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Old 05-11-2008, 09:12 PM
 
87 posts, read 384,266 times
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We are considering a move to Florida or Texas (2 areas offered by my husband's company). WE can go to the Houston or Dallas area. In NJ, we live in a pretty affluent area with one of the top 10 schools in the state and the schools are very important to us. We have a 3000 sq ft 5 bedroom home with a 1/4 acre private yard and our taxes are $10,600 per year with car insurance running $2700 for 1 new car and 1 5 year old car. We'd like a comparable house with 1/4 an acre or more with a private yard (no homes behind us). I'd appreciate any info. you could share about these areas!

Thanks!
Michelle
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Old 05-11-2008, 10:26 PM
 
Location: DFW, TX
2,935 posts, read 6,714,410 times
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Where you will be working will be the major factor in deciding where you want to live. This being a Dallas forum, you'll hear little love for Houston, but expect the converse in the Houston forum

Coming from NJ, Houston will be closer to what you are used to with more humidity and more trees to go along with it... and proximity to the water. Dallas is relatively flat, the trees aren't as towering and some areas can be wooded, but most areas are a bit more open. Both cities offer about the same opportunities for great schools, jobs, and cultural events... the only big differences are that Houston is 1 big city where the DFW area has 2 big cities with 3 mid sized cities (Arlington, Garland, Plano) around them, then a ton of other suburbs.... and Houston doesn't have zoning which can create interesting mixes of businesses and housing areas.
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Old 05-12-2008, 05:54 AM
 
87 posts, read 384,266 times
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My husband has opportunities in both Dallas or Texas. In NJ where we live, its the suburbs. There are tons of trees and greenery, the houses average between a half an acre and an acre properties. It's definitely a town, nothing city like and that's what we would want - I don't want to live in a city. What are the nice suburbs that sound similar in these areas?
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Old 05-12-2008, 07:36 AM
 
3,820 posts, read 8,742,550 times
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You're going to have a tough time finding a 1/4 or more lot with nothing around you. But privacy fences are quite common here. We've got a 1/3 acre with an 8' wood fence. Neighbors can't see into my house unless they are up on the roof trying to the way our houses are angled.

I'm in Murphy BTW. Very nice community. City of Murphy, Texas - About Our Community (http://www.murphytx.org/community/about.asp - broken link)
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Old 05-12-2008, 09:09 AM
 
Location: Dallas
87 posts, read 315,623 times
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Default We're from NJ

My husband and I both grew up in northern NJ... We know what you mean about the schools there, where we were, the public schools were even better than the private schools. The housing prices reflected that there ...

Dallas is a wonderful place to live, very family-oriented, friendly people in general. There are many excellent school systems as well, plus great private schools, if you so desire.

We lived in nj, then northern CA for a few years, and have been in Dallas for 5 yrs now. The cost of living is phenomenally better than where we were in NJ and definitely compared to CA. You can easily find a home double the size and quality compared to NJ. For example, we're looking to move to a home around 600K in the Dallas area, what we are looking for would easily cost us 1.2M+ in Tenafly, Demarest, Haworth, + surrounding areas.

Property taxes are higher (percentage wise) in Dallas but there's no income tax. Car insurance isn't cheap here either, but i remember NJ rates being high too.

Overall, we love it here. Home prices are great, it's more children-friendly than other places we've lived, and although some published reports cite Dallas as having high crime, we feel very safe here.

We don't know much about Houston, but have visited a couple of times. From a transplant's POV, it doesn't seem all that much different than Dallas, other than the humidity and bugs

Did you have any specific Q's in comparing NJ and Dallas?
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Old 05-12-2008, 09:15 AM
 
Location: Dallas
87 posts, read 315,623 times
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Default Also wanted to add

that we're also looking for around 1/2 acre with privacy, lots of greenery. It would be hard to find a lot with no neighbors within Dallas but as pp said, there's high privacy fences everywhere and you can also look at homes with creek lots which would have a creek in the back instead of a home.

The neighborhoods we are looking at are:

Lakewood
Northwood Hills
Preston Hollow
Midway Hollow
Bluffview
Disney Area

All of these areas are within Dallas. We want to stay here for commute reasons, rather than move to a suburb. All of these areas have a suburb feel, depending on location of the home (inner lots) but are close to areas of business (which we like for the convenience). We want a home that has a serene, neighborhood feel without having to drive too long to get to work/school/stores. If you're willing to commute longer, there are many many beautiful suburbs in the DFW metroplex where you can get huge lots, a beautiful home, for very reasonable prices compared to the east coast.

Good luck with your research!
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Old 05-12-2008, 09:26 AM
aeh
 
318 posts, read 1,621,434 times
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I would agree with the pervious poster. We lived in Wyckoff for over two years. I know what you mean about the small towns in NJ. What is your price range?
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Old 05-12-2008, 09:30 AM
aeh
 
318 posts, read 1,621,434 times
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I mean, PREVIOUS poster...not pervious!
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Old 05-12-2008, 10:39 AM
 
Location: DFW, TX
2,935 posts, read 6,714,410 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by njmomto2 View Post
My husband has opportunities in both Dallas or Texas. In NJ where we live, its the suburbs. There are tons of trees and greenery, the houses average between a half an acre and an acre properties. It's definitely a town, nothing city like and that's what we would want - I don't want to live in a city. What are the nice suburbs that sound similar in these areas?
Dallas or Texas?

Where specifically in Dallas, downtown? The area is huge, so it really matters. You probably wouldn't want to work in Arlington and live in McKinney, or work in Mesquite and live in Lewisville for instance.
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Old 05-12-2008, 01:03 PM
 
87 posts, read 384,266 times
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I've never been to Texas or Dallas so I really don't have a clue about how homes are situated. This is the development we were looking to buy in NJ, very expensive ($900k)
Hillsborough Chase - New Homes in Hillsborough, NJ by Toll Brothers (http://www.tollbrothers.com/homesearch/servlet/HomeSearch?app=community_description&comm_num=5926 - broken link)

but it's 2 acres of property, good schools, etc. We make good money but struggle with paying such high expenses - property taxes $18k, etc. We were thinking of moving to Texas, maybe a $400k home and wanted to see if we could find something similar (not as big of a house maybe) but with a nice yard, something like this:
This is what our yard is like now:

We don't absolutely need a pool though, so this would be fine too.


My husband would work in Dallas or Houston and the absolute #1 priority would be the top school system - something that caters to gifted children.

Please let me know where to look!
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