Prosperous Black Family Moving to Dallas (Houston, Austin: crime, house, neighborhoods)

[Smokemiah]

Hi All,
My wife and I are considering a move to the metroplex. We are a family of 5, but 2 of our children will be in college by the time we move. We've been blessed with a good income and are comfortable with a house budget of up to $1 - $1.2MM.

We are moving from a much less diverse city in the Midwest where the black professional class is very small and invisible so it is very important to us to live in or very near a neighborhood with a visible black middle or professional class. We would also like overall diversity.

My office will be near the Galleria and I am willing to deal with a commute of up to 50 minutes. I also travel quite a bit, so access to an airport is helpful.

We have looked at Cedar Hill, Desoto, Arlington, McKinney, Addison and Plano so far but would like some character to the area, not just chain restaurants and LA Fitnesses. Otherwise, we are fairly flexible as to suburban vs urban. We do want enough space for a pool.

We are willing to choose a private school if necessary to achieve our primary objective: letting our kids experience a safe, diverse community of prosperous people that look like us.

Any guidance that you all could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[DAX_]

Mesquite

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by DAX_

Mesquite

No way, Jose.

[SpeedThink]

Have read and heard quite positive news about Desoto!

It appears that the Dallas area is attracting more Black middle class families within the last few years.

Overall, Texas appears to be a favorable destination for Black middle class families and cities such as Houston and Dallas particularly are noted as having robust economic bases.

Austin is noted as well.

Basically, I would draw a 40 mile radius around the Dallas metro area and note the cities included within this radius, proximity to the airport, demographic change over the last 10 years, etc.

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by Smokemiah

Hi All,
My wife and I are considering a move to the metroplex. We are a family of 5, but 2 of our children will be in college by the time we move. We've been blessed with a good income and are comfortable with a house budget of up to $1 - $1.2MM.

We are moving from a much less diverse city in the Midwest where the black professional class is very small and invisible so it is very important to us to live in or very near a neighborhood with a visible black middle or professional class. We would also like overall diversity.

My office will be near the Galleria and I am willing to deal with a commute of up to 50 minutes. I also travel quite a bit, so access to an airport is helpful.

We have looked at Cedar Hill, Desoto, Arlington, McKinney, Addison and Plano so far but would like some character to the area, not just chain restaurants and LA Fitnesses. Otherwise, we are fairly flexible as to suburban vs urban. We do want enough space for a pool.

We are willing to choose a private school if necessary to achieve our primary objective: letting our kids experience a safe, diverse community of prosperous people that look like us.

Any guidance that you all could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

First off, I would like to welcome you to Dallas!

I am black professional, although I am single with no kids. I'm going to be completely honest with you on a couple points:

1. Dallas does have a large and rapidly growing black population on paper (including a lot of black professionals), but there is a lack of "cohesion," so to speak, that you will find in places like Atlanta, DC or Houston. Most of us have sort of blended into the local community and are scattered about the Metroplex. You won't really find a place like Prince George's County here, and the impact on the social scene from having institutions like HBCU campuses is also missing.

2. There are very few parts of the DFW Metroplex that offer the "character" I think you're looking for. McKinney and Denton would be the closest you get, but I'm not a fan of either city (I'll get to that in a second).

That being said, your budget will easily allow you and your family to live in any part of the DFW Metroplex. As far as the cities you mentioned specifically, I think they all have their strengths:

*Cedar Hill & Desoto - These cities are a part of a set of communities known as the "Best Southwest." These communities are seeing some decent growth, you'd have good access to the nicest park in DFW (Cedar Hill State Park) and they're the closest you're going to get to living in a visible middle class black community. However, I'm personally not a fan of them for a few reasons. One, the schools aren't the greatest. I know you said you're willing to consider private school, but the quality of the local public schools is still critical if you're concerned about your home maintaining its value and appreciating at a decent clip. Second, they're both far away from the nice restaurants and shopping. Cedar Hill does have a nice outdoor mall with a Dillard's called Hillside Village, but you have to go north of Dallas to find the more upscale stores and restaurants. Third, the commute from Cedar Hill or DeSoto to the Galleria would be pretty rough. I know you mentioned having a tolerance for up to a 50 minute drive, but the other thing to consider is that a significant amount of the professional jobs in DFW are even further north in Plano/Frisco and Addison. If you ever want to switch jobs, you would risk dealing with an even longer commute.

