Commuting times to DFW airport (Austin: sunny, drive, comparisons)

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by socketz

Nobody ever says what they are willing to spend.

I guess everyone coming here figures all the homes everywhere are 100k.

Southlake is great, but wait, that's about 500-600k for what your looking for....

Need to know a price range.

LOL!!! It's "cheap". Our real estate has been termed "cheap". hahahaha
For starters I would not say it is "cheap" but the better term to use is "reasonable". Cheap gives off a bad image. The homes are reasonable in price and built well, that is not "cheap".

[socketz]

I tend to prefer terms like resonable, value, etc.

Out of curiosity, I did decide to scan Realtor.com and see what was in there for Dallas under 50k:

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1073842724 (broken link)
http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1072777553 (broken link)
http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1059106332 (broken link)

I was surpised.

[SamM]

My limit to buy a 4 or 5 bed house w pool in a good school distrcit would be $250k

[loves2read]

If you own property in London--anything around here will seem reasonable...buying a 5 bedroom house may be a little difficult since most around here seem to have 4--maybe a study as well--housing comes in a variety of price and quality ranges--so just asking about 5 bdrms is not really enough information..There is NO public transportation around here worth mentioning--so you will have to drive yourself back and forth to work each day--and traffic is major headache in the towns around DFW airport--it is a point that many freeways and other roads connect with---and masses of people travel to and from one side of Metroplex to other each day...

have you checked to see if there are any organizations for people of your ethnicity in Dallas --Fort Worth--Arlington ---Irving area that you could contact for more specific input?
Have you asked anyone at your new job for advice about areas?
That would be suggestion I would recommend--find a person you consider similar in attitude and financial resources and check out where he/she lives--what school district he thinks is a good one--

Further north than Lewisville like Double Oak/Corinth is getting iffy for schools and resale on housing values--price of gas has made many people regret moving to more rural areas---but to you at under $3 gasoline is probably fairly reasonable still...
Lewisville ISD and town of Flower Mound and Lewisville are likely search areas---Frisco is maybe do-able but more unlikely--Grapevine/Colleyville ISD and towns are another good suggestion...Southlake/Carroll ISD has some homes under 500000 but many more over and no temporary housing like apartments if you can't find something you like and want to have your 7 year old in school...

The Hurst Euless Bedford ISD (15 min from DFW) although not as highly-perceived/ranked as Grapevine-Colleyville or Southlake Carroll ISD graduates students each year who win scholarships to colleges and universities of various levels--and it has two high schools which offer the International Bacculaureat program and will be offering classes in Hindi and Mandarin next year--it was recognized as one of the top 100 school districts for its music program-for its Suzuki Strings in elementary level and its choral and band programs----finding a 5 bedroom house would not be that easy however but there are fair number of students of your ethnicity who go there and succeed...
Birdville ISD has new construction going on like gang busters in North Richland Hills area as does Keller/Keller ISD--you could drive 1709 to 114/DFW area--would be fairly manageable...
Arlington has wide range of housing and some of their schools are ok--but demographics are having downward effect--would not buy there for long term...

You can get to DFW airport on Highway 360 from south from towns like Mansfield--think that might be another place to consider--schools are pretty good--town is growing with shopping/retail also on upswing along I-20--housing is still relatively affordable...

People say "good schools" without giving what that really means--do you mean safe--do you mean where your children will be accepted and find friends--do you expect your children to be exceptional students who win scholarships to Ivy League schools/Top 12 or the military academies--would you be happy if they were accepted into good schools like Univerisity of TX in Austin or Texas A&M---can you afford to pay for their college at TCU or Duke without financial aid---
those are the kinds of questions more people should be asking---

Some people in Mid-Cities area even in "good" school districts send their children to private religious/church sponsored schools because they don't want them exposed to what they perceive as the worldly-negative influences of public schools---some people send their children to private schools in attempt to give them rigorous academic education...and there are scholarships available at most of those schools for students who are really gifted...your children are so young that you may move several times before they are in high school...
This web site has TEA ranking for any school district and its specific schools -- check them out--and check out last year's rankings as well--make sure it did not go up or down erratically

