend??? Good God no. It get's hotter than Hades for a solid 4-5 months of the year, and chilling cold for 2 or 3. We are still having freezes now in April! Dont get me wrong, Texas is a great place for the working stiff who needs a job with a liveable wage and a decent cost of living. People with better options go elsewhere.

Ok first it's not hotter than hades for 4-5 months here it just isn't. We average 18 days over 100 degrees here in Dallas every year most all of those days are in July and August. We have three months in which the average high is over 90. June - 92, July - 96, August - 96.

On average we'll have around 30 nights that get to freezing or below. Most years 95% of those low temperatures are over 25 degrees.


So far as people with means living here. Dallas itself sports something like 80,000 millionaires, one of the highest proportions of millionaires of any big city on earth and a good number of those people are extremely rich.

So people with options most definitely do not always go elsewhere.

[TX75007]

I lived in the Bay Area and in LA area for many years.

It is IS gorgeous there, but the lack of opportunities, high taxes, social breakdown, and dysfunctional government is not worth it. Several incidents since then when I visited have cemented this impression in my mind.

HP is a fantastic area - as is much of the DFW area. Austin is great, too.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Captain Harlock

Hi all,

My wife and I are trying to find the ideal place to settle.

Thanks to all the informative posts on this forum, which I've been following for over a year now, I've become enamored of the idea of Dallas (though I've never visited!) We currently live in Santa Barbara, California. Yes, the scenery is gorgeous, and the weather ideal, but we've never liked California or felt at home here. Before Santa Barbara, we lived in Los Angeles for many years, and simply couldn't stand it (I call it a "city full of Kardashians.")

I run my own business out of home, and my wife is a SAHM with two babies, so we could move anywhere in the US. Our budget is around $2 million, or somewhat higher. I love many of the things I've read on these boards about Park Cities. What appeals to me most is the idea of living in an affluent Norman Rockwell-like setting, where kids are playing in shady, tree-covered streets, yet you still have all the amenities of downtown within easy reach.

We're not at all religious, but are politically libertarian/conservative, and believe strongly in traditional family values. From what I gather on these boards, the Park Cities seems like an ideal place for us.

In your opinion, am I crazy to leave a place that has the most temperate, pleasant weather in the country for a place that's hotter than hades for four months of the year?

My fear is that we'll move to Dallas and regret it down the road, especially during the heat of summer.

In your opinion, is Highland Park/University Park the best move for us, given my circumstances above? Is there somewhere better (anywhere in the US) that you'd recommend that has the following criteria:

1) Beautiful leafy suburb that's close to downtown, 2) Affluent, educated populace, 3) polite, family-minded, Norman Rockwell setting, 4) majority conservative, but we'll settle for liberal if the first three criteria are satisfied.

Another way to phrase my question is, would YOU move to Highland Park if you could afford it and had two young children, even if you could move anywhere in the US? (with the exception of CA.)

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful replies.

My thinking...
1. Nearly everyone over-rates the heat here.
2. The tax/cost of living situation here is vastly better than in California. You'd be moving from a very high tax state to a very low tax state.
3. The HP/UP area school situation is one of the best in the country. HP schools are excellent. Plus if you decide to apply for privates the top private school choices in North Dallas are several and all excellent.
4. Traveling from HP/UP is fantastic. Love field is a couple of thousand feet from the western edge of HP and the Wright Amendment is going away. DFW is an easy drive as well.
5. The south end of HP is a couple of minutes from downtown.
6. City services in HP/UP are fantastic. However, the cops are notorious for writing tickets and warning for 2mph over etc.


I'd arrange a long weekend in July staying in HP at one of the hotels near SMU. That'll tell you a lot.

[bencronin04]

The Hilton in Preston Center is also a great hotel to stay at. At 2 million, you'd probably want to focus your look more in UP than HP. Both cities go to the same Middle and High School and both city services are top notch with response times around the 2 minute mark.