coming from midwest: sorting out communities...looking for excellent schools, need commute info (Dallas: homes, neighborhoods)

[Grace316]

My family is considering a move to the DFW area. We are not familiar with cities this large. Looking at TAKS and understand exemplary/recognized fairly well now.

Differences in this area between communities for schools and commutes? My husband is in the medical field and will need to be no more than 30 minutes from his place of work. That exact place we haven't found yet. Just trying to decide where in the metroplex would fit our family and then hone practice opportunities. We have kids in 5th and 8th grade. They are not into sports except swimming and tennis with a little basketball on the side. They are into debate, theatre, band and are above average students.

I don't want to keep up with the neighbors but hope to find a friendly area for our family to enjoy. I'd like to not look beyond 700,000.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge.

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by Grace316

My husband is in the medical field and will need to be no more than 30 minutes from his place of work. That exact place we haven't found yet.

Your husband needs to find out where he will be working. There are LOTS of hospitals all over the DFW area and in the surrounding rural counties, and there are nice communities with great schools all over the area, too. We really can't narrow down to one area until we know where the job will be.

[FTWRunner]

If you are looking into Fort Worth, look into the Tangelwood area or Burkley Heights area in SW FT. They feed into McLean Middle and Paschal High. You kids sound like they would be a great fit for Paschal. Paschal has a high number of national merit winners and is very focused on studies, though the diversity of the school can scare some people off.

Southwest Proper Fort Worth is a more urban environment, but you can find a great home at 700,000 or below and be close to the Medical district, TCU, the Zoo, downtown and the Museum District. The homes will be older, but there a few newer homes, you get the benefits of mature trees and since it's a highly desired area home values are pretty consistent.

A nice mix of fun, funky and professional.

Do a search on Tanglewood, Paschal or McLean in the forum. There are already a lot of posts out there about the area.

[Grace316]

I hear you on that Christie, but not living in the area we are trying to find both at the same time. We aren't in a position of needing to look at everything and only want to focus on areas that are possibilities for us which is my rationale for trying to understand more about the communities. It is very helpful for instance to know if we chose to live in Colleyville, what is the commute like in that area so we would know about how far away the job could be located. No sense looking into a job in an area we don't want to live. Does that make sense?

I'll look into your info FTWRunner.

[Grace316]

Aledo HS looks like it has decent scores. Is this a nice area? Too far from everything?

[ChristieP]

Aledo is a really nice area. He could commute to either the Fort Worth hospital district downtown, Fort Worth Hulen area, or Weatherford.
Colleyville is also nice. He could commute to Baylor Grapevine, Arlington Memorial, Baylor Irving, or THR HEB.

The short answer to your dilemma is that there are nice communities with great schools all over DFW. You're not pinned in to "only live on ther north side of town" or something like that. There are also good hospitals all over the area, too.

[Grace316]

It is indeed a dilemma and I appreciate your time. I am amazed at the info on here. Thanks again Christie

[loves2read]

what is your husband's specialty
and what hospitals would appreciate that area the most--
some hospitals are not a good match for just any MD
your husband should know the leaders in his field and the ones that are second tier and the also rans better than we probably do...

rule out the ones you don't want and map the others
look at the area towns within driving distance--
search Dallas or FTW forums for those towns and read what threads are

there are years of posts available on both forums and most address general issues like ISDs and commuting, neighborhoods, and city amenities

understand that there will be no TAKS testing done this school year--the state is transitioning to a new testing platform--covering wider curricula and which will have different impact on individual students and schools--
I think the ISDs will hold their current TAKS ratings for this year and maybe next--as the new test is phased in--

[LuvsFW]

I agree with FTWRunner. Many, many homes in your price range in the SW and West FW areas. Very close to the FW Medical District. Great schools in the Tanglewood and/or Lily B Clayton, McLean and Paschal pyramid...lots of diversity, and good academics. Also excellent independent schools in the area.

Aledo is a homogenous suburb. Good schools....LOTS of emphasis on athletics. An easy commute. I've had lots of friends move out there for the athletics...they love it...doesn't sound like what your family needs, just my opinion.

I am very pro-Fort Worth.

[Grace316]

He is looking to join a practice and not be employed by a hospital. Sometimes they admit to multiple hospitals, it just depends on the set up. Hard to handle since each job has a different recruiter. He can't talk to all of them at once and simultaneously work! So...I'm trying to help out with this end of things and really appreciate your info. He can figure out the practice end but is asking me to try to figure out areas to live which is very important. OUr kids will be in middle/high school. Not a particularly great time to move them so we are very focused on figuring out the school/neighborhood issue and if a job doesn't work out we won't move.