Master Planned Community Recommendation (Houston, Dallas: apartments, new home, neighborhoods)

[TLF2009]

Hi, my family is relocating to the Dallas area - I will work downtown and we would like to find a master-planned community that is a reasonable commute. We prefer new construction, in the 500-600k range. We have 3 small children and my husband is an at-home dad, so family community and schools are very important. Thanks for any tips!

[momof2dfw]

To get something new in a master planned community in the suburbs your looking at an hour commute on a good day. There are some newer much smaller master planned communities in Dallas that are much closer that are probably higher than your budget. Now, if you can forgo the "master planned" community aspect and will focus on a family friendly neighborhood with good schools and would be a much shorter commute you can find that. Lake Highlands, Preston Hollow, Lakewood are all 3 areas that have homes in your budget, GREAT family environment, strong community involvement, great parks and schools. All 3 would be a 30 minute or less commute depending on time of day. Some could be a 15 minute drive easily. While it may not have the community pool you would have the local Y and nearby country clubs that would offer a pool, golf course, tennis, etc. With 3 small children I'd rather be much closer to home so that I could be involved in their lives and not have to worry about being stuck in traffic trying to get home in time for a school function. These 3 communities within Dallas would make it possible to even go have lunch with them at school on your lunch hour.

[theloneranger]

Castle Hills is exactly the type of neighborhood you're looking for, but it's in Denton County about 30 min away from downtown. There aren't any new neighborhoods in northern Dallas County and haven't been for a while.

But the Castle Hills neighborhood, which is basically at the intersection of Plano, Lewisville, and Carrollton, is a great community, with houses going up everyday, excellent schools, and a great sense of community. I worked there for 3 years and all of the residents absolutely love it.

[momof2dfw]

Actually, there ARE new homes in Dallas County in the northern part of it. I live in one in the very edge of Dallas/Collin County and there are TONS of brand new and fairly new homes in this area.

As for the City of Dallas there are also new homes and fairly new homes in Dallas as well. There is one development right off of Hillcrest & Forest at the old EDS site that is fairly new and VERY NICE!!! There are also a few small enclaves of new homes in the Lakewood area. While they are not these huge master planned communities they are very nice and are much closer to downtown Dallas. The Lake Highlands area is undergoing a transformation. The area to live in has always been very desirable but the older apartments were not so great. Those apartments are now gone and new retail, office and "urban type" living developments are coming in.

[jekutz]

There are two new master planned communities (very small 60ish homes or so) going up right now in Coppell which is about 30 minutes to downtown. One is already building and it's by Toll Brothers on the corner of Bethel School and Denton Tap called Chateuas of Coppell and the other is set to start selling lots later this month is David Weekly's Arbor Manors on the corner of Denton Tap and Sandy Lake Road. Both neighborhoods are within your price range and Coppell is a very family friendly city. Lots to do for the little ones.

[Lakewooder]

Lakewood was 'master planned' in the 1920s and it's stood the test of time and even improved since then. East of Abrams, south of Lakewood Country Club http://www.lakewoodcc.com/ , south of Mockingbird over to the west shore of White Rock Lake http://www.whiterocklake.org/ there is no major street nor traffic light. Lakewood Elementary http://www.lakewoodelementary.net/ (Blue Ribbon awarded last year) is right in the middle. Near the country club is the Home | Lakewood Theater and many shops and restaurants - we even have our own winery times ten cellars - Dallas, Texas Winery - Wine Tasting Bar and YMCA Home Page

We have our own media - http://lakewood-dallas.blackwhiteread.com/ and advocatemag.com

We are like a small town in the big city - and under 10 minutes to downtown.

[nsumner]

I also second Castle Hills as a recommendation. It one of "THE BEST" master planned communities around with homes ranging from 400s to 2.8 mil.

There are some very good builders there such as Darling Homes, American Legend and David Weekley still building and they have specs too. Huntington has homes from the 700s but they have a couple of specs in the 600s. The community has many parks, pools, lakes and one of them you can fish in, golf course with country club. There is even a little village shops inside the community with postal center, coffee shop, pizza place, beauty salon, groceries and more. Check the website.

North Dallas Residential Neighborhood Community - Maps

Naima

[iheartbigd]

I'm not trying to knock Lakewood; I personally love that area but if you have kids and you want to send them to public schools stay away from Lakewood, actually stay away from almost all of the inner Dallas neighborhoods with the exception of Highland Park & University Park which have their own school systems. Sure the elementary school is a pretty good school but what are you going to do when your kids go to middle school and high school. If you are going to send your kids to private school then those neighborhoods are fine. I have a couple friends that live in Lakewood in some amazing homes but they all send their kids to private school. They love the area b/c it’s not cookie cutter.If you want your kids to go to highly rated public schools then you might look at Southlake, Coppell Plano or even Frisco & McKinney. Southlake has great schools but if you are commuting to downtown Dallas it seems like the traffic might be a hassle. Coppell is somewhat more convenient and so is Plano.My husband and I live in Coppell and we use to live in Lakewood. Our daughter went to Lakewood Elm for kindergarten and 1st grade but then we decided to move to Coppell because we didn’t want to have to send her to private school and at the time we just felt it would be better for us to move Coppell before she finished elementary school and we had to move her away from her friends. The two new neighborhoods in your price range in Coppell are David Weekly’s Arbor Manors and Toll Brother’s Chateuas of Coppell. I think the Toll neighborhood just started framing houses. I’m not familiar with Southlake or Plano but I know you can probably find new builds in you price range in both those areas.

