Dallas Living

L

LadyDee

25+ Posts
I have to move to Dallas by the first of the year. Looking for advice on neighborhoods/cities to reside. I have kids so I need good schools. I would enjoy the pro's and con's of each area.
I've heard things about Coppell, Plano, Frisco, Flower Mound, Richardson including Lake Highlands. I'm looking for MANY suggestions but also your reasons why. I keep having people tell me cities but not really telling me why they like the area.
Thanks!
 
Agree with Tiger. Where will you work?

By the way, Dallas sucks. Lived/worked there for 12 years. Look in the dictionary for "pretentious," and the second definition is "Dallas"
 
well, i live in lakewood and drive to las colinas everyday..... i would try to avoid this type of setup.
 
I agree that it depends, at least to some extent, on where you work. I live in Southlake and have the benefit of a great community, schools, etc, but I also have the crotch kick of a one-hour drive to/from north Dallas to work every day. I used to have a 5-minute commute, but was in DISD (which is a trainwreck) and would have had to pay $15-$25k a year for private school for the kiddos. To me, it's worth it but If you are going to be working in Dallas, the bottom line is that you are going to have to pick your poison: close to work + pay for private school, or longer commute + good public schools. Thankfully, there are alot of options either way. If you are going the public school route and don't mind a 30-45 minute commute, I'd look at Coppell, Grapevine, Colleyville, Flower Mound. If you want to be close to Dallas, I'd look at Lakewood, Lake Highlands, Far North Dallas, and Richardson, but look closely into what the school situation is.

And yes, Dallas can be arrogant if you are going to be hanging around the douchebag, 20-something bottle service crowd. However, if you are raising a family and spend more time in your neighborhood than at the oxygen bar, it's a great place to raise a family. Best of luck. IM me if you have any other questions. I know some good realtors that can help you out if you'd like...
 
I've lived all over the eastern half of the Metroplex for different work/family reasons. So I can't really say much about anything west of Irving.

If you're looking in the northern part of it, you can't really go wrong with Plano. We've all heard the criticisms, but when it comes down to it, the schools are pretty great all around and you don't see people worrying about safety. Frisco is still growing, which could be a blessing and a curse for a community that's trying to keep it's old time identity. Avoid Richardson unless it's the far north part where Pearce H.S. is, or the far east part that is included in the Plano ISD.

I've heard a lot of McKinney praise, but if you're in Dallas, there's really only one road that takes you there, and that's pretty far.

For the NW side of this area, you have Grapevine, Flower Mound, Carrollton, Lewisville, and the other smaller cities like Highland Village. They sort of pride themselves in being part of the Metroplex, but not enough of a part of it to lose what makes them "unique." I don't really buy into Carrollton and Lewisville being all that great, but Flower Mound definitely has some great perks. It has all the functions of a big city with enough open space and nice neighborhoods to draw people in. And even though it's serviced by the Lewisville ISD, the western schools in that district are excellent. The smaller places like Highland Village and Lake Dallas are cutesy, but are probably getting overgrown as I type this.

Avoid the East/NE suburbs of Dallas. Other than Lake Highlands, there's not much in the way of good schools, affordable housing, or lower crime levels. Garland has gone way downhill since the 80s. Mesquite? Hell no. You get a couple of "I want to live in the country but have the benefit of city living" people in Sachse (pronounced sack-see) and Wylie, which is fine for them, but never really appealed to my family. The Firewheel area is ok, but anything south of that is not.

Coppell is pretty awesome for its location and the way it maintains its size. The schools are good. Prices are a tad inflated there because Dallasites moved there to get out of the city part, only to realize it was full already.

Let me know if you want more specifics about certain neighborhoods, like dining, specific schools, traffic, etc. Sorry to be so broad in the post.
 
Wow, Thanks for all the great ideas. I keep hearing Coppell, Plano, Flower Mound, and Frisco. I had heard about Lake Highlands but drove through it once and found a sort of scary element. Perhaps I wasn't in the right part or something but it didn't seem like an area with great schools.

What do you think the pro/con for Coppell, Flowermound, Plano and Frisco are?(although Frsico seems far away). I'll be working in North Dallas around 75.

Thanks for helping me out!
 
Stay away from Lake Highlands. My wife's family is from there and the neighborhood has been "getting better" for about a decade now. My stepson attended elementary school there for one year after going to private school for three. He hated it. It was "a bully school." Junior high is really bad there. We now live in far north Dallas but it's in Plano ISD.

I recommend the areas that feed into Plano West Senior High. I also liked the areas feeding into Richardson Pierce west of Coit.

I lived down in Oaklawn and don't really miss it at all. I bought a house near the Bush and Preston. Great access via Bush and the Tollway to get anywhere or head south about 3 miles and you hit LBJ. Central is easy access (5 min) via Bush.

There's great non-chain restaurants in Plano. Thai, Chinese, Greek, texmex, pizza, sushi.

UTD is very close. I'm taking a professional certification class there now.

