ttt

No, most people here do NOT send their kids to private high school! Where did you ever get that idea?

Hi Sally I am a Native Dallasite so maybe I can help you. Dallas is growing so fast. I am 35 and believe me it is NOTHING like it was when I was little. First of all the traffic has gotten a lot worse, for me I am used to it but many people complain. I do not know what you are wanting to spend for a house etc..
Within the loop (635) the houses are appreciating at quite a substantial rate depending on what area. I see though that you are looking for schools. Dallas Independent School district you can forget about except for certain elementary schools which are exceptional due to parental involvement. There are the towns of Highland Park and University Park (collectively called the Park Cities).
A cheap house would set you back at around 500,000. The location is perfect as Dallas surrounds it. HP and UP are separate cities with their own police and fire, they share the same school system. I went thru the HP school system. Most of my classmates went off to major universities and many Ivy League Universities. The houses are old and charming but the major drawback is that it has gotten so expensive to live in the Park Cities that many people are looking at either private schools or looking at the burbs. Plano was the first city to really boom in the late 70's and 80's. It is just North of Dallas so the location is more ideal. The school system is good. The more expensive houses are toward the North Dallas Tollway the more you move toward I75 it gets cheaper. Plano is nothing but what I would call a mix of custom homes and semi-custom homes. If you like older homes forget about it.
Plano is now built up that Frisco is the big booming place. It is north of Plano. They have good schools as well. The area is mostly semi-custom homes. There are a lot of young families moving in. Allen and McKinney are further to the North and East. They both are great places with great schools. But Frisco,Allen and McKinney are just too far north for me. If you are commuting to Dallas expect a rather long one. Definitely you do need to maybe visit and take some time to visit the various areas. There are many nuances to each area.
Southlake is rather expensive. It is a newer area with big semi-custom homes and custom homes. The school system (Carroll Independent School District) is highly rated but the homes start at I think in the 400,000 range. Southlake to me is far to remote. They do have a town square with shopping but it is still very limited. Keller is just west of Southlake and has excellent schools. The cost of living is cheaper and the schools are nice.
Keep posting but you really need to visit so that you can see for yourself. What I might like you might not like. Good luck.

Sally,
Keller and Frisco are pretty far apart distance wise. My wife and I have lived in Keller for 6 years. Really good schools, nice parks and trails and nice variety of price ranges for homes. It is on the Fort Worth side of town, NE Tarrant County, and we love it. E-mail me if you would like some specifics.

Dean

Toppers

Cathy, one thing to watch out for is a type of house called the "North Dallas Special".

This usually is a large, new house on a small lot, with plenty of ornate embellishments such as 6 or 7 gables, huge windows, etc. If you look more closely, however, everything is made of the cheapest grade of materials. In short, the place will fall apart around you.

This kind of a house is built to accommodate status-hungry transferees who will move away in a couple of years to another duty post for their company, so the long-term durability of the house is not an issue.

Obviously, you should avoid a house that looks too ornate for the price.

There is such wonderful info in this thread! I'm going to the DFW area this summer to see if we want to move there. I'm not worried about jobs yet, just towns. I'd like to visit some of the smaller towns to get a feel for them.

Could you recommend some nice places for a family with young children that is a little more rural? I'd like to be able to drive to the city in an hour or less, but I want to live in the country, a small town that has it's own downtown area. The more hills, trees, and water, the better. Also, is the area to the North of the metroplex any better than the South (same for East vs. West)? I would love more info. Thanks!

Topping

The aforementioned stereotyping of Plano is unfair - and inaccurate.

I lived in Plano for 6 years and loved it. Had a great house across the street from a creek and bike/jogging trail. Virtually everyone on our cul-de-sac was from somewhere else (California, Washington, Iowa, New York, Alabama and even France), all had similar-aged kids going to the same schools (public - where none of them ever did any heroin). Great schools. Nice people with very diverse backgrounds but similar interests (their families). We had cookouts and swim parties virtually every weekend in the warm months. We used to put a "road closed" barricade at the top of the street and sit out in the street and talk and watch the kids play and fish in the creek - right in the middle of the city! I knew my neighbors in Plano better than anywhere else I've lived.

The New Yorkers and Californians couldn't believe how friendly everyone else was, how reasonable housing is and good the schools are compared to what they had to endure. Also, if you are working in the Plano/area, you don't want to live in East Dallas or Lakewood, unless you like spending half a day in your car on LBJ getting to/from work. Plano was great - we still have great frinds we made here. If someone labels Plano as snobby or materialistic, then they haven't taken the time to get to know some of the very nice poeple who live there.

This post is THREE YEARS OLD, for Pete's sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I think Cathy's made her decision by now, people.

Dave, It sounds as if we might have been neighbors...we too lived on a cul de sac across the street from a creek and jogging/bike trail. Forest Creek Estates. We loved it and still miss the area, and that house, tremendously! Plano is the most family oriented area we've ever lived, and fortunately it was the one point in my husband's career where we could stay put for a while, so the kids spent K-12 in Plano schools, then went on to UT, A&M, and TT. Their preparation for college was so far and above my husband's and mine!!

The unfortunate characterization of Plano as a snobbish town has existed for ages and perpetuated here, perhaps by those who rarely, if ever, set foot north of the Richarson/Plano line. It is predominantly upper middle class, but that hardly equates with snobbism. It is far from being a town with all gated communities, and homes look no more alike there than they do in other new Dallas suburbs--how does this differ from Carrollton, Flower Mound, Frisco, Las Colinas, McKinney or the like? I'm not quite sure why these towns don't fall under the same cloud?

Hope Cathy found a great area and is as happy there as we were. I certainly raised my eyebrows when I heard we were headed to Texas (from MA), but it was an absolutely terrific time in our lives and a great place to raise our kids.

Old as dirt - so what are YOU doing reading and responding to 3 year-old posts???? Are you some self-appointed message board Nazi? Relax.

Personally, I find a lot of value in reading all posts, even the older ones, as they can often offer great insight into various places to vist and live. Obviously, so do alot of other people.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with reading old posts. The beauty of this one is that I am guessing Cathy not only made a decision by now, but has moved away from the Dallas area.

Can you give us some insight as to why you might have moved away? The heat? Urban sprawl? Lack of culture?

Quit guessing(previous poster) and either read the post or find another topic you like better.So what if 30 people responded and Cathy "has already made her mind up"...Dear God...you're gonna have a heart attack if you don't let somebody "Pop' that pimple of an "edge" you have!!!It is an open forum that people with valuable and non-valuable info respond to ...not your personal internet S.A.T. test...Come on get a grip!!! I lived in Dallas and Plano respectively and both were fine..Live in Atlanta,Ga(now)..can't say enough about how much I miss Texas.(True Texans no what I'm talkin' bout')Georgia has beautiful scenery (trees galore and nice hills) but has not planned well for its enormous growth...Atlanta has a million less people but feels a lot more "crowded"..as far as any big city...who does'nt have traffic...Dallas overall is a good place to live...Decent income,cost of living,racially diverse,lots of restaurants,malls,even some area lakes...and a fairly decent sports town...Cowboys,Mavs,Stars,TCU,SMU,and Rangers!!!Good luck....And as far as the internet "gestapo"...shut up and read(evidently you have nothing else to do but...sit around and whine!!!)

There is a great biking/hiking trail at Rowlett Creek park and at Grapevine Lake (dirt trails through the woods). White Rock Lake in Dallas has a wonderful cement trail. Physical activity is a no no among Dallasites unless it involves a shopping mall.