Possible Move to Dallas Area

S.,

The Dallas/Ft Worth area is a great place to live and raise a family. If you will be in Plano, Frisco is very close and a wonderful city. Flower Mound is great too!

I live over by DFW Airport and that is obviously too far away for you, but I never hear the airplanes! So I don't think you would hear any in Flower Mound.

Good luck in all you do!

Hi S..

I've lived in Flower Mound for 5 years now and love it. I think it is a great place for families. I do agree that the prices of homes here have increased over the past few years, but that is because it is such a great place to live. Good luck in your home search. And, if you do move here, PM me. I am 29 too and have 2 boys - 3 and 1!

M.

Hi S.-
I've lived in Flower Mound for almost 6 years now and it is definitely one of the best areas! We have great schools and it is very safe. It's a great community! If you'd like more info I'd be happy to help you out.
Good Luck,
D.

Hi S.-

Just thought I'd give you my two cents... My husband and I built our first house in Flower Mound 7 years ago and stayed there for 4 years. It was okay, but we didn't have children then. There are some great communities in Flower Mound and the schools are great, too. However, the neighborhood we were in just wasn't as "neighborly" as we would have liked. Loke I said, there are some fantastic communities within Flower Mound, but one of the reasons we moved was the commute for both of us. I worked in Dallas and my husband works in Ft. Worth. Traffic in and out was crazy...with few alternative routes. So, consider where your husband's office will be with respect to Flower Mound. That being said, we now live in a wonderful neighborhood in Grapevine with our 2 boys and I LOVE it here!

Best of luck to you!

We live in Carrollton, very close to Flowermound and also in your price range. Its a wonderful place, and other areas out here that are very nice to live are plano, frisco, coppell, the colony, lewisville and almost anywhere far north of dallas. Just stay away from south dallas, that can get a little scary! Hope this helps!

Hi S.,

I noticed you were possibly moving to the Dallas/ Fort Worth area and wanted to say Welcome! This area is great for families with children...you will love it! If you need some help once you get in town and start looking at homes my best friend and husband is a Home inspector as well as a Termite Inspector...he does a wonderful job and will make your choice that much better. You will have a piece of mind knowing you made the best choice! Please feel free to contact either of us if you have any questions. Also take a look at his website when you get a chance.

Sincerely,

C. Farmer
www.lilacleopard.com

Phil Farmer
www.Farmerinspections.com

It really depends on where he is going to be working, b/c traffic is bad here. We just moved to Frisco and love it. The schools are great and everything is real close. Flower Mound is nice, I have a client that lives there, but you hear the airplanes all the time. I just couldn't get used to that. It drives me crazy. Plano is also really nice. I have an agent that is great and could tell you even more. Sh'e awesome, call her, she can REALLY help.... Cindy R.###-###-####. That will take away several of your concerns. Just tell here exactly what you want and don't want and she will help you find it. She will also tell you about the areas, schools and eveything.

Grapevine baby! Yes it is alittle more here than say other towns, but the schools are great and it still has a small town feeling to it.

www.greatschools.net is a website you can use to check out all the schools anywhere. I checked on this website at schools, before I even looked for a house, I just somewhat knew what area I wanted to be in.

Hi S.,

Welcome to Texas (if you come!). I grew up in the Fort Worth area of the metroplex, have lived in Dallas, Irving and now Carrollton. I work all over and the know the area fairly well. I'd be happy to answer any questions for you, if you write me. I would look at where your husband's job will be in relation to where you buy your house and try to avoid a commute on I-35E (S in the am, N in the pm) if at all possible. If the job isn't near Flower Mound or north or west of there, I wouldn't consider it or Corinth. It can be very deceptive to just look on the maps and think, "oh that's pretty close." when, in fact, the commute could be awful.

One thing you can do is go to Traffic.com and set up some routes from where you are looking to where your husband's job will be and sign up for traffic notifications. I actually use this a lot for trying to get around town as I generally know multiple ways to get somewhere and want to avoid one if the traffic is heavy. Then, you can monitor those routes for a couple of days and see what the traffic patterns are. (Or, you can write me and I'll give you an idea of what the actual commute time might be like on a work day.)

My husband used to live in Corinth and I think it's a lovely place, but if your husband is working downtown, it wouldn't be my first pick.

And, yes, the weather will be quite a change, but it can be nice here, too!

I won't be much help in the school arena as my little one is too young yet, but the other mamas should be able to help you there.

P.