There's a surprisingly nice nature preserve in Plano too. Arbor Hills. It has like 5 miles of paved walkways, 10 miles of hiking trails, and a 2.5 mile mountain bike trail through hills and lots of trees. I was shocked at its contrast to flat treeless Plano.
 
"What do you think the pro/con for Coppell, Flowermound, Plano and Frisco are?(although Frsico seems far away). I'll be working in North Dallas around 75."

Coppell: Biggest pro is the size. It's almost like one of those planned communities for senior citizens that you see ads for in fancy magazines. Nice parks, great schools, enough diversity to pass as a cultural city, close to the airport, a pretty good selection of dining (and if that's not satisfying, you can go a little east to Addison or Irving). Con would be home prices (steep for the square footage) and the fact that a lot of other urban commuters make it their first choice for living, making the highway access tough.

Flower Mound: Pretty much what I originally said. It's got a lot of open space, making it seem like one of those old timey midwestern cities. People are friendly and there's enough stuff to keep the average family happy. Biggest con would be that people don't have a clue how to get there. It's a little off the highways, which sucks. And your commute to 75 in Dallas would be horrendous, either way you go. They don't have much in the way of dining either. That will probably change soon, as it grows in that direction.

Plano: I put it at the top of my previous list because of the schools and lack of crime. It's also diverse like Coppell and not as white bread as you hear about in the media, although I would stay away from the SE side of town. Tons of dining is good, but the only fun outside of that is shopping and movies. Decent highway access on 75 for you. And it truly is a "big city" within a big city. With about 250K people, it's easy for everyone to find something to like, whether it's the rec leagues or libraries or whatever.

Frisco: Biggest pro is the clientele that live there... upstanding people. Which can also be a big con sometimes. It filled up with Plano wannabes about 7 years ago, and then they pretty much turned it into a trendier version of what they wanted Plano to be. Traffic can be bad around Preston, and getting to 75 from there basically means you have to go through Plano because going north on 121 to 75 would make your commute over an hour each way, easily. Schools are good, restaurants are good like Plano. I like the downtown area, but that's about it for me.
 
I grew up in Richardson and live in Plano. I really enjoyed the ethnic and social diversity in Richardson (I'm Asian) and it was clean and safe enough.

Frisco/Allen is what Plano was 10 years ago and Plano is what Richardson was another 10 years ago. Basically urban sprawl/white flight. The downside of the newer suburbs is the homogenous makeup of the population and the cookie cutter strip malls and generic chain stores (or maybe you like that).

If you live in Frisco the commute to Richardson will be 30+ minutes. Add another 10 minutes to 635 and another 15+ to downtown. Allen would probably be a few minutes less.

West Plano is one of the highest median income neighborhoods in the DFW area. East Plano (East of 75) has some very nice areas but is generally a much lower income bracket. Plano has _awful_ onramp access to 75. The other really rich areas are around Highland Park, Southlake, and a few pockets in North Dallas.

Richardson is one of the most ethnically diverse areas in Dallas. You'll find the best variety of good ethnic restaurants there. Other food hotspots are Addison/Galleria and Uptown (just north of downtown). Lake Highlands is much like a lot of interior Dallas. Some very nice areas a couple blocks away from undesirable areas.

The better schools are generally going to be outside the George Bush Turnpike. The better established private schools are generally inside of 635.

If you like going to the uptown cultural/events area (downtown/uptown) then you'll want easy access to 75 or the Dallas North Tollway. Most sporting events are either in downtown Dallas or Arlington.

Generally, the further out you go the newer and more white upper middle class the environment will be, the schools will be good, houses newer, your commute will suck more, property taxes will be higher, and you'll be further away from anything interesting in DFW.
 
Cedar Hill or DeSoto

And Im being dead serious.

Two of the most underated communities in the metroplex.

Dont fall into the trap of thinking that you have to live north of the Bush tollway to enjoy a good life.
 
I have been teaching in the area for 13 years- currently in Grapevine Colleyville ISD- which I like.

I think highly of Coppell, Frisco, Southlake, and Flower Mound schools. Coppell and Southlake will give you more of a small school district feel since there is only one high school. GCISD has two- so it is not a big district either.

Hope that helps.
 
I live in Highland Village and when not working from home that is serious hike. So Coppell, Flower Mound would be similar. You may want to look more closely at the Colony, Frisco, Plano and I have an increasing number of friends moving out to Little Elm.

Throw in McKinney and Allen.
 
i live in dallas proper (by white rock) and drive to las colinas/irving every day. i am telling you, you don't want to do this.... escpecially with kids. if you are going to work off 75, then there are lots of options.

west plano, some parts of richardson (jj pierce is an excellent high school), or if you want newer suburbia allen and mckinney.

before i lived in lakewood (i take 114 now), i used to live at campbell and 75 and made the same trek via the GWB tollway and 635. even though GWB is a major upgrade you really don't want to deal with that everyday, especially if you have take 121 or 35 to get home in Coppell, FM, etc.

driving from southlake, or even flower mound, to north 75 is nothing anybody should sign up for if they have a choice.

there are tons of good schools and good neighborhoods in the north 75 area. canyon creek in richardson is a good example.
 
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