Relocating to Dallas

I am from San Antonio too! I live in North Dallas near Plano. It is safe and not that expensive. I recomend areas north of Dallas. In order to stay in the same price range as SA you should try Plano, Mesquite, Anna, Willey or N.Dallas. When ou get here, shoot me an email. I have a 10 month old girl. I would love to get her around other kids her age. I have not yet done the play group thing.....

B.

I'm selling my condo. It's a 2 bedroom/ 2and a half bath--very reasonably priced. We're in North Dallas/Richardson school district,close to downtown, and close to all of the cool kid stuff and the hotspots for you and hubby to hang out.

Well, A....it really all depends on a lot of things. For instance, will you be sending your child to a private school or will you want him to go to public school? Do you want to live close to your husband's job, your job or does that matter? If it does, where will you be working (he be working)? When you say affordable, what can you afford? Affordable to you may not be affordable to me.

I have been looking into various neighborhoods lately because I will be wanting to move within the next year and I've driven all over town and looked at lots of homes. I live in Little Forest Hills off of White Rock Lake and I love the homes and big trees...I even love the elementary school, but am not too fond of the middle school so I'm looking at Garland or Mesquite. Plano, Murphy, Allen, Frisco, Southlake, McKinney are too far north for me and my job is in Mesquite. I'm looking at Garland and Mesquite because you can get more home/property for your dollar than in the city of Dallas. I grew up in Lake Highlands which is not far from White Rock Lake and they have beautiful trees and are in the Richardson School District (which is good), but the homes are expensive. Old Lake Highlands (someone mentioned already) is a beautiful area and the homes are more affordable, but they are in the Dallas School District. Garland has something called "School Choice" which means that you can choose which Garland school you want your child to go to. I have heard that Forney is also a "small town" feeling city with decent schools.

Go to http://www.texasmls.com and you can browse homes for sale in various zip codes. Lake Highlands will be mostly 75231 and 75238, Old Lake Highlands/Lakewood/Little Forest Hills will be 75218 and 75214. Mesquite is 75150 and 75149 and some nice areas in Garland are 75043, 75041, 75042. Do a lot of research on the neighborhood though before you make an offer. There are some neighborhoods that look one way during the day and have a different look/feel at night.

Good Luck.

Sunnyvale is a great town. It has it 's own I.S.D. and has no crime. It is between Garland and Mesquite. Check it out. Beautiful homes as well. New High school, new middle school as well. No other cities can use our schools. Please call my agent she is wonderful, she can help you not only for this area but the entire metroplex, Heath, Rockwall are also great cities. Any city east of downtown dallas is nicer. Mary Puckett is her name ###-###-####.

It really depends on where you or hubby will be working. Traffic is farrrrrrrr worse than San Antonio. You will pretty much want to stay north, but how far north or east or west will depend. I live in north Carrollton and love it. We are in Denton county, but just barely over the border of Collin and Dallas counties. This way we get the low taxes and lower property prices of Denton county, but are still close to all the great amenities in Collin and Dallas counties. Most of my friends live in Plano just down the street. We are also right between I35 and the Tollway so we have easy access to everything. Lewisville is on the other side of me, and there are also some great neighborhoods there, which would be idea if your work location is over towards Irving and that direction. Good luck!

I live in a two bedroom in a neighborhood that I love. It is the Hillside neighborhood near White Rock Lake. We have just been rezoned into a fantastic school district (Lakewood Elementary). Recently an article was written about it referring to it as the Golden School. Our neighborhood has an annual Fourth of July parade and Halloween party for the families in the neighborhood. The houses are some of the few that are still relatively affordable without being so far removed from Dallas.

If you are interested in finding a realtor, you might want to contact Dan Cohn with Virginia Cook Realtors. He lives in this neighborhood and can tell you more about it. I also work as a Virginia Cook referral agent. However, Dan may not remember me even though I've spoken to him on the phone before. If you do decide to use Virgina Cook Realtor (certainly one of the top realtor companies in the area), would you please let them know that I referred you? I would appreciate it greatly.

Good luck with your search and let me know if you move into the neighborhood.
E. Bartlett
###-###-####
www.virginiacook.com

We live in Rockwall and love it. We moved away to Corpus Christi but we are back in Rockwall. I grew up in Rockwall and it is a great community. C.

