Possibly relocating to DFW from South Jersey, best areas?? (Dallas: for sale, rent)

[venomous121]

My wife may be taking a job in North Dallas. I have been trying to find info on good neighborhoods to move to. We will most likely rent to start out just to get a feel for the area before we decide to buy a house. Just looking at Google maps, I see the towns of Richardson, Garland, Rowlett, Plano, etc. These look like they won't be too far from her new job. So my question is, what are the good areas? I don't want inadvertently move us to a bad neighborhood. We are 37, have no children, so we're not worried about schools. We are more conservative minded. If we buy a house it will most likely be in the low 200k range if that helps narrow down the areas. We would like to find a nice suburb, maybe even some country living.

[stephwin]

You won't get anything resembling country living with that budget, especially given where your wife works. Can you give a major cross street for her work location?

Based on your budget and the fact that you won't need schools, I would look around Farmers Branch. The homes will be older, though, and will probably need a little bit of updating.

[venomous121]

I would say where 75 meets 635 is pretty close. Not worried about older homes. I like them. We could most likely afford more, but I'm use to living in Jersey where property taxes account for half of the mortgage payment so I'm aiming low.

[mSooner]

Well, we do have the property taxes, but no state income tax so that might help.

If your budget were a lot higher, I'd say Addison or North Dallas itself, but you are going to really struggle with a 200K budget and getting a decent commute

[venomous121]

Really, so under 200k we are looking at ghetto conditions? Its not even nearly that bad here. Can someone elaborate?

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by venomous121

Really, so under 200k we are looking at ghetto conditions? Its not even nearly that bad here. Can someone elaborate?

Prices have skyrocketed around here over the past 5 years. $200k would buy you a decent home in a decent area 5 years ago. Even then, it would have been a bit on the small side and probably in need of updating.

Now, a starter home goes for around $300k if you want to be in a good area with good schools. You'll also find that builders aren't building too much in that price range... they've been concentrating on the $400k and up mark... because the demand is there and they can make more money.

[TheOverdog]

Dallas barely even has starter homes. Every home is 2000+ sq feet, and you can easily still buy a home for less than $200k. It might be oldish (meaning the 1960s, not 1920s), but it'll be plenty big.

[Aceraceae]

Originally Posted by stephwin

You won't get anything resembling country living with that budget, especially given where your wife works. Can you give a major cross street for her work location?

Based on your budget and the fact that you won't need schools, I would look around Farmers Branch. The homes will be older, though, and will probably need a little bit of updating.

Good suggestion.

[ChristieP]

That's not true. Richardson has plenty of smaller, older homes that are under $200k. Look at areas that feed into Berkner HS since you aren't concerned with schools, and Richardson HS east of 75.

[venomous121]

Thanks. Yeah i have been seeing a lot of really nice homes for sale online for well under 200k, I just don't know about the neighborhoods. I have never even been to TX let alone DFW are. Also, I guess it all depends on what you think is small. To me, anything over 1300 square feet is big.