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfrepor...list.srch.html

find an elementary school that the state has rated as EXEMPLARY (best) or RECOGNIZED (next)--those are the top schools for your daughter---but remember that sometimes there can be one child whose test scores makes the school's rating shift from EXEMPLARY to RECOGNIZED status or from there to ACCEPTABLE-- and remember that districts which have vast majority of students from high income levels invariably do very well on the state's tests--districts/schools that manage to score RECOGNIZED or ACCEPTABLE and have lower socioeconomic students have a much more difficult time and are probably as capable of teaching students who want to excell---they just have difficulties that the other districts don't...

[jhami3]

Plano, Frisco, and McKinney are WAY too far from the airport. I would reccomend looking at Grapevine, Colleyville, Irving (several very good Indian restaurants), and Flower Mound.

[socketz]

Mckinney is the furthest and it is only 30 miles.

When I lived in MD/DC, Dulles airport was 40+ miles an nobody complained.

But yes, if you travel 4-5 times or more per month, then it would make sense to live closer. I travel about once a month and live now in Plano and it takes me no time to get to the Park and Ride. It's a simple drive on the 190. Mckinney and Frisco are a little firther out and the 121 has more lights, but still, very doable.

[Mokey]

Well, my husband and I are also looking to move to the Dallas area coming from southeast Michigan (metro Detroit). We also would like to live somewhat near the airport (within an hour). Debsi's suggestion of Richardson was good as we'd also like to be around an Indian grocery store, restaurants, etc, but this isn't a deal breaker.

We don't have kids (aside from four dogs) so school districts do _not_ matter to us. I am in my twenties and he is in his mid thirties so we would like to live in an area that is relatively happening. If we wanted to walk from our home to a downtown area or neighborhood for drinks or something, that would be a huge plus.

(I heard Austin is good for things like this, but my husband has clients all over the country and he flies several times a month. Austin didn't offer direct flights to the places he needs to go, so I am looking for an Austin-ish place in the Dallas area. I'm aware that 'there is only one Austin', etc. and I won't find any place that fits perfectly, but I just threw that in to give people a better idea of what I what I am looking for).

...and a pool?

Our price range is 300-350k.

[socketz]

Austin does not feel as upscale as Dallas does to me. While I like it there, I'm not sure that I'd enjoy living there more than Dallas. Dallas just has some areas that feel really nice to me. Austin feels more funky/hippie.

If an hour to the airport is your target, then there are alot of places you can live. These folks that crack on Frisco, Mckinney and Plano being too far live like 10 mins from the airport. For me, that's too close as I find airports in general highly undesirable necessities, not features - the noise/traffic/emissions alone would drive me nuts. 45mins to an hour works for me as well as I only travel 1-2 times per month.

[Mokey]

Thanks for the input socketz. Glad to know someone else thought within 45 minutes drive was perfectly reasonable relative to overall quality of life, haha.

About the Austin thing - Austin appeals to me because it does seem to be a young-ish and down to earth place, and it also seems like a place where you leave your house and walk to downtown. Plus, having four dogs, Austin's reputation for being dog-friendly appealed to me.

We like that Dallas is classy, don't get me wrong, but we want to live in a friendly area... if people are funky, so be it. The thing is, neither of us have any family or any connections in Texas so we'd like to somewhere that we could make friends easily. We're leaving this part of the country (no ties here, either) to get away from these six-month-long winters.

[socketz]

You'll like Austin. Before I moved here, people told Austin 'feels' more like CA than TX.

I honestly think that Austin feels more Texas than Dallas. Dallas reminds me more of a Orange County/LA. Austin is Jeans/Cowboy Boots. It seems alot more laidback than Dallas (people there seem to care less about measuring themselves vs others). But then....I go back to liking Dallas because the feel here is nicer, more consistent. I guess you can't have it all. You'd be happy in either place.