moving from Toronto to Dallas Area (Plano, Richmond: houses, neighborhood, schools)

[honu1]

Just to clarify....what lots of other countries call football we call soccer in the states. So not sure if your son in into traditional US football (oval ball) or soccer (black/white round ball) Practically every highschool in TX has the former. As for the latter, a few schools have teams, but there are also tons of community leagues.

Welcome to TX.

[Big G]

To complicate things even more, Canadian football differs slightly from American football.

[southern living]

there are plenty of communities near duncanville. cedar hill, desoto, midlothian, grandprairie. grand prairie was ranked in the top 100 suburbs by money magazine for 2008. it is almost always a knee jerk reaction to move north, but if you do your h/w you will find these communities are just as pleasant...and you wont have the long commute.
cedar hill high football were state champions in football year before last.
welcome to texas.
Im sure you wont miss shoveling snow

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth924

I looked it up, yes I see it is a private school. For both of my kids, it will be about 30,000 a year. I have 2 daughters in University as well. I would love to but for that expense, I might as well stay in Canada and take the lesser income. Thanks for telling me about it though, nice to see all the options.

I would be less concerned about my children studying French than I would be about depriving them of their peer connections in their schools. Especially for the two in high school.

The strongest bond, and influence, that older children have is not with their parents, but with their friends. Pulling them out of an environment where they have cultural and social ties and expecting them to replace those ties without any trouble, especially in what amounts to a foreign country, may be expecting too much.

I think you should stay in Toronto. Especially if your only motive for a move is financial.

[Elizabeth924]

It's the oval football I'm talking about : )

Believe me, we have alot to consider in transferring the children. I totally agree with the previous post that us uprooting the family merely for financial reasons is something to seriously consider. There is alot more to it than just financial though (without going into so many details and thinking out loud here) I told my husband I don't want to go already, but at the same time I don't want to totally close it up. Maybe it will be a great thing for us as difficult as it may be for awhile initially...I don't know!

[pepper131]

We almost uprooted our teenage son and decided not to due to his emtional state - the signs were small, but they were there and he was headed into a dangerous state of mind although he doesn't know that he was.

I am grateful to the research that has been done with teenage boys - there's a particular Front Line episode that was very useful to us. Plus the expert advice of a trusted therapist who had intially been saying you need to keep the family together. After one session with my son, plus me telling her about his actions/behavior, she did a 180 and said we had much reason to be concerned. We decided not to move; although my husband moved with his job to another city.

[Elizabeth924]

You made the right decision then.

If any of the kids had any sort of emotional problems, I would not even consider moving.....no way!

[intence]

The two cities are extremely different places in my opinion. Toronto is extremely multiculturual, it's relatively safe, and has a very urban / big city feel to it. Dallas is much more spread out, much less multicultural, and not very urban at all when compared to Toronto. It's also very conservative, but the people are warm and friendly.

I would suggest researching the area/neighborhood where you choose to live quite thoroughly. I would also suggest spending as little as possible on a home, while purchasing in an excellent neighborhood. Historically, home prices have not climbed nearly as much in Dallas as they have in Toronto, and although Dallas is growing, house prices have been somewhat stagnant. Additionally, property taxes are quite high (about 3%), and so a more expensive house (that isn't appreciating much) just means more expenses. On the other hand, house prices are much lower, so I would roughly estimate that a home in the DFW area will be about 50-60% of the price of a comparable home in the Toronto area.

A pool shouldn't be a problem, but finding an area that's walkable will be your largest challenge. Although you could walk around the Highland park area, a car is still a necessity in the Dallas area. Addison has a somewhat urban feel to it, but it may not be the most family oriented suburb. I would suggest exploring around the Northpark area (close to highland park), and also look at Southlake and Plano which are less urban but do have nicer houses/school districts. Highland Park and University Park are extremely high end (Bridle Path or Yorkville might be somewhat comparable), rumo(u)r has it that President Bush may reside in Highland Park once his term in over. That should provide a bit of insight into the level of neighborhood.

As for sports, there are several ice-rinks in the DFW area, and football is almost a religion here. If your son is a football fan, he should have no problem fitting in. I'm not sure about French, but i'm sure it should be offered at most larger high schools, you would probably want to verify this though. Aside from learning french, your children would have the option of picking up spanish, making them at least trilingual, so that could substitute for french.

I wouldn't rule out considering public schools, as in general, Dallas (or the US perhaps) appears to have a more obvious dividing line between rich and poor when compared to Canada. A Public school in a high-end neighborhood is very likely to have excellent (exemplary) public schools, while a school in the same school district but in a disadvantaged neighborhood may be rated considerably lower. Additionally, public colleges (universities) aren't priced much differently than those in Canada (where they're all public). Private universities (such as Southern Methodist University in Dallas) may have higher tuition rates, but it also may be easier to obtain scholarships.

I'm assuming that your husband's salary will be quite a bit higher than what he's earning in Toronto. The base cost of living will be higher in Dallas, but once you cross a certain threshold you should have more disposable income. Goods and services are generally cheaper and taxes are lower. You didn't mention if you work, but assuming you don't, taxes can be filed here based on family income, which might be signifantly cheaper than filing individually (as I beleive it's done in Canada), especially when one spouse earns significantly more than the other. You also can write-off mortgage interest from your income taxes, along with your property taxes, and since Texas has no state-level income-tax you can write off your sales-tax as well.

What kind of medical benefits is your husband being offered? A few major hospital trips can cause major expenses. Before making a decision, find out what the coverage is like, how you'd have to pay, etc. The tiered US system means that if you have excellent benefits, you should receive top-notch care with little or no wait. It also means that if you don't have a good health plan that you'd be paying a lot of money for healthcare. Basic surgery can easily cost tens of thousands if you're not covered, so this would be another area you'd need to consider.

Good luck on your decision!

[Elizabeth924]

Thank you so much for that information Intence! It was very helpful.

You seem to know quite a bit about Toronto, Have you lived here?
I have a feeling it's going to be quite a culture shock for us, although my Husband goes to Dallas on a regular basis so he has quite the social network already....he'll be fine.

Yes, Toronto is extremely multi-cultural so it is no big deal. But we are not any better when it comes to low and high income areas as far as schools. We all know what the "bad" schools are and it has nothing to do with particular cultures but income levels in the area. Sad to say, but unfortunately a fact. The crime level though is nothing compared to Dallas. We here the full news on every crime that takes place in Toronto and it's always still shocking.

We are actually north of Toronto, still in the GTA (greater toronto area), in Richmond Hill. We live in an old house and in the middle of our downtown "town". I'm trying to find the same thing in Dallas and it does seem like Highlands Lake sort of fits what I'm looking for. Plano does seem nice, but living in the suburbs at this point in my life does not appeal to me. The houses are also huge which I have to keep airconditioned (a big expense I imagine) and CLEAN! Then again the Plano schools have a great reputation. I'm the most concerned about the kids, Where will they be happiest? I'll be fine if I know they're happy.

Kind Regards

[TrueDat]

The Dallas area may not be as obviously multicultural as Toronto with its Caribana festival, Little Italy and huge Chinatown. But neither is DFW as monocultural as some would make it appear. There are tons of people in the Metroplex who have migrated from other parts of the US and the world. This pluralism may have to be sought out but it's there. DFW International