Little Elm, ghetto? (Dallas, Carrollton, Frisco: house, buy, schools)

[txsummer10]

Lake Lewisville is a large lake with several marina's, restaurants with outside activities you can pull you boat up to. Yes, it's full of boats of all sizes and jet ski's. Although...the water level is down about 9 feet right now and there are stumps that could be dangerous when the water is low. It's a very busy lake at times and fun.

Angel

[socketz]

So once it starts raining again...

Once could live in a place like Frisco and commute 30 mins or so to Lake Lewisville with a Ski or Boat in tow. Then spend the day on the Lake putting around, then come home and call it a day ?

Why is it that everyone else I ask about this seems somewhat skeptical ?

Is it just that things are possible at Lake Lewisville, just not all that fun because:
-The lake is shallow
-Too Hot
-Full of snakes and gators (don't laugh, I've been told that)
-In a crime ridden area

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm baffled by the inconsistency of responses I receive on this subject.

To me, Texas is full of lakes, so why are people not on the water playing around and doing family outings. Much like everyone from Socal does when they go out to the Colorado (2-3 hours away).

[momof2dfw]

OH, the lakes ARE crowded on weekends and holidays. That is when they are open for boats. Lewisville is open to boats as is Lake Ray Hubbard in the Dallas area. Others are not because of the dangers presented w/ the very low waters. Anyone who tells you the lakes are not crowded on summer holiday weekends has never, ever been past a lake during those times. Lots of people in the Dallas area even have lake homes on the lakes that are farther out. Lewisville Lake is not a "weekend lake home". It is also one of the busiest in the area. And it does not matter what the temp is when it is hot, the lake is BUSY!!!

Yes, there have been gator sightings and one found dead on Lewisville Lake. Gators are around here so anyone that tells you otherwise.... newbie. The neigbhor killed one about 3 years ago at our place on Tawakoni. This one was up out of the water by about 80' and was headed toward the house. Not something a gator is likely to do unless they are STARVING.

Yes, you could hitch up the boat and head to the lake for the day and go home at dusk and call it a day. If you don't want to waste the time w/ hooking up, waiting for your turn at the ramp to unload and load then you can always keep your boat at one of the marinas.

[socketz]

Sounds like a PITA. I'm also not a fan of Gators, Snakes and Water Mocassions.

Is Texoma any better ?

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by socketz

Sounds like a PITA. I'm also not a fan of Gators, Snakes and Water Mocassions.

Is Texoma any better ?

Better as in how? It is farther away so you would not be there in 30 minutes. It would be a "long day" trip if not an overnight one. There are tons of marinas on Texoma that people leave their boats in all the time. There are some "party" areas of that lake too. Not areas to take the wife & kids. Maybe just the wife . There are so many lakes around the entire D/FW area that are anywhere from 5 minutes away or 3-4 hours and everything in between. Some lakes cater for fishermen (Lake Fork). Cedar Creek is a very popular lake East of Dallas. My grandparents lived there when I was a kid and it has DRASTICALLY changed. Now there are houses right on top of each other along the entire shoreline. They have very strict regulations on the size of boathouse you can build depending on your lot & house size. And the lake gets crowded.

Gators. People around here freak out when they hear about a gator in one of the lakes but what they don't understand is that they are here. Just not as poplar as they are in LA but they are in Texas. I've been on just about every lake around here and have never seen one personally. So they are not "crawling" with them.

[ShaBlackwell]

tabogin:
I would highly recommend Little Elm if you don't commute to Dallas. A commute to Frisco, Carrollton, Plano, North Dallas, Allen, McKinney, etc is fine.

The crime situation is good. Police are proactive and because it is only 3 square miles - you practically have one who lives in every neighborhood. We have one LE PD who lives the next street over from me, one from LE PD on the other side, and a Coppell officer two streets more.

I am actually putting my house on the market next week - because I got a new job too far south in Dallas to make the commute - but if I could I would hold on to my LE house - the tollway will go all the way there in a couple more years and prices will go high.

For the price - I think this is a great area. I also have a much bigger yard than I will when I move.

Socketz: I can only comment on the Little Elm part of Lake Lewisville - but there is a nice marina. You are almost on your own as far as food goes - we have a Sonic and some other restraunts - but no big chains. I have been all over the woods in Little Elm (there is a great little nature path right down the street from my house) and not encountered any problems. I spend a lot of time in the woods and have not come across anything criminal in the LE city limits. We have never waited longer than a few minutes to get a boat in the water in LE.

It seems like as the community has grown (there were under 5000 people when we bought our house in 2000) and the government has grown pretty well too.

Shannon B

[jimmy-buffett]

I have lived in Little Elm for about 3 years now, and I've been a jet ski owner for about a year now.

