New job in Waxahachie-Housing Questions (Dallas, Grand Prairie: low income, rental, crime)

[MississippiGirl74]

Hi Everyone!
It looks like I will be relocating to the Waxahachie area around Aug 1. We have been reading as much as possible to make an educated decision to where to live but could use some advice. We do not have any children so school districts are not an issue. My husband's grandmother who lives with us so we need a larger home to ensure everyone has their own space. We will need a rental home (still dealing with the financial impact of Katrina) so buying is not an option yet. My husband works out of the house and I will be working in Waxahachie so the commute is not an issue. We thought we would like to be closer to Dallas, but the more we read we don't know if that is right for us either. We originally were looking at the DeSoto/Lancaster area and have also considered the Manfield/Lancaster area. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[SouthDallas40]

Cedar Hill, DeSoto, or my neighborhood, Dallas' Mountain Creek have really beautiful areas. You'll find rolling hills you won't see anywhere else in the area.
I bought a house here 4 years ago and it's been great. City services are top notch and totally crime free.

Here are some Mountain Creek pics. (Mtn Creek Far Southwest Dallas - south of I-20 and just east of Grand Prairie)

http://urbandallas.us/postings/mtn_creek_1.jpg (broken link)

http://urbandallas.us/postings/mtn_creek_17.jpg (broken link)

http://urbandallas.us/postings/mtn_creek_2.jpg (broken link)

[loves2read]

what about the air quality in that around Cedar Hill from the plants around Ennis--heard that was not so nice

WAX has some lovely older homes--think 1900s--some have been redone and some not--they do a tour of homes around holidays I think--just nice small town....

[FarNorthDallas]

I thought the cement plants were in Midlothian, not Ennis. Or does Ennis have plants, too?

[SouthDallas40]

Waxahachie also has one of the prettiest courthouses in Texas

[GoPadge]

Originally Posted by loves2read

what about the air quality in that around Cedar Hill from the plants around Ennis--heard that was not so nice

As far as Ozone and Particulate Pollution Ellis county in not nearly as bad as Tarrant or Dallas counties. There is some cause for concern as at least one of the cement plants burns hazardous waste as a heat source. The state did a study in 2005 in response to a number of complaints of birth defects. The short version is that of the 48 birth defects studied, the only one that was found to be elevated was the occurance of hypospadias which was about 3.5 times the rate for Texas in general. The rate drops some once adjusted for age and race, but stayed elevated above the rate for Texas.

[catluvr]

FYI...Hypospadius (sp?) is also caused by a B12 defeciency, mostly babies born to vegan moms that do not consume animal products. Other types of anemias are known as B12 defeciency. It's hard to trace birthdefects, as there are so many potential causes and hard to prove one in particular. I can tell you all about it, I just can spell it that well

We medical professionals do not get paid for spelling well. That's why there is spell check. As long as we can identify it and treat it, we're good!

[loves2read]

if that is birth defect w/high incidences would suspect it is from poor pre-natal health of mother--i.e. low income, uneducated, without access to health care or proper nutrition--like vitamins...

[GoPadge]

Sorry, I should have linked to the report so you could read it for yourselves. From what I can tell the State did normalize the data, but after a while the language just numbs my brain...

Study (http://www.downwindersatrisk.org/Documents/2005BirthDefectInvestigationReportBirthDefectsAmon gDeliveriesToResidentsOfMidlothianCedarHillAndVenu s.pdf - broken link)