Suggestions on cities (Fort Worth, Arlington, Killeen: real estate, home, neighborhoods)

[4Movingeast]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

All that being said, you may want to check out Aledo which is a bit southwest of Fort Worth. Excellent school district.

In another thread OP mentioned her family is AA. Due to recent events and my past experience as a resident of Aledo, I would be very reluctant to recommend that community. There is a culture of white supremacy in Parker Co that is very unfortunate, backward, and sad, especially since it is where some of the prettiest areas in DFW are located.

[tcualum]

My best friend is AA. She was considering Aledo until I reminded her that a district that white would probably not be a good place for her kids. Unfortunately, I seem to be right.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by 4Movingeast

In another thread OP mentioned her family is AA. Due to recent events and my past experience as a resident of Aledo, I would be very reluctant to recommend that community. There is a culture of white supremacy in Parker Co that is very unfortunate, backward, and sad, especially since it is where some of the prettiest areas in DFW are located.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that at all (the white supremacist thing). It's a shame on more than one front - it's also a shame that Aledo might be considered pretty by DFW standards. I think it's a pretty ugly place but it's got a good school district and is close to Fort Worth and some other good areas.

[jbb303]

I also wouldn't recommend Aledo if the original poster is still looking to avoid the ever rising home prices. TBH, that pretty much applies to most of Texas right now.

[4Movingeast]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Oh, I wasn't aware of that at all (the white supremacist thing). It's a shame on more than one front - it's also a shame that Aledo might be considered pretty by DFW standards. I think it's a pretty ugly place but it's got a good school district and is close to Fort Worth and some other good areas.

We lived there from 2008 to 2014 and while I don't think it's perfect by any means the 40 plus oak trees on our acre and a half with a well appointed 2 story Austin stone custom home in a gated neighborhood was hardly "ugly." Neither were the bright stars that shone without the limitation of light pollution. I also treasured the complete quiet of nighttime (we were way out, not anywhere near I-20 noise). Not sure why you would say something like that as you are typically a thoughtful poster, but then again, many folks pop off behind a keyboard.

[texstout]

OP - it would probably be best to start a new thread because everyone here is confused by the Temple initial question. Due to the huge size of the DFW metro area, everyone's first question will be 'where do you work?'. Because its a waste of time (for most people) to recommend an area, that would be an hour+ commute. You have posted on the Dallas and FT Worth forums...and I would never recommend a Dallas area location for someone who was working closer to Ft Worth (and vice-versa).

That said - i'd suggest the Southern part of the metroplex. Areas like Duncanville, De Soto, Cedar Hill, etc. Yes - they have high AA middle-class populations, but thats not entirely why I a recommending them. Southern Dallas areas are more affordable than Northern and my "guess" is that the intense house buying competition that is currently occurring will be less in these areas (as they are not as popular/well-known to the California crowd). School districts are generally good and sports are popular. But not as competitive schools as Collin county. Of course, if your husband ends up getting a job in Plano ...then it would be a ridiculous commute.

[ccoutofsc]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

We still need to know your overall budget and more details about your husband's job in order to give pertinent advice. Texas has a lot of fun cities and good school districts in various price ranges but the state is huge and spread out as you know. I mean, it all boils down to money in the long run. As in "What's the best overall city that I can afford?" You keep bringing up how home prices have gone way up in central Texas and I'm just saying they've gone way up everywhere, so what's some other criteria? (Just about everyone wants in a good school district and low crime area so let's focus on some other criteria.)

Let's not waste time - yours or anyone else's. Hopefully you can and will answer some questions to help narrow things down a bit, though you may have answered a few of these or given a partial answer already:

1. Time frame
2. Do you need to sell your house first in order to buy another house?
3. Open to renting for awhile?
4. Size of city or how close to larger metro area?
5. Details about husband's job
6. PRICE you can afford
7. Square footage and number of bedrooms needed
8. What would be a deal killer for you?
9. Garage or carport? Land or lot size?
10. What do you LOVE in a house?
11. What do you HATE?
12. Name some cities or regions you prefer.
13. Name some cities or regions that you don't feel would work for you.

I will try to answer your questions to help.

