Keller v. Grapevine (Dallas, Southlake, Elsa: homeowners insurance, houses, neighborhoods)

[DLD1022]

I know geographically they're close but any differences to note? Were looking to buy & want to spend as close to 250 as possible tho we would go up to 300. We have 2 small children so school & family activities are both important.
Which should we focus on??

Thanks!!

[ChristieP]

Where is work located? Sure, Keller is nice, but if you're commuting to Las Colinas every day, its going to be a beating...

The two towns are about 15 miles apart, so they really aren't all that close.

[Eric S]

My jaundiced eye says go with the more established community: Grapevine, if you can swing it. New communities = rapidly changing demographics, meaning that what it is today isn't what it will be tomorrow.

-Eric

[padcrasher]

I like GV much more. Nicer parks, better schools, more atmosphere, etc. Northeast Keller is nice.

[hal2814]

My aunt who lives in Keller gave me some great advice when I was trying to decide between the two: Avoid 377. Whatever you do, don't live anywhere that requires driving on it. I've driven on 377 a few times since then and I'm incredibly grateful for that advice.

Following that rule made the Grapevine area a better fit for me because once you take away everything near or west of 377, Keller isn't any cheaper. At that point $/sq ft were roughly the same. For the most part, Keller had larger lots and Grapevine had more parks and closer proximity to major highways.

[meechi53]

Grapevine hands down. They have the wonderful, quaint downtown area, lots of restaurants and stores, the area has lots of treed areas that are quite pretty. There are a lot of festivals, etc things to do. Pretty much everything is "right there". The schools are good, nice parks and also a commuter train station will be built right south of downtown which will provide easy access to the airport and Dallas if you like to do that to go to sporting events, etc.

[ElsaEast]

We moved to Keller a few months ago, now I work from home and have a five year old who's home til Kindergarten starts. We spend a lot of time in Grapevine - definitely more family stuff to do there, Keller has great parks but we are in Grapevine for Legoland, SeaLife, the botanical gardens, the train museum, etc at least once a week.

That said I am very happy we moved to Keller (we are in NE Keller, east of the Keller Town center). When we're in Grapevine we notice there is a LOT of traffic, especially during events, and my son gets freaked out by the airplane noise sometimes - since the airport is just south of the city the planes go right overhead. Where we live is very quiet but we can easily access the amenities of Grapevine and Southlake without having to deal with them when we don't want to - it takes about 20 minutes driving to get to Grapevine Mills.

One thing I have noticed is the dearth of decent restaurants and shopping in Keller, hopefully more are coming soon but at the moment we drive to Southlake or Grapevine when we want a meal out, but since we have a five year old that's not happening a lot these days!

[hal2814]

Originally Posted by ElsaEast

We moved to Keller a few months ago, now I work from home and have a five year old who's home til Kindergarten starts. We spend a lot of time in Grapevine - definitely more family stuff to do there, Keller has great parks but we are in Grapevine for Legoland, SeaLife, the botanical gardens, the train museum, etc at least once a week.

That said I am very happy we moved to Keller (we are in NE Keller, east of the Keller Town center). When we're in Grapevine we notice there is a LOT of traffic, especially during events, and my son gets freaked out by the airplane noise sometimes - since the airport is just south of the city the planes go right overhead. Where we live is very quiet but we can easily access the amenities of Grapevine and Southlake without having to deal with them when we don't want to - it takes about 20 minutes driving to get to Grapevine Mills.

One thing I have noticed is the dearth of decent restaurants and shopping in Keller, hopefully more are coming soon but at the moment we drive to Southlake or Grapevine when we want a meal out, but since we have a five year old that's not happening a lot these days!

I think you're comparing the residential areas of Keller to the commercial areas of Grapevine. Generally speaking, Grapevine and DFW airport have done a great job of keeping airplane noise out of the residential areas of Grapevine. There are exceptions. As far as traffic goes, yeah it's bad right now in the commercial areas along 114 and by Grapevine Mills, but the construction is almost complete and it will get better. But for the most part, traffic is pretty light for day-to-day tasks like getting to school, parks, grocery, etc unless you live just right off of Northwest Highway or 26.

And I'm not trying to get into a shoving match between the two cities. Like I said above, I think either are fine choices. I just wanted to point out that you can live in Grapevine and still avoid things like constant airplane noise and constant traffic, because most people don't see the rest of Grapevine. They see the mall and downtown and think the whole city is that way.

[ChristieP]

Exactly!!!

I can assure you that except in very, very isolated cases, the planes DO NOT fly over residential areas in Grapevine. I've lived here for 12 years, in two different neighborhoods, and neither one was under a flight path. YES, the flight paths do go of the commercial areas, especially over the GV Mills Mall. (That's one of the busiest approach paths.) My husband and I frequently sit out on our backyard deck, and we really do not hear airport noise at all, even though we are less than three miles from DFW. Every now and then, a little Cessna or similar "general aviation" plane will fly over the house, but they hardly make any noise at all!

Most of the neighborhoods in Grapevine are tucked back away off the main roads. The city planners were very careful to not have houses on the main roads as much as possible. Our neighborhood is very quiet, except for the fire station that's a mile away. But we've learned to sleep through it (so have our pets), and it makes our homeowners insurance a little cheaper, too.

[Alkonost]

I think I live near the fire station of which you speak I didn't find it to be noisy at all, but I just moved from a location right next to 3 fire stations and 4 major hospitals. Grapevine is soooooo quiet and peaceful