A great site to search for homes is www.dfwhomes.net. You can search the entire DFW Metroplex, plus there is loads of information on that site as well. I know what it's like to relocate to this area without knowing anyone.

If you need any help in your search, my information is on the dfwhomes.net website.

Blessings and Abundance!
T. Camp

Not sure if you still need advice on this, but wanted to mention the Heritage development in North Fort Worth/Keller. It is in the Keller School district which is highly regarded in this area. The Heritage development is a planned community with a great pool complex and houses in a variety of price ranges. We have lived here for a year and a half and really like the location and amenities.

S.,
My family moved here 4 1/2 years ago from Orlando so sounds like we have that much in common. We originally looked for houses in the Flower Mound/Grapevine area but found the houses there were pretty overpriced (sorry for all you FM and Grapevine mamas reading this!) Our realtor took us just a little further north of Flower Mound into the small suburb of Corinth. We are just a few miles away from Flower Mound and my husband works in Grapevine so his commute is 18 miles one way which isn't too bad for the metroplex. Anyway, you will get much more house for your money if you look up this way as opposed to FM (and the houses are very nice!) The schools here are excellent, personally a heck of a lot better than Florida schools and I say that as one who taught public school in FL so I know this to be solid truth. When you get here, the one thing that will shock the mess out of you as opposed to FL is the very high property taxes. As you know, FL's are much less because there is so much tourism to make up the difference but here in Texas, you have to pay much higher. The last year we were in FL our property taxes were $642 for the year, this year our taxes are $3900/year and that's for a house that is less than what you say you want to spend. For the $200's you'll probably be closer to $5000/year. But again, the schools are good so I guess it's worth it. Best wishes on your relocation. I really like it in TX, the first year was hard getting used to all the differences (it's not pretty and green and sunny here year round like FL - around October, everything turns crispy and brown - very depressing!) LOL Let me know if you have any other questions! I'd be happy to help if I can.

G.

p.s. I want to clarify that I agree if your husband's job is not on the northern side of the metroplex then you should not be looking up around Corinth but I assumed his job was near the vicinity of FM and that's why you were seeking info on that area of town. Yes, there are times traffic can be a little slow going from Lewisville to Corinth but it is nothing compared to going through downtown Dallas so I wouldn't let that scare you. Just offering you a friendly suggestion since my family has been very happy in the "smaller" town of Corinth where you get the feel of smaller town living with a larger town within arm's reach. Again, good luck wherever you choose to live.

We too moved here from Florida! Where exactly where will your husband's office be located? Will it be close to Flower Mound? I really do like the Flower Mound/Highland Village area. In fact we have considered moving there because our business is there and it is a really nice area. You certainly can't go wrong there, and it has wonderful schools! However, I do agree with the other comment that it is somewhat expensive. I would not say "overpriced" though because of how nice the area is. They are also building a great new shopping complex on the border of FM and Highland Village. I can't wait for the new Barnes & Noble there!!! We live in north Carrollton, and I believe we have the best of everything. We have the low taxes of Denton County, but the great city services of Carrollton. We are right in between I35 and the Tollway so we have easy access to everything. You should definitely consider Carrollton. Lewisville is also close to FM and has many nice neighborhoods. There are some that aren't so wonderful too, but a decent real estate agent could help you out there. A lot of people have moved to Frisco lately. It does have tons of parks, shopping and other amenities, and I have several friends who love living there. My main issue with that area is awful, awful, awful traffic! Feel free to message me with any questions. I'd love to help you out.

Plano is nice, but can also be a little overpriced. Taxes there are high also. Carrollton is on Plano's western border. In fact I live just a couple of miles from the city limit. You should also check into Richardson.

Hi S.! I moved here from Chicago about 11 years ago. With your price range you should get a really nice home here in the metroplex.
My advice would be the mid cities area which is Hurst, Euless, or Bedford.

the school district is HEB www.hebisd.edu

schools are the most important to me. I wouldn't trade this school district for the world. They have suzuki string, Spanish immersion, Mandarin Chinese immersion, and ball room dancing.

they also have IB world trade high schools.

No one else around here can compete.

Good luck with your search and move. feel free to e mail me with any questions.

____@____.com

Love, K.

hey there, congrats. you will love it. my sister is in plano and is a teacher in the school district there. it is well-known for its excellence. tip-good luck on the house hunting, since there are not alot of new homes going up in the best places in plano, but keep at it and get a great realtor. try to stay in west plano, and keep it west of 75 if at all possible. also, map out (which i am sure you are doing anyway) the commute. one thing that the dallas area has done very very well is the road layout. there are several ways to get to the main arteries. good luck and welcome.