*Arlington - This city is a mixed bag. It puts you halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, if you want to easily drive into both cities for recreational activities. You would also be in close proximity to all of the tourist attractions such as the Football & Baseball stadiums and Six Flags. It's also pretty short drive to/from the airport. However, with it being an older suburb, some parts of the city are really run down and have a higher than average crime rate. The best part of Arlington would be the far southern portion that's adjacent to Mansfield (another nice, affluent community) and sits along Joe Pool Lake

*McKinney - As mentioned earlier, it has an awesome historic town square with the type of character you were mentioning. The schools are also very good. However, the reason I'm not a fan of McKinney is because it sits on the very northern edge of the Metroplex, and thus like Cedar Hill & DeSoto is kind of far from everything. It's a nice option if one works from home or works in Frisco / Plano, but if you want to go into the city often or for a commute to/from the Galleria, that drive can also get pretty rough. It very much has a far-flung bedroom community feel.

*Addison - I am biased, but Addison is really my favorite part of the Metroplex. It's literally in the center of everything. All of the shopping, restaurants, etc. I could want is just a short drive away. Also, because of its small borders, it does have more of a small town feel compared to Plano or Arlington. The Galleria would be a 15 minute commute away and Dallas Love Field would also be a short drive away. It may be a bit too generic suburbia for you as Belt Line Road, the main corridor in Addison, is lined with nothing but strip malls and office parks. However, while it does have a lot of chain restaurants, Addison is also known (at least pre-COVID) for having a semi-decent nightlife and bar scene for a suburb. There's a ton of funky little independent restaurants scattered throughout the town as well, and then it's also home to the Improv Comedy Club that comedians stop at when they come to town (it's like Dallas' Second City). It also has Addison Circle which hosts (again, pre-COVID) a ton of hugely popular festivals that attracts people from all other the DFW Metroplex, such as Kaboomtown and Oktoberfest. Because of the aforementioned reasons, Addison also has a decent sized professional class community. All of that said, Addison isn't perfect. The public schools aren't the greatest, and since it's been built out for a while, you're not going to find new construction homes (most of the housing stock is older and smaller). Not to mention, you have to be very careful about where you live in Addison because it has an extremely busy airport for charter & cargo planes, and portions of the city sit right in its flight path.

*Plano - I gotta tell you, Plano was a strong 2nd choice for me when I moved to Dallas. I really love all of the growth that's taking place at the "Legacy" development and around tonebriar Centre Mall on the NW side of the city along the Dallas North Tollway. It has rapidly morphed into a very nice edge city for people who want the taste of urban living without having to drive all the way down into Dallas proper. Plano is huge however and not all of the neighborhoods are created equal. West Plano Schools has some of the best public schools in the state, which again would be great for resale value. East Plano Schools are good too, but not as good as West Plano. The east side of Plano along Highway is older, more middle and a bit more "industrial," whereas the west side of Plano is more polished, more affluent and a bit more "white collar." In all honesty, the only 2 reasons I decided against Plano was because I wanted to be closer to Dallas proper and also because it's easier to get in/out of Addison without using Toll Roads (can't say the same for West Plano).

In any event, I hope my post helps. In my opinion, all of the cities would be fine choices, depending on what's more important to you. But one thing I will recommend though is to strongly consider living somewhere that will allow you to have a short commute. Right now, traffic is not normal due to COVID. Pre-COVID, it would take forever trying to drive across town because of how congested the roads would get.

[jiping]

75024 75034

[Smokemiah]

Citidata18 Thank you! This is incredibly helpful. I'm trying to get as much color as possible before we visit so that we can narrow our search.

[Exult.Q36]

Checkout Lewisville.

[TeamLynn]

Prosper....is where you want to be.

[NP78]

Plano is probably your best bet. The unfortunate reality is that any $1M+ neighborhood will have a relatively small concentration of AA families, but West Plano is going to provide good schools, a decent commute, and a solid level of diversity (schools are roughly 40% white, 30% Asian, and 15% each Hispanic/AA, probably a touch more Hispanic than AA).

The only real downside it that it definitely lacks character.