I want to know about Garland, Tx

[ZPetals]

Can anyone make a current comment on Garland? Husband and I are looking to buy a home in DFW area, and are wondering why the prices seem lower for housing in Garland than in nearby areas.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

It's older, houses are smaller, schools are not as good, and it is perceived as being working class and having a big Hispanic presence.

[jdallas]

Originally Posted by ZPetals

Can anyone make a current comment on Garland? Husband and I are looking to buy a home in DFW area, and are wondering why the prices seem lower for housing in Garland than in nearby areas.

I wondered the same thing when I moved to Dallas a few years ago. I suspected a major employer left the area, white flight, massive crime, environmental hazard etc. but found nothing substantial to explain it. Realtors I spoke with just said it was an older area and people preferred new and shiny. From my own experience, it seemed that, generally speaking, homes south of Buckingham were in more need of maintenance and had changed hands quite a bit but homes North of Buckingham were more likely to be single-owner homes with more attention paid to keeping them maintained.
As far as schools go, Garland has an IB program, the STEM programs are competitive and the schools seem to do fine among those who care about education. I'm from a tiny town in the Midwest so the area high schools with student populations greater than my entire town turn me off in a major way. My daughter attends ILT with a student population of 600 and it doesn't even have a football team (gasp) so I'm thrilled and she's doing well. We'll be in the house for roughly 4 more years so spending less than $150k on it and saving/investing the rest for the future just made more sense to me.
Apart from schools, I'd recommend focusing on the northern edge where Garland borders Richardson, Plano, Murphy but my reasoning is more due to the transportation corridors than anything else. I spend most of my weekly time along the 75 corridor from the Alamo Drafthouse theater down to the Arts District downtown (commute time has doubled in 3 years) but we tend to vacate North and East when the opportunity arises on the weekends/holidays so it just worked out well for us geographically.

[sgoofi]

Originally Posted by ZPetals

Can anyone make a current comment on Garland? Husband and I are looking to buy a home in DFW area, and are wondering why the prices seem lower for housing in Garland than in nearby areas.

I echo the sentiments of JDallas. My husband and I are looking to buy a house in the next year in the N. Garland area and the majority of nicer housing is north of Buckingham. Garland ISD has choice of school, so you can live anywhere in Garland and have your kids enrolled in any school in the district (as long as they get in). Housing in Richardson, Plano, McKinney, Frisco, etc., are more expensive because they're more sought after and the school district is "better" so to speak, but Garland ISD has a very good educational program.

Do a little bit more research to determine what your priorities are in terms of your lifestyle, children's education (if you have any), etc., and see if Garland is a good fit for you. Garland gets a bad rap, but mostly because it's older and more established with not a lot of major employers in the area (like Plano).

[tmtex]

I know this is a month old but will chime in anyway. I grew up in Richardson, Garland was always considered to be the S@#t hole town of N.TX. In some ways yes it is. Manly south. South Garland is older and has more of the Hispanics or lower class but areas can be nice.
I am in the Firewheel area which I think is the hidden secret of the north DFW area. I am basically off of G. Bush and can be anywhere quickly. I has all the stores along with a mall down the street. If you live in Frisco, plano....etc it will take you 30 min to drive to the store that's down the street. Its so packed up there. I was just reading another post on here that 2700 Sqft houses are going for 400K in Frisco. That's crazy. Houses up there are so packed in you can basically jump from roof to roof.
Anyway its not really bad and they are making downtown Garland into something. I wish they would make more restaurants along G Bush