A Good Location In Between Dallas and Arlington (Irving, Grand Prairie: low crime, buying a house)

[Alyna]

My husband and I are in the process of relocating to the DFW area from North Carolina. He has a job in the Highland Park area of Dallas, and I recently interviewed for a job in central Arlington.

We're planning on buying a house (I've listed our "must-haves" below). Does anyone have any recommendations for a good location to look at? What about specific communities?

- A convenient commute for both of us
- A location with good schools and convenient access to stores
- A more suburban/laid back feel
- Low crime rates
- A newish 2000+ square foot home for less than $200,000

We spent this weekend house hunting in Mansfield and liked the feel of the town and heard they had excellent schools, but I'm really worried about the commute.

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks!!

[cityconvo]

You are wise to be concerned about the commute from Mansfield to Highland Park. It might be ok once in a while but it would wear me down if I had to do it on a daily basis.

Grand Prairie might be a good option at least for both of your commutes. There are some newer developments in Grand Prairie. Maybe someone that knows the name of them can offer more specific advice.

[Alyna]

Originally Posted by cityconvo

Grand Prairie might be a good option at least for both of your commutes. There are some newer developments in Grand Prairie. Maybe someone that knows the name of them can offer more specific advice.

Thanks for the advice!! So, realistically, what kind of commute time are we looking at? An hour? More? We'd like to keep our respective commutes under 40 minutes.

We looked at several properties at Grand Prairie, but had been warned by several people to only look south of I-20, because anything north of I-20 was very economically depressed.

[Grainraiser]

All the newer development in Grand Prairie is going to south of I-20 near Lake Joe Pool. There are some decent neighborhoods north of I-20 but the vast majority of them will be much older neighborhoods straddling I-20.

[Texas Mack]

What about Cedar Hill or parts of Duncanville? Too far?

[nickatmrinvestorcom]

I would look in Irving. Best all around location. [email]Nick@mrinvestor.com[/email]

[loves2read]

ok--if you want good schools
you probably need to stay N of the 183/Airport Freeway---
would not recommend Duncanville, Grand Prairie, Arlington or really Irving ISD---
check out the number of national merit scholars they produce--not many compared to other districts--and many of the elementary schools are not ranked higher than acceptable--while other districts in DFW have ISDs with better ranked schools and same student composition...

you might be able to find a house around 2000 sq ft and 200K in Flower Mound and Coppell--they have good ISDs--Lewisville for Flower Mound and Coppell ISD--
closer to Arlington but not that great into HP is the HEB district or maybe Grapevine in Grapevine Colleyville ISD--but houses in that price range might be too old or in not too good area

getting to Arlington from Flower Mound or Coppell would be about as difficult -- maybe more -- than getting into HP
I don't think both of you can have a "decent" commute---
and what does that mean--under an hour--under 30 min?

and Central Arlington really has NO freeway that runs through it--there is 157 which is really a city street upgraded to 3/3 lanes in some streaches...I don't count 360 as being "central Arlington" nor I-30...so what is "central" Arlington to you--
UTA is what I think of...

[renlouis]

I would second the Coppell recommendation. Alot of higher priced homes, but still possible to get a home in your price range. Great schools if that's important to you also.