Hi A.! If you want to live away from Dallas in a smaller community, try Forney. My family and I currently live there and enjoy it. Even though it's growing by leaps and bounds, it still has that small town feel, which we love.
In our neighborhood, there are plenty of homes for sale or lease that are less than 5 years old. So there's no shortage of houses!
If you have any questions, just let me know.

Hello A. and an almost... welcome to Dallas to you and your family!!

Some great areas to live in around the metroplex are: Richardson, Plano, & Frisco. I've lived in each of these cities and they are great places to live. We are currently in Richardson right now and I must say I have enjoyed this city the best. It's an older city, but takes pride in itself. It's very child friendly!! I've heard Plano has one of the top rated school systems and we enjoyed living there too. It's probably more pricey to live there and in Frisco (which is N. Dallas) b/c they have just experienced a very large and fast growth. Lake Highlands is very nice, but VERY expensive. Really, you can't go wrong with the Dallas Metroplex - there are some great cities and great people out this way. Good luck to you with finding the perfect home for your family and the best city too!

God Bless,
J.

We live in Wylie and love it.

A.,

What area will you be working in? There are lots of great suburbs with affordable housing, but they are pretty far spread. Frisco, Allen, McKinney and Plano have great school districts north and so does Waxahachie to the south. Living in Dallas proper is pretty pricey for a good area and the school system isn't that good - most people do private.

My husband and I and our four kids live in Rockwall and we love it here.Small town and very quiet and great schools. It's not to far away from Dallas. My husband works in Richardson which is north of Dallas and his commute isn't too bad.

Just make sure you stay away from pleasant grove, south dallas and oak cliff. You do that everything should work out great! We are currently in pleasant grove and we are transferring out of this horriable neighborhood. Bad crime here! We are moving to euless. You can always check on internet for which neighborhood would suit you better. Good luck! And just to let you know, we just moved up here a little over a year ago and we love dallas. Dallas is wonderful! We moved from corpus christi! You will enjoy it here!

We live in Murphy, and we love it! We have a 13 month little girl and our neighborhood is full of friends for her to grow up with.

We live in west Plano which is nice with good schools..but expensive. I have heard wonderful things about Lovejoy. Has affordable homes and great schools.

A.:

We actually have our house up for sale. We are located in Rockwall, which is about 20 miles East of Dallas. Great little town, growing fast. We have a 1-story 3 bedroom/2 bath/2 car-garage. We just listed our house this week, the MLS#10736509 . Be patient, there may not be pictures up yet, she came and took them, but may not have them posted yet. My sister-in-law also has her house for sale, she has a 2-story, 4 bedroom/2.5 bath/2 car garage, formal dining, formal living, breakfast nook, upstairs play room, and a pool in a cul-de-sac with a neighborhood elementary school across the alley. Great buy! If you are interested, let me know... I'm not sure if hers is listed yet or not. Good luck with your home search and welcome to the Dallas area.

If you want to live in Dallas I recommend Lake Highlands. Good schools, beautiful homes, very close to downtown. Some of the more affordable homes (where we live) are in a neighborhood called Old Lake Highlands. Old Lake Highlands is located within Northwest Highway, Buckner Boulevard and Lake Highlands Drive.

There's also a lake, White Rock Lake, that is very active with community projects, although it is not a swimming lake. Welcome!! I hope you like it here.

Hi A.,
I just read your email and I have to respond with my suggestion. We live in the Lakewood neighboorhood, it is also very close to the White Rock Lake and the houses might be more expensive (we pay $1300/month for a 2-bedroom, 1bath house) but it is very well worth the price. It is in the Lakewood Elementary school zone, which is a great school (someone has already mentioned that), we were specifically looking for a house to be within this school zone. Another great public elementary school is Stonewall Jackson Elementary (Blue Ribbon school), it is on Mockingbird Ln.
We live in Gastonwood/Coronado Hills, the school is 7 minutes driving distance away. There is a park for kids within a walking distance.
Good luck with your searching and moving.
We are actually moving to San Antonio this summer...
L.

Hi A.,

I relocated to Dallas with my husband, a 3 year old and an 8 month old. It is a stressful and exciteing time. We couldn't have done it without a knowledgable person here in Dallas helping us.

I would highly recommend calling Kelly Moon. She is a realtor here in the Dallas area and also a mom of a little one. She would be able to give the scoop (good & bad) on all the areas around Dallas for you and yor family. She is the best of the best in this area in my opinion! You can reach her at ____@____.com or ###-###-####.

I know she is on Mamasource alot too so she may respond to you as well.

Welcome to Dallas!