1. My house here in Ga closes on May 28th and we have to be out by June 7th
2. I guess I answered that in #1 also
3. Definitely open to renting now but it has to be in the same school cluster so our kids don't have to change schools
4. We lived in Georgetown before and loved it but it's also in close proximity to Austin so I would say at least 30 minutes to a larger metro area.
5. I don't want hubby's job to be considered because he's looking at getting a job in the area but I'll say he's in manufacturing
6. We're trying to not go over $450k
7. Either need 4bd with an office or 5 with at least 3100sqft but sq ft is open since I'm more about the layout
8. Schools that aren't doing well, electric stove, neighborhood not well kept, not open layout. There's others I'm sure but this would be at the top
9. Garage and a decent size yard since we have dogs. I really want a neighborhood where kids play outside and neighbors get to know each other
10. I love an open floorplan, gas stove, open staircase, not a lot of carpet
11. electric stove, not open, all carpet, wallpaper
12. Fort Worth, Mansfield don't really know many since I haven't been in the area to research
13 Same as # 12

You responded next about Aledo and it was on my list at first until I heard of the students in the HS having auctions of the AA students. Being an AA family I rather my kids not deal with that.

[ccoutofsc]

Originally Posted by texstout

OP - it would probably be best to start a new thread because everyone here is confused by the Temple initial question. Due to the huge size of the DFW metro area, everyone's first question will be 'where do you work?'. Because its a waste of time (for most people) to recommend an area, that would be an hour+ commute. You have posted on the Dallas and FT Worth forums...and I would never recommend a Dallas area location for someone who was working closer to Ft Worth (and vice-versa).

That said - i'd suggest the Southern part of the metroplex. Areas like Duncanville, De Soto, Cedar Hill, etc. Yes - they have high AA middle-class populations, but thats not entirely why I a recommending them. Southern Dallas areas are more affordable than Northern and my "guess" is that the intense house buying competition that is currently occurring will be less in these areas (as they are not as popular/well-known to the California crowd). School districts are generally good and sports are popular. But not as competitive schools as Collin county. Of course, if your husband ends up getting a job in Plano ...then it would be a ridiculous commute.

Thanks for your input. My hubby works in manufacturing. We're starting to gear our search towards the Northwest ISD side of Fort Worth specifically Eaton HS. I was also looking at Arlington and Mansfield but need suggestions on cities to look at. I'll be making the trip down in a few weeks to look but only have a few days so I want to focus on certain areas. We're now looking into renting and building to avoid bidding wars. We want to make sure we rent in the area where we will build so we won't have to change our kids schools again. I'm not concerned as to whether my kids schools have a high % of AA but just want them to be treated respectfully and fairly. When we lived in Georgetown the AA population wasn't high but my family loved it there. My oldest was the only AA in the baseball program (3 teams) and his coaches were awesome and so were all the boys. That's what we look for.

[tcualum]

How old are your kids? I have an 8th grader who attends Summer Creek Middle School in Crowley ISD and loves the school. The principal is wonderful and really cares about the school and students. My son has an IEP. My sister, who is a special ed teacher, has been impressed by how her nephew's IEP has been handled. My son is also academically gifted so he attends 9th-grade pre-AP math. He originally was supposed to be bussed to the 9th-grade campus for math but we decided to have him attend math via Zoom. When it comes to COVID, CISD did a much better and quicker job of pivoting to providing virtual learning and school lunches through drive-by programs than the surrounding larger districts of Fort Worth ISD and Arlington ISD. Because the district is small, it is unable to provide the variety of options the larger districts can such as orchestra. We have been impressed by how responsive they have been to parental concerns. For example, right after George Floyd was murdered, they held separate Zoom forums for parents and students to discuss how the district is doing regarding race relations and what they could do better. The student forum was to help the kids discuss how they felt. They made changes based on feedback such as bringing campus policing in-house so that they could train the campus officers on how to work with students. The school district is predominantly black. While my son is a minority, his isn't black. We've never felt unwelcome as a minority within the district.

You will easily be able to afford a home within your criteria within the CISD district.

I lived in Arlington for more than a decade and would recommend the area zoned for Martin High School. There are some beatiful, estabilshed neighborhoods around there with mature trees.

[Threestep2]

Originally Posted by ccoutofsc

Thanks for your input. My hubby works in manufacturing. We're starting to gear our search towards the Northwest ISD side of Fort Worth specifically Eaton HS. I was also looking at Arlington and Mansfield but need suggestions on cities to look at. I'll be making the trip down in a few weeks to look but only have a few days so I want to focus on certain areas. We're now looking into renting and building to avoid bidding wars. We want to make sure we rent in the area where we will build so we won't have to change our kids schools again. I'm not concerned as to whether my kids schools have a high % of AA but just want them to be treated respectfully and fairly. When we lived in Georgetown the AA population wasn't high but my family loved it there. My oldest was the only AA in the baseball program (3 teams) and his coaches were awesome and so were all the boys. That's what we look for.

Do you think building is cheaper than buying?