As you have heard from a lot of moms, let me add that DFW is a lovely place and you will like it here as it is well geared for a young family. Please add to your post about where your husband's company is located and we can probably help you better with homes and esp. schools.

In general, here is a site by the state that gives the rating levels of the schools. It is groups by the city then the schools within it:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2006/statel...
The link will take you to the 2006 ratings but you can go to other years as well from the home page. The ratings from low to high are Academically Acceptable, Recognized, and Exemplary.

Dear S.,
I might be a little late on this response, but I have my own mom owned company www.NorthTexasHomeFinders.com and our agents specialize in helping buyers. I would be more than happy to assist you and your family. I primarily work with NEW homes that builders have that are reduced in price. I am a former public school teacher and know of good schools and districts.

Hi S.!

We just moved here in February from Colorado and we decided to move to the Lantana neighborhood, it is just north of Flower Mound. We LOVE it because there are so many families here, on-site schools, and great pools/tennis/golf... they have homes in all price ranges too. I admit it does feel a bit country, but it is a nice break from the sprawling suburbia I see a lot in Dallas. We are about 22 miles to Irving, maybe 25-30 or so from Dallas & Ft Worth both, not really sure, but not too far.

But since you have kids, this neighborhood would be great for them, tons of instant friends. Here is the website in case you wanted to check it out. www.lantanatx.com. Oh, and we were able to get new construction at a great price because we bought an "inventory" home, just a thought if you were moving in the next few months.

Let me know if you want any more info or need more help, I know how hard it is to move to a new place :)

A.

Hi S.!
I am new to this mamasource but I am not new to the DFW area. So, I know of some good areas to look at for homes. Coppell is a great area with a lot of nice homes in that price range, Flower Mound is a nice area and growing but finding a nice home for that price is hard - it seems alot of those home are high 200s and up. I currently live in Bedford and there are some nice homes for that price range here. Keller is a nice area as well as Southlake however Southlake is a little higher on the price range as well. Hope this helps!
J.

S.,

You really need to determine where your husband's business will be located. If he is going to be working in Dallas, Corrinth is not the place to look since it is over twin bridges that cause the commute to be horrible in the morning. The Dallas/Ft Worth area in general has bad traffic in the morning, so to reduce your commute is ideal.

There are several really great areas in the metroplex depending on what feel you are going for. If you are used to larger schools and more expansive neighborhoods, Plano ( http://www.plano.gov/ ) is good. Medium sized area with schools that are increasing in number to maintain class size, that is up and coming is the Frisco area ( http://www.friscotx.gov/ ). The Highland Village ( http://www.highlandvillage.org/ ) area is very expensive, but it is new and growing. Very nice area, but not in my budget and a little far out from Dallas. Flower Mound ( http://www.flower-mound.com/ ) is a good selection close to the airport.

I live in Coppell ( http://www.ci.coppell.tx.us/ ). Coppell borders Flower Mound. Coppell has a hometown feel and is fairly set in it's growth pattern. There is little area left for development of housing, so our schools are not going to get much bigger in population. The schools in Coppell are awesome and the community is clean. I live near the parks which has a trail system going through the whole community. There are houses in all ranges and it is a buyer's market right now.

I would suggest you check with the community development sites of each community you have an interest in to get more information on schools, taxes, housing, and entertainment.

Good luck!!!
J.

Hi S.. We moved to this area two years ago with my husband's job, and LOVE it! It really depends on where your hubby will actually be working as to where you're going to want to move. The Dallas metro-plex is HUGE! You have to factor in the commute. But, I highly recommend Frisco. I absolutely love it here and would love to live here forever! However, we are in the midst of being relocated again to Albuquerque, NM in June! Frisco is the most family friendly place I've ever seen. It is awesome. Everything you could ever need is right here! You're going to love Texas!
Good luck.
M. O.

Hi there,

I presently have my Real Estate license and can help you around this area. We live in Flower Mound and just love the area. You do sometimes here the planes but not that bad and it is very convenient to DFW if your husband travels for work. The schools are great and people are friendly. If you need any assistance with this area I would love to help. My Cell is ###-###-####.

A little about me:

I am a SAHM and have 2 kids age 2 and 4 that I love dearly!!

S. F