Dallas vs Fort Worth suburbs-would love opinions (Arlington, Plano: apartment, to rent)

[padad1]

My wife was recently laid off from her job and we are both looking to moving to texas from pennsylvania. I have been doing my research and have narrowed down our choices to suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth. We know alot about the Dallas suburbs of Wylie, Garland, Mckinney, Richardson etc... Don't know too much about the Fort Worth suburbs. I am a teacher but willing to branch out when looking for a job. My wife is in Public Health but again willing to do other things. Needs would be good schools (3 1/2 year old and a 9 month old) Affordable housing (2500 or so square feet around $250,000) Shopping within 15 minutes or so of house and outdoor activities (Especially GOLF, the more courses the better and if any are hiring let me know
What is the weather like in these areas? How are the taxes? Friendliness of neighbors? Things to do etc...any and all opinions are welcome. Just trying to learn the area very well. Also feel free to Private message me. We want to acclimate completely to the area we will be moving to.
Thanks for reading

[5stones]

FT Worth suburbs that fit would be...
Keller, North Richalnd Hills, Grapevine, Hurst, Bedford,

Trophy Club (may be too$$$) but the community is built around the golf course.
Keller has a golf course Sky Creek (Hidden lakes neighborhood surrounds it)
There is also Iron Horse off of 820 (public) that is close.
There is one by DFW airport.... lots of golf courses in the area.

Weather in the general North Texas area can best described as constantly changing (or as we call it psychoic!) Summers...HOT (100+) with the ocdasional T-storm. Spring can be short and WINDY stormy with hail. Fall is great (but can get hot 90+ in oct is not unheard of) Winters...yes we have winter here. we get snow,ice etc... can have week long temps in 20's. But it's short lived if we get snow it's gone in 24 hours! and it can be in the 70's 2 days after the 20's!

So, don't give away your snow gear...just stow it! (plus we are close to skiing!) We had 3 snows last year, the last one we ended up with 13 inches at our house! (it was almost completely gone 2 days later!) yes, we did get the snow shovel out of the attic and use it...it was actually fun!
1 snow shovel is good.

People overall are very friendly, kids have adjusted great and we like the schools. (although it was an adjustment for the huge size of the schools here)

Where in Pa are you moving from? We used to live in the Pittsburgh area.


Find your JOB first!! if not the rent in a central location.

The entire DFW area (the metroplex) is huge and you don't want to be sitting in traffic for hours!!)
The HEB area (hurst, Eualss, and Bedford) is called the midcities...hence they are in the middle of Dallas and Ft worth. A good starting place to rent esp iof you job hunting in the entire area.

[Skunkfce7]

I am a teacher too and if I were looking for a job, in a Ft Worth suburb, I would look in Keller or Birdville. Birdville is alot of $$$$$ and both districts seem to be building like crazy. You may also want to check Mansfield out. It is a little further out, but it is growing so you could really get into some good ground floor stuff there.

To compare the 2 areas(lived in both) I think that the Ft. Worth side of the metroplex is more down to earth. Dallas seems more "uppity." Be careful in Richardson, really hit or miss there, Garland same thing. Wylie is nice, so is Plano.

We have some contacts for good housing info in Plano if your interested. Good school system to work for(firsthand knowledge ).

[txtoal]

Are you ok with a rural area? Glen Rose has a golf course, is 15 minutes from Granbury where there are your basic shopping amenities/same as Cleburne which is 20 minutes and about 45 minutes from Fort Worth. The schools are good/decent in GR. The only thing that could be a problem is the housing...houses are hit and miss. It seems that they are major fixer uppers at $150,000 or skip to $350,000 and up, not alot of inbetween. Just thought I would throw it out there.

[padad1]

5stones, we are in northeast pa, about 40 minutes south of scranton, near stroudsburg if you have heard of it

[babs7907]

Both Dallas ISD & Fort Worth ISD's are having lay-off's, you may want to check to see that you'll get a teaching job here before you make the move!

[5stones]

Originally Posted by padad1

5stones, we are in northeast pa, about 40 minutes south of scranton, near stroudsburg if you have heard of it

Yep know that area well. Used to drive to NY from Pittsburg alot as my in-laws live there.
One thing TX has that is soooo much better than PA is highway maintenince! NO PENDOT! NO PENNA Turnpike!! We laughhed as we drove up to NY this summer and went through Scanton/WilkesBarre and yes, we hit PENNDOT construction!

As someone else said the ISD's here are all having a tough go with lots of budget issues etc... so, teaching jobs maybe hard to find. Esp if you are not a TX certif.
There are also alot of Private schools in the area that you might want to check out as well.

The bigger districts(besides FTworth and Dallas) are...Keller, HEB, Lewisville, Plano, Lewisville, Garland
(those arethe ones I can think of..someone will add more)

Finding affordable housing in a good area is fairly easy here. Finding a Teaching job may be your biggest hurdle.
Search both Dallas and Ft worth forums and you will lots of threads with advice concerning teaching jobs!

Good luck.

[lamersk]

I'll also mention Mansfield. It's a fast growing city south of Arlington. There are a couple nice golf courses, shopping is popping up very rapidly (plus it is only about a 20-30 minute drive to places like The Parks Mall in Arlington), the schools are pretty good, and housing is cheaper there since they have a lot of land.

If you want to be more "in the middle of things" try Hurst or Bedford. The HEB school district is pretty good and the houses (moreso in Bedford and Hurst) can be nice for a cheaper price. Of course there is plenty of shopping right down the road. Not sure about golf courses close to there though.

My mom works at Gamestop's headquarters in Grapevine, and when they bought out EB games (headquarted in Philly) it seemed that a lot of the Philly people who moved down here relocated to the Roanoke/Trophy Club area. It's north of Fort Worth. Good golf, good schools, a little out of the way from tons of shopping (though Southlake Town Square isn't that far away). I do think the houses out there are going to be a little more expense, but not sure if they are all too out of your budget.

[Winter2010]

Originally Posted by padad1

My wife was recently laid off from her job and we are both looking to moving to texas from pennsylvania. I have been doing my research and have narrowed down our choices to suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth. We know alot about the Dallas suburbs of Wylie, Garland, Mckinney, Richardson etc... Don't know too much about the Fort Worth suburbs. I am a teacher but willing to branch out when looking for a job. My wife is in Public Health but again willing to do other things. Needs would be good schools (3 1/2 year old and a 9 month old) Affordable housing (2500 or so square feet around $250,000) Shopping within 15 minutes or so of house and outdoor activities (Especially GOLF, the more courses the better and if any are hiring let me know
What is the weather like in these areas? How are the taxes? Friendliness of neighbors? Things to do etc...any and all opinions are welcome. Just trying to learn the area very well. Also feel free to Private message me. We want to acclimate completely to the area we will be moving to.
Thanks for reading

You should start out by renting an apartment first for the first 6 months to a year. Unless you have lots of money saved up, you should budget your house more reasonably, say 60% of your above amount.

[DFW Builder]

You wont go wrong in the HEB area, shorter commutes, good schools. We chose the southwest side of Hurst for its proximity to freeways, large older lots and 10 minutes from down town Ft Worth. We enjoy the night life there. And it has a great tax base.