Settling Down (Dallas, Arlington, Euless: homes, elementary schools, earthquakes)

[dallas89]

I was born, raised, and educated in Duncanville. I lived in Dallas while attending SMU and now work in downtown. I currently live in Cedar Hill but will soon be moving to the Silver Creek Meadows subdivision in Desoto, down the street from Frost Farms & Club Ridge Estates.

I have first-hand experience in all these areas and can say that Duncanville, Desoto, and Cedar Hill are all great suburbs to raise a family. Commute to Dallas is 15-20 minutes. North Dallas, East Dallas, and North Oak Cliff have beautiful homes and are excellent for raising a family as well, but it will be difficult to find the large lots you seek.

[TX&NY]

Thanks so much everyone! My intention of finding a large spacious lot is unwavering. However, I'm researching the Frisco area on the recommendation of one friend and northern Arlington from another. If anyone can share some first hand experience that I can compare with my south Dallas county info that will be awesome. We are coming to visit the first weekend of next month and I'm super excited to check everything out. Thanks so much!

[WorldKlas]

Some lovely neighborhoods in N.Arlington. Not the most highly rated schools, but about 30 min for either FTW or Dallas so its a really good location to take advantage of both cities and an easy drive to Grapevine & Southlake for good shopping. Some beautiful views in the hilly areas just north of I-30, and some really pretty homes on canals. Zip code 76012 has some really lovely older homes abougt $300K. There are also some gorgeous gated neighborhoods in zip 76006.

I am not a Frisco person but its very popular with transplants and has lots of newer houses and pretty good schools. Kind of on the far edge of the metroplex.

You should also check out both Cedar Hill and Grand Prairie around Joe Pool Lake; homes with larger lots and the lake is nice...Cedar Ridge Preserve is a jewel of a place right in the area for hiking.

[TX&NY]

Ok everyone! So we completed a week long staycation in the metroplex. We met up with a friend/realtor and went on a whirlwind tour, viewing 42 homes. I learned something awesome by the way. If you are rated 100% disabled by the VA, (me) you don't pay property taxes. I didn't know that, and it expanded our area of research given the monthly impact the property taxes have on the bottom line. Anyway, we started in Frisco. There was a LOT of stuff up that way. Stone briar mall and everything around it was very nice. The houses were very pretty, very new and very large, but were on top of each other. We reviewed the school system stats and were impressed by them. We began our treck back to Dallas at around 3pm on a Tuesday and the traffic was nuts. Not too different from DC, but something we'd like to get away from. Wednesday was Cedar Hill and Desoto. Since they are neighboring cities we took them on in the same day. We looked in Frost Farms, which is a fairly small subdivision but was awesome because the lots were huge. We also looked in ClubRidge estates by Thorntree CC, as well as some homes on the golf course. I liked Cedar Hill a lot better for the scenery but I liked the cozy but not house on house feel in Desoto. The schools have a average and below average rating, but again, we are looking at private schools. The areas that the houses we toured weren't bad, but needed further development to be on par with the Frisco area. However, there was a nice shopping center with a DSW and other nice stores in it, the area looked very clean and well kept the folks we met were very friendly and there was a nice Pappadeax's where we all had lunch. Much quieter, a lot less traffic, and they even had a Costco :-). Thursday was Arlington and Grand Prairie. I loved that this area is in the middle of Fort Worth and Dallas, especially since we don't know where we will ultimately end up working. We saw homes in North Arlington that were huge. They were on decent sized lots but were a little older. I am ok with that. A lot of coziness there as well, higher traffic and not so awesome schools. Grand Prairie was ok, but seemed even more congested and there was a lot of traffic. Houses were huge but on smaller lots. Good school district and we saw lots of kids running around. Friday was Garland and Richardson. Decent school ratings and the proximity to amenities was not bad. Traffic was terrible but expected at this point. There were a lot of decent sized houses on small lots. The houses were gorgeous, but none we saw were on an acre lot. They houses we saw all had the alley entry garages and my husband wouldn't even go see some of them once he realized that is what they were. There were some really nice homes closer to the lake and they had nice sized lots as well. Still pondering our ultimate location. Given that we won't pay property taxes our realtor suggested we check out even more suburbs but I'm not sure. We are working out our checklists still and I'm not sure, even with the tour, because I had an affinity for all of them and I don't want to further muddy the waters. Frisco was lowest on my scale simply because of the distance and lot sizes. She explicitly ruled out Irving because of earthquakes. I didn't even realize that was an issue. Thanks everyone for listening as well as for your advice!

[J800]

What area of Grand Prairie did you visit? Since you said good schools I'm assuming the Westchester area (Powell Elementary zone)

Demographics area 31% AA, 28% white, 28% Hispanic, 14% Asian. Pretty diverse if you care about that kind of thing and the schools in that area are exemplary. My co-worker lives in that area and it's pretty nice compared to most of GP..

[TX&NY]

We saw a few Grand Homes in Mira Lagos, it looked like a newer subdivision, and the others were closer to the lake. Heading into GP was fairly unimpressive but things got pretty nice fairly quickly!

[mSooner]

She explicitly ruled out Irving because of earthquakes. I didn't even realize that was an issue.

Uhh...I didn't realize it was an issue either? Foundation problem potential because of ****ty soil, sure? Earthquakes? They've had them recently, but this is the first I've heard of people avoiding the area because of the wee tiny earthquakes.

[Beardown91737]

You asked about Superfund sites. Not exactly, but there have been environmental controversies in Frisco and Midlothian, extending into nearby communities. They have to do with recycled batteries and lead in the soil.

[RonnieinDallas]

Haven't read through all the posts, but it seems like you (the OP) are pretty dead set on a big lot. I'm not sure why because of the amount of water and maintenance it takes to keep a lawn nicely manicured and green here, but if that's a priority, then you should be looking at towns like Ovilla and Sunnyvale. Lots of newish homes, mostly custom on big lots, and not as cookie cutter. Some of the older Dallas proper neighborhoods might also work, if you're already considering private schools anyway.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by mSooner

Uhh...I didn't realize it was an issue either? Foundation problem potential because of ****ty soil, sure? Earthquakes? They've had them recently, but this is the first I've heard of people avoiding the area because of the wee tiny earthquakes.

Yes, many Irving homes have significant structural problems due to the earthquakes. Those 3.0 range earthquakes don't feel so tiny if you're a mile from the epicenter and your house was built on a slab foundation that doesn't "give" when the earth moves. Even in our house which is in PH, the entire house is on P&B except for one room which is on a slab. The bigger earthquakes feel like a gentle roll if you're standing on P&B but feel like the house is being shaken on the slab....it's weird!

WFAA has profiled quite a few homeowners who have huge damages - one woman's kitchen floor has a huge crack all the way across (like a 1/2-1" wide x 15 feet long). Another hole has a crack splitting the entire house in two (again small crack 1" or so), running from the front porch out the back door. Earthquake insurance is $$$, too. These weren't $600k houses (probably $100-150k range) so not built as well as what OP would be buying, but I wouldn't buy anything in close proximity to the epicenters.