Moving to North West DFW - need help to find home/community (Houston: 2013, rentals)

[Jane0001]

I have job possibility in Bowie Texas. I do not want more than 40-50 mins commute. My husband is in IT - he works from home now. He has plan for continuing study either from UTA or UNTHSC at Forth worth.

We have 3 kids - in middle and elementary school. We want good schools.

What will be best place to live? I am open to suggestions. We will be moving from MA - it will be a big change

[ChristieP]

Bowie is about 1.5 hours away from the DFW metroplex. Thet is a long way to drive for a daily commute. The closest larger town to DFW is Decatur, and that is still an hour's drive from Fort Worth.

Bowie isn't really known as a growing city. The schools there are rural and not well-regarded. The town does have a Wal-Mart, and there are a few small shops in the downtown area, but you will be driving to DFW or Wichita Falls for anything beyond the basics.

[Jane0001]

one possibility to live in decatur. then my commute be 30 mins, but my husband be 1 hour commute. how is decatur school?

another possibly is further south - perhaps "shale creek community" in rhome or other development in haslet. not sure how will be my commute? will it be within 40 minutes?

i will have 4 days workweeks - will get 3 days weekend. can not think if i can handle hour commute for 4 days ....

[ChristieP]

No, you cannot get from Haslet to Bowie in 40 minutes. Traffic bottlenecks badly on 114 near Harriet Creek Rd by the school. To keep your commute shorter, you will need to be north and west of the Texas Motor Speedway, and ideally, you need to already be in Wise County. The bad thing is that the closer you are to your work, the further your husband will be from school.

I don't know about the rural schools, but GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community seems to be recommended a lot here.

[padcrasher]

Originally Posted by Jane0001

I have job possibility in Bowie Texas. I do not want more than 40-50 mins commute. My husband is in IT - he works from home now. He has plan for continuing study either from UTA or UNTHSC at Forth worth.

We have 3 kids - in middle and elementary school. We want good schools.

What will be best place to live? I am open to suggestions. We will be moving from MA - it will be a big change

The area around the town of Forestburg is very pretty. The terrain is unlike most of North Texas. It's a gem..but land is expensive. It's just East of Bowie

I'm not sure you are going to find stellar schools anywhere around that area...but most are not bad.

[loves2read]

depending on your situation with your husband--won't lot of his classwork be done on-line vs in class? If you check how that works, I think he would really have to be at school only 1 day a week or so from what some people I know who are doing grad work say

You should verify the type of internet connection your husband required to do his work from home and make sure you can get the bandwidth that he needs in rural areas--
some of them are not as up to date with facilities as larger towns area---

and it is possible for your children to be homeschooled if that appeals to you
TX is one of the easiest states to become a home-schooling parent
and there are various types of ways for that to happen

Forestburg is nice town but basically these are VERY rural and you might find it difficult to find a nice rental property--since I assume you don't want to buy at this time

How attractive is this job in Bowie?
if you were looking to be in place with rural atmosphere/small town (with small letters) living then that would be the place to do it
I would go online and look for the local schools and see what type of Internet presence there is--
see if teachers have web pages up
the schools have to follow state curriculum but most of us posting on this forum have no idea what those local schools are really like
sometimes in rural areas you can have some of the same problems that people normally associate with larger ISDs/big districts--
transient low-income families, drug problems, overcrowding, non-English speaking students,
not to mention the general attitude could be xenophobic regarding incomers--
not saying that is how it IS in that area--but small towns can be pretty incestuous in some ways...

[Jane0001]

Yes, my husband will probably be able to do most courses online - occasionally need to go to school.

decatur probably is the best choice for commute, but we are not sure how good schools are there and also how well they accept incomers ..... another problem with decatur - not much to do there...

we want to buy house - budget is < 250K.
does decatur have any new community houses?

another option we are thinking:
we like harriet community at justin - it has elementary school inside and park,fitness center. how long will the commute be from harriet community to bowie? will it be within 45mins?

