Dallas/Fort Worth best place to live with family (Plano: homes, neighborhoods)

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by marinersfan

I am a teacher with a masters in special education. My husband has family in Texas and wants to move to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I have read a lot of great information about best neighborhoods to live in, etc. My husband will be looking for a network computer support job, and I will be looking for a special education elementary position. Does anyone have any recommendations about employment opportunities for the both of us, good neighborhoods to raise a family and purchase a house for under $200,000. Obviously, Dallas/Fort Worth is a rather large area and purchasing a home prior to securing employment might entail an extremely large commute, but any information you can provide would be appreciated. The housing market there seems fairly reasonable from where we currently own a home, but obtaining a quality education for our children while at the same time securing jobs for the both of us is very important.

I cannot answer your employment questions, but I grew up in the Park Cities in Dallas and the schools there are excellent! I'd check out University Park and Highland Park if I were you - either to work or live or both. Several of the schools in the Park Cities have been honored as Blue Ribbon Schools in recent years.

I graduated from the Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (http://www.dallasisd.org/btw/ - broken link) and that is also an excellent school. It has been celebrated as a Blue Ribbon school as well, and is also now housed in an incredible new state-of-the-art campus.

[Lakewooder]

Stonewall Jackson (M-Streets) and Lakewood Elementary are both Blue-Ribbon Schools. $200K might be a problem, however.

[marinersfan]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

My husband and I have lived here for 8 years now and we LOVE it!

You can get a 3/2 house for under $200k in Grapevine, but you will have to have a good Realtor and be able to go look as soon as the houses come on the market. The real estate market may be in a slump other places, but it remains hot in Grapevine!

Thank you for letting us know about having to jump on a good home here. It did seem that there were not as many listings for Grapevine.

Thank you all for your comments. I have been super busy and have not signed in for a while.

We absolutely intended to find jobs prior to moving down and purchasing a home. That is why I was asking for nice areas, as I wanted to search for jobs within a decent driving distance to those neighborhoods.

[marinersfan]

Originally Posted by getmeoutofhere

Yes.

You just named 3 of the most desirable districts in the area.

Do you have suggestions of districts that I may look at instead of these three? I only mentioned these three because I was directed to these neighborhoods as good places to live.

[getmeoutofhere]

Originally Posted by marinersfan

Do you have suggestions of districts that I may look at instead of these three? I only mentioned these three because I was directed to these neighborhoods as good places to live.

It's going to be tough to find a job in any school district, really.

But most of them are pretty good.

It's hard to make suggestions until you pick somewhere to live. I don't want to say Grapevine ISD and you live on the far side of Plano.

[marinersfan]

Originally Posted by getmeoutofhere

It's going to be tough to find a job in any school district, really.

But most of them are pretty good.

It's hard to make suggestions until you pick somewhere to live. I don't want to say Grapevine ISD and you live on the far side of Plano.

Is the difficulty finding jobs within any school district due to out-of-state teachers moving in and also the fact that it is relatively easy to get a job teaching if you were a professional and went back to take a few teaching courses? I am assuming this is making a larger pool of teachers than demand dictates.

Once again thank you for any help you can provide. It is actually relatively easy for us to find areas where teachers are in demand and potentially find jobs, but we would like to live by our family, and any information we can find on the Dallas/Fort Worth area will help us make that a reality.

[getmeoutofhere]

Originally Posted by marinersfan

Is the difficulty finding jobs within any school district due to out-of-state teachers moving in and also the fact that it is relatively easy to get a job teaching if you were a professional and went back to take a few teaching courses? I am assuming this is making a larger pool of teachers than demand dictates.

Once again thank you for any help you can provide. It is actually relatively easy for us to find areas where teachers are in demand and potentially find jobs, but we would like to live by our family, and any information we can find on the Dallas/Fort Worth area will help us make that a reality.

It's difficult because the D/FW area has a few colleges with excellent teaching programs that turn out a lot of teachers. Combine that with the downturn and a lot of people getting alt. cert., and there are hundreds of applications for every job.

[marinersfan]

getmeoutofhere,Thank you very much for the information. It is very difficult to get a position where we currently live as well. Here, there are roughly 2,000 applicants for every position.I guess all we can do is try and see what happens.

[dfw972]

I suggest to rent first while looking for a home because there is so many areas to consider. You can find a home in a weekend but its better if you see your options without being rushed.

Originally Posted by marinersfan

I am a teacher with a masters in special education. My husband has family in Texas and wants to move to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I have read a lot of great information about best neighborhoods to live in, etc. My husband will be looking for a network computer support job, and I will be looking for a special education elementary position. Does anyone have any recommendations about employment opportunities for the both of us, good neighborhoods to raise a family and purchase a house for under $200,000. Obviously, Dallas/Fort Worth is a rather large area and purchasing a home prior to securing employment might entail an extremely large commute, but any information you can provide would be appreciated. The housing market there seems fairly reasonable from where we currently own a home, but obtaining a quality education for our children while at the same time securing jobs for the both of us is very important.

[xS☺B☺s]

You need to look at Fort Worth for a teaching job. Dallas laid off 200 teachers last year and the market is saturated with out of work teachers. Even getting a substitute job on a daily basis is not guaranteed.

On the other hand, another poster said Fort Worth has billboards in San Diego offering 3K sign on bonuses.