Hurst-Euless-Bedford? (Dallas, Denton, Lewisville: homes, community college, quality of life)

[ChristieP]

You aren't going to find much in Coppell in your price range, and what you will find will be much older. New homes in Coppell are $400+. Also, Coppell has some of the highest property taxes in Dallas County. It is a full 1% higher than Grapevine, which means you will be spending a lot more on taxes for an equivalent house. Coppell has only a few shops and restaurants in town, so you would be driving to Grapevine, Lewisville, Irving, etc. for shopping/eating out.

To see the property tax rates, do a search here, or look on the Dallas and Tarrant County Appraisal Districts' websites. There are a couple posts here where we discussed them at length...

[Squirl]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

You aren't going to find much in Coppell in your price range, and what you will find will be much older. New homes in Coppell are $400+. Also, Coppell has some of the highest property taxes in Dallas County. It is a full 1% higher than Grapevine, which means you will be spending a lot more on taxes for an equivalent house. Coppell has only a few shops and restaurants in town, so you would be driving to Grapevine, Lewisville, Irving, etc. for shopping/eating out.

To see the property tax rates, do a search here, or look on the Dallas and Tarrant County Appraisal Districts' websites. There are a couple posts here where we discussed them at length...

Well....on a $250K house, the 1% greater taxes is under $21 a month for better schools and in-county tuition at North Lake College, some would say wellllll worth it..... however, if I worked in Grapevine, I would live there. Its a great place to live and I wouldn't consider anything else except perhaps North Euless!

[NCtoTX2012]

Thanks everyone!

[El Paso Native97]

North Richland Hills is a pretty nice area, as is Keller where I live, and I hear Keller ISD is a pretty good school district. I also hear alot of good things about the Grapevine area and have seen alot of nice houses and Grapevine has a good location due to it kind of being in the middle of things (midway point between Dallas and Fort Worth, nice downtown Grapevine, with downtown Southlake not too far off either {Depending on where you live in Grapevine) But good luck in your search, I would recommend any suburb of this area, but I do not have much experience with Fort Worth or Dallas city proper....

[ChristieP]

The commute from Eagle Mountain Lake and Saginaw to Grapevine is absolutely horrible. It's about 1.5 hours in traffic!

[loves2read]

yes--I think maybe that person is not very familiar with that commute to suggest it...

[hal2814]

For your price range, you open up a lot of possibilities if you consider late-80's homes. Changes in housing don't line up exactly by decade. From about 1986 - 1995, the difference in construction isn't all that great. Starting in the mid-90's there were some serious improvements in insulation material and window efficiency. The biggest difference between a house built in 1986 and 1995 is going to be the efficiency of the AC/heat pump but in the houses I looked at last year when I moved here (Euless in the Grapevine ISD) a lot of the 80's homes had updated their unit some time in the late-90's to early 2000's.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Also, Coppell has some of the highest property taxes in Dallas County. It is a full 1% higher than Grapevine,

Although Coppell rates are higher, the difference is about one half of one percent.

City rates:

Grapevine: 0.35%, homestead exemption of 20% of FMV (minimum $5,000)
Coppell: 0.69046%, homestead exemption of 5% of FMV (minimum $5,000)

County Rates:
Tarrant (Grapevine): 0.629537%
Dallas (Coppell): 0.62%

ISD Rates:
Grapevine-Colleyville: 1.29%, $15,000 homestead exemption
Coppell: 1.42%, $15,000 homestead exemption

(part of Grapevine is in Carroll ISD; the rate there is a higher 1.415%)

So, on a house assessed at 250K, I get the following amounts:

In Grapevine:
City: $250,000-(0.2*250,000)=$200,000*0.0035= $700.00
County: $250,000*0.00629537= $1,573.84
ISD: (250,000-15,000)=235,000* .0129= $3,031.50

TOTAL ANNUAL GRAPEVINE PROPERTY TAX: $5,305.34

In Coppell
City: $250,000-(0.05*250,000)=$237,500*0.0069046= $1,639.84
County: $250,000*0.0062= $1,550.00
ISD: (250,000-15,000)=235,000*0.0142= $3,337.00

TOTAL ANNUAL COPPELL PROPERTY TAX: $6,526.84

TOTAL DIFFERENCE COPPELL LESS GRAPEVINE: $1,221.50
DIFFERENCE AS A PERCENTAGE OF FMV: 0.4886%


So, just under 1/2 of one percent, or just over $100/month on a 250K house.


Er, not that I've built a house budgeting spreadsheet with Grapevine and Coppell as two of the 'burbs we're considering or anything....

[ChristieP]

So it's not quite 1%. Ok. My bad.

$1000 a year is a BIG difference in property taxes! Think of what you could do with that money...home improvements, vacation, or pay down principle on mortgage! We are not talking huge differences in quality of life between the two towns, either. City of Grapevine just lowered our tax rate, too, so the money will become even bigger!

Fyi: Grapevine feeds into Tarrant County Community College, so both towns have access to a public junior college.

[Squirl]

Didn't realize the difference is really NOT the tax rate; its the homestead exemption......when I calc'd, I used the tax rate provided by Christie. I do think $1000 annual is a significant difference, however it would not likely be a significant factor in my decision at all about where to live. Especially since Dallas County Colleges are better, IMO, than TCC's. Grapevine & Coppell are 2 great burbs, and commute would be the driving factor IMHO where to buy. In this case, Grapevine makes sense!