[nsumner]

Originally Posted by jekutz

There are two new master planned communities (very small 60ish homes or so) going up right now in Coppell which is about 30 minutes to downtown. One is already building and it's by Toll Brothers on the corner of Bethel School and Denton Tap called Chateuas of Coppell and the other is set to start selling lots later this month is David Weekly's Arbor Manors on the corner of Denton Tap and Sandy Lake Road. Both neighborhoods are within your price range and Coppell is a very family friendly city. Lots to do for the little ones.

I like Coppell a lot but neither community The Chateaus or Arbor Manor are master planned. They will have a small community park but no pool.

Naima

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by iheartbigd

I'm not trying to knock Lakewood; I personally love that area but if you have kids and you want to send them to public schools stay away from Lakewood, actually stay away from almost all of the inner Dallas neighborhoods with the exception of Highland Park & University Park which have their own school systems. Sure the elementary school is a pretty good school but what are you going to do when your kids go to middle school and high school. If you are going to send your kids to private school then those neighborhoods are fine. I have a couple friends that live in Lakewood in some amazing homes but they all send their kids to private school. They love the area b/c it’s not cookie cutter.If you want your kids to go to highly rated public schools then you might look at Southlake, Coppell Plano or even Frisco & McKinney. Southlake has great schools but if you are commuting to downtown Dallas it seems like the traffic might be a hassle. Coppell is somewhat more convenient and so is Plano.My husband and I live in Coppell and we use to live in Lakewood. Our daughter went to Lakewood Elm for kindergarten and 1st grade but then we decided to move to Coppell because we didn’t want to have to send her to private school and at the time we just felt it would be better for us to move Coppell before she finished elementary school and we had to move her away from her friends.

A Blue Ribbon is "pretty good"? Lakewood regularly beats private schools in competitions - they've even beaten St. Marks - as has J. L. Long Middle School - the supposed 'weak link' to Newsweek* Top High School Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps there are other issues here - many people are fine being in the anglo majority at Lakewood but freak at being 1/4 anglo in the very diverse secondary schools. True there are many students in those schools who are way behind, don't care, come from bad family situations, drop out, etc...but they are valuable people none the less. You will be a better person for having known them and becoming friends with them - trust me I know. It's not going to hamper your kid from going to the Ivy League.

Here are two of those 'types' featured on news stories last night about the ASP program signing first-generation college students:


http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=41848@ktvt.dayport.com

"Gustavo Vasquez isn't accustomed to wearing suit and tie to us history class. But the Woodrow Wilson High School senior has made a little history himself for his family, and he wanted to dress for the occasion.

"I'm going to be the first one in my family to go to college," he said. "I'm very fortunate, very fortunate."

Gustavo is headed to the University of Houston."


http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/education/DISD_Grads_Sign_Academic_Scho (broken link)

"Woodrow Senior Anna Michel signs a scholarship earned through the ASP (Academic Success Program for first-generation college students). She is also enrolled in the school's deaf education program."


It may ease your mind to know that Woodrow and J. L. Long are being redesigned into college preparatory schools which will offer the International Baccalaureate in the fall of 2010. But if you are that closely aligned to Lakewood you would already know that, right?



*2008 Dallas-area schools America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com

2 Talented and Gifted Dallas Texas 15.953 31 79.1
4 Science/Engineering Magnet Dallas Texas 10.245 50.9 101
15 Highland Park Dallas Texas 6.035 0 65.1
18 North Hills Prep ** Irving Texas 5.563 9 67.6
26 Communications Arts San Antonio Texas 5.245 13 56.8
94 Colleyville Heritage Colleyville Texas 3.675 7.6 33.7
95 LBJ Austin Texas 3.667 45 50
127 White Dallas Texas 3.3 70 17.5
179 Grapevine Grapevine Texas 2.927 7.5 43
217 Plano West Plano Texas 2.69 5 44.4
295 Lawrence D Bell ** Hurst Texas 2.467 26.2 22.4
298 Garland ** Garland Texas 2.464 45 65
432 Coppell Coppell Texas 2.13 3 34
463 Plano Plano Texas 2.056 7 45.7
478 J.J. Pearce Richardson Texas 2.037 18.8 37.4
518 Woodrow Wilson Dallas Texas 1.986 54 22.6
537 Hillcrest Dallas Texas 1.956 52.8 21.2
541 Trinity ** Euless Texas 1.95 32.3 21.1
622 Turner Carrolton Texas 1.82 55.3 22.8
627 McKinney McKinney Texas 1.807 20.2 24.9
675 Newman Smith Carrolton Texas 1.73 39 41.4
679 Richardson Richardson Texas 1.727 37.1 26.7
702 Plano East ** Plano Texas 1.698 19 29
749 McKinney North McKinney Texas 1.631 20.7 24.9
758 Flower Mound Flower Mound Texas 1.62 2 39.8
835 Creekview Carrolton Texas 1.534 32 35.9
944 Allen ** Allen Texas 1.42 9 23.5
976 Berkner Richardson Texas 1.38 25.3 26.4
991 The Colony The Colony Texas 1.364 19.8 22.7
1044 Lake Highlands Dallas Texas 1.307 33.9 25.9
1054 Northwest Justin Texas 1.295 16.2 12.2
1211 Naaman Forest Garland Texas 1.144 -- 16.6
1260 Centennial Frisco Texas 1.098 <1 25.6