The high Hispanic population in Little Elm is mainly two groups of people: your average middle-class family-oriented types who make about what anybody makes, and the lower-middle-class family-oriented types who moved out here to find a cheaper place to live.

If you look on a map, Little Elm is basically divided into two halves: south of El Dorado and north of El Dorado. Most new housing development is on the north side, you will find trailer parks / older housing on the south side and in the older parts of town but they are not easily accessible / visible from El Dorado. For where the average middle-class person would be looking in Little Elm, you'd never see a trailer or a house older than 5-7 years old (and most are new construction).

As for crime, Little Elm is a pretty quiet place. You'll never stop the kids from breaking into some cars or a garage every now and then, but overall it is not a big problem. If I remember right, there have been two murders in the entire history of the town (30-40 years) and both were domestic violence (i.e. spouses or boyfriend/girlfriend). Due to the layout of the town (it's on a peninsula), it's easy for the police presence to be seen either on El Dorado or Walker and that keeps the crime down. Most of the police that I have met are very friendly, and the police&fire have outreach programs for the kids at the local schools (my friend's wife teaches kindergarten and has told me about police visiting her class).

Little Elm is basically a cheaper version of Frisco: if you want a house that is just a little smaller for a lot less money than what you can get in Frisco, come to Little Elm. You are about 10 minutes from the mall in Frisco so you have the same close access to good shopping/dining but you don't pay the housing premium. As a previous poster said, Frisco prices out most of the lower-to-middle class folks by the nature of their high housing prices, so that's why you will see a higher minority population in Little Elm than in Frisco, but it has hardly any impact on crime as most people who move out here do it to raise a family.

So onto Lake Lewisville:

Lake Lewisville, like most/all Texas lakes, is man-made and recently at that (within the last 40-50 years?), which means there is a lot of timber in the water from when a forest used to be there (it's a dam'd up series of rivers, the water flooded the hills/valleys of the area). The wood is there independent of water level, however when the water drops the channels between forests become more pronounced. The wood is worse at the northern end of the lake, once you get to the south end it isn't as bad, just pay attention to where you are going and you won't have a problem. I would suggest against driving very fast in an area where you aren't sure how clear it is, if you do hit a log you will do less damage to your boat. Once you get into the open areas though you will see large/speed boats having a good time without much worry. I spent about 10 hours (all running time on my jet ski, not just sitting like on a boat) on the lake last year and did not have any problems.

The city of Little Elm provides a free boat landing at the town park that I use regularly, it's right off El Dorado so there is enough police presence to not have to worry about your vehicle or belongings. You can get to the boat landing from anywhere in town in about 5 minutes, it's very centrally located. The lake can get crowded on Saturday/Sunday afternoons, so I usually go in the mornings or on a Friday every now and then (so it's just me and the retired fishermen).

If Lake Lewisville gets too crowded you can also get to Lake Ray Roberts which is about 20 miles north of Little Elm. Lewisville is more convenient but Ray Roberts is a more peaceful and relaxed setting, it's truly rural with a beautiful park and sand beach at the south end of the lake. For quick trips during non-peak times I go to Lewisville but for a few hours of enjoyment I go to Ray Roberts instead. Like with Lewisville it does have some wood in the water and also the occasional sand bar, but just pay attention on the northern ends of the lake and you'll be fine.

As a homeowner, future family man and boating enthusiast, I can't recommend Little Elm highly enough. My commute is 29 miles each way and I've been making it gladly for the last 3 years. It's cheaper housing than Frisco but with easy access to the best parts of Frisco (shopping, dining), it still retains a small-lake-town feel and the lake is right next to you (I'm about 3 blocks from it). Frisco traffic sucks 24/7 because everybody lives there and everything is packed up on Preston Rd, where Little Elm's traffic is mostly at rush hour during the week (and it can get bad until they start putting in the 4-lane roads). For me, Little Elm is an escape from the big city (i.e. Frisco, Plano) but with easy access to the big city things that I like/need. I can be on the tollway and to downtown Dallas in under 45 minutes: Stars games, Mavs games, etc.

Little Elm is a great town and I highly recommend it.

[940]

Once the North Texas Toll Authority finishes building the Lake Lewisville Toll Bridge from Little Elm west toward Lake Dallas/Corinth/Hickory Creek and on to I-35, accessibility will improve immensely for both sides of the lake.

http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects/LLTB.htm

[michaelpklaw]

We will be moving to the Little Elm next year. Here is the article that talks about the safety of the town.

Star Community Newspapers (broken link)

[partyof-five]

Hi!! We are are moving to Texas soon and we are very happy about that. We really looked around many areas but decided that little Elm has that "lake feel" and everything else we had been looking for in a nice area to raise a family, not to mention all of the good things we hear from people that have moved to Little Elm and are very happy with that decision. I'm sure we will be also.