[loves2read]

Google says from town to town is almost an hour--
depending on the traffic it might be more or less--
sometimes in the country you can get behind slow-moving traffic and can't pass

you can check any ISD/school at the TEA web site for its TAKS scores--4 levels--
Exemplary, Recognized, Acceptable, UnAcceptable
they factor test scores on TAKS test, attendance for schools/districts/% of "highly qualified" teaching staff/% of AP students/dropout numbers--
some data can of course be manipulated in schools' favor
easier for smaller school like elementary to earn Exemplary rating than larger schools with more students and students from more diverse backgrounds

look at the region XI TEA website--has map with all ISDs in the region with links to their websites
Schools Information / Public School Websites
you can check schools out on line--
look at local newspapers online and see what stories crop up about the schools
Bowie ISD itself is in District IX--9--Montague county

Justin community is in Northwest ISD which is 5A district

because the state is moving to new evaluation system--no district's ratings will change until 2013 I think when the new system is fully operational

IMO--I was born in TX, lived in Atlanta for few years as child and in Shreveport LA for few years when my children were small
the area NW of FTW where you are considering moving is really desolate since it is still very rural. Towns are separated and small and frankly in that area just think they have less to offer than similar size towns in other parts of TX--the area to me is ugly/boring--but I am sure other people love it

the terrain is grassland (see the map for the Caddo Grasslands National park).
It was grazing land for buffalo for generations before the settlers moved in to use it for cattle
IF you and your children especially are not used to this type of bland, featureless landscape where the wind really does blow 90% of the time, it can look as sterile as the moon --especially because the trees are low growing and scattered, the land is usually dry so ground cover is not that verdant
Lake Bridgeport--because of water has more trees--post oaks mainly--and there is some elevation changes around there but don't know that Bridgeport schools are significantly better than any others
Right now there is lot of gas drilling activity out that way--rentals are hard to come by from what I have read

Personally I would not choose to move into that area--because of its geozone
it is the tail end of the Great Plains unless you are in river bottom land...

I don't like that type of landscape--but neither do I feel that comfortable in the piney woods around Tyler or Houston--and had a little bit of that when we lived in Shreveport...it has pine trees and cotton fields in close proximity

Have you BEEN to this part of TX before? Spent a weekend in area around Bowie for example?
I would think it would be a difficult choice ==longer commute making less time with family to live in area with more amenities vs shorter commute/more family time but fewer amenities like entertainment, shopping, medical resources

[Jane0001]

well, this forum is indeed helpful!!!! tnx a lot!!!!

in dilemma between decatur vs. rhome/haslet/justin.

after reading all the responses, getting 2nd thought of moving there. but job is what brings us there .....

[loves2read]

I guess my comment sounded really depressing--
I meant it more as realistic shout out
and there are people who move out that way because they want to have that privacy/isolation/small town living/schools and they like the open spaces...and they might be willing to drive an hour or more to jobs in FTW or whereever
so like I said what works for one does not work for all...

I have had husband unemployed for long period of time years ago when I was not working and my kids were still in the nest--when his industry was in bad recession--and it was really difficult for him to find work that was half-way comparable to what he lost...We would have considered moving out of state for the right job offer to a lot of places in order to put food on the table and maintain our standard of living

and when my husband was on the upward climb in his profession we moved couple of times before he was laid off
We weren't really happy about Shreveport but we were really glad it was not Corpus
I don't know your motivation in taking this job--not really my business--
but I am trying to say that I understand the motivation behind making a move that might not be perfect...
but if you don't have enough data can you make a valid decision?

Some people are really affected by the "lay of the land" so to speak--
maybe they hate cold weather and dealing with months of snow and short daylight
maybe they hate being in large urban environment where they never get clear shot of the horizon

what works for some people doesn't for others...

I really think you should come out here and see the "lay of the land" for yourself
Have you done that?

Living in Denton and Roanoke or Haslet would be culture shock to some extent but they are close enough to FTW that they are on the outer ring of urban sprawl...
but if you really want to live less than an HOUR of Bowie then your options kind of retract cause I think that those three are probably between hour to 80 min from Bowie depending on traffic and time of day...

Wichita Falls is an hour NW of Bowie and is fairly large town BUT it is that much farther from where your husband would need to go to class...
Google says it is an hour from Decatur to UTA in Arlington--and it will take more like 1.5-2 because of road construction and traffic
UNTHSC would be a little less--but a good hour--
so being in Roanoak or Justin would be better for your husband's commute but that won't happen as often as yours...

Northwest ISD is probably better choice than Decatur ISD--
Roanoke Texas
developing itself as upscale restaurant mecca--has historical downtown area--which I don't think Rhome or Haslet has
makes it more like mini=Grapevine