Relocating to Dallas Area (Garland, Mesquite: middle-class, to rent, HOA)

[Jim1008]

Hi,

I am a young college-grad considering relocating to the Dallas area for a new job opportunity in Dallas from the Silicon Valley,CA. What are some good middle-class neighborhoods within Dallas? I am looking for an area where I can buy a 3br+ home with a 100K budget. I am also looking for towns/cities within a 50 mile range of Dallas. Any recommendations?

Rural homes with 1-5 acres is a plus but not necessary. Are the towns of Alvarado and Farmersville safe?

What are some recommended scenic drives/twisty roads in the DFW area?

I also enjoy hiking, camping, fishing. Any recommendations are welcome.

Thanks

[skids929]

Originally Posted by Jim1008

Hi,

I am a young college-grad considering relocating to the Dallas area for a new job opportunity in Dallas from the Silicon Valley,CA. What are some good middle-class neighborhoods within Dallas? I am looking for an area where I can buy a 3br+ home with a 100K budget. I am also looking for towns/cities within a 50 mile range of Dallas. Any recommendations?

Rural homes with 1-5 acres is a plus but not necessary. Are the towns of Alvarado and Farmersville safe?

What are some recommended scenic drives/twisty roads in the DFW area?

I also enjoy hiking, camping, fishing. Any recommendations are welcome.

Thanks

Whoa! Farmersville! Thats a first..I think you are setting yourself up for a heck of drive unless you can work remote.

[mSooner]

Where is your job location?

3 bedrooms under $100k is going to be really hard anywhere, especially on acreage. Downright impossible within a decent commute of a downtown area.

[JoycMarr]

Where exactly is the new job? Downtown? If you commute in 50 miles everyday to Dallas you will hate yourself and there will be no time for hiking, camping, etc!

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by mSooner

3 bedrooms under $100k is going to be really hard anywhere, especially on acreage.

The only way I know you can get something this size this cheaply is to buy a mobile home. Mobile homes are a horrible investment since these depreciate over time and are not energy-efficient. Also, only rural communities allow mobile homes, so you could be looking at a very lengthy commute.

Honestly, since you are just out of college, my advice is to rent for a while until you can afford to spend more on a house. Also, your personal situation may change over the next few years, and you generally have to live in a house for 5 years in order to recoup your closing costs and for the house to appreciate enough for you to sell it and not lose money.

[HOAPRESIDENT]

Originally Posted by Jim1008

Hi,

I am a young college-grad considering relocating to the Dallas area for a new job opportunity in Dallas from the Silicon Valley,CA. What are some good middle-class neighborhoods within Dallas? I am looking for an area where I can buy a 3br+ home with a 100K budget. I am also looking for towns/cities within a 50 mile range of Dallas. Any recommendations?

Rural homes with 1-5 acres is a plus but not necessary. Are the towns of Alvarado and Farmersville safe?

What are some recommended scenic drives/twisty roads in the DFW area?

I also enjoy hiking, camping, fishing. Any recommendations are welcome.

Thanks

This is the prairie. There are few, if any, twisty roads or scenic drives in the rural areas.

You're going to be spending 4 hours on the road everyday if you want a 3 bedroom for 100k with acreage. You'll be looking for a mobile home next to a coal-fire energy plant 50+ miles away from Dallas. (And even then, I doubt you could find a place with 3 bedrooms). There has got to be a better way to get what you want. Texas is cheaper than Silicon Valley, but nowhere close to that cheap.

If you want a 3 bedroom house in the city, in a nice middle class area, you'll be spending at least $300k for an older 3 bedroom in need of updating.

[TurtleCreek80]

Your "wish list" is very out of touch with reality:

You say you want to be within 50 miles of Dallas - you know that means 3-4+ hours in a car every day if you're a daily commuter, right?

Do you want to make friends or be around people your own age at all? Not going to find that in Farmersville.....

There aren't any "winding, scenic roads" in the DFW area. Have you ever been here to visit? The closest ones are about 2 hours south and west, either in the hill country or out by Glen Rose going west.

5 acres & $100k doesn't make sense unless you're in a depressed rural area.....and then why would you want to buy there in the first place?

Middle class neighborhoods in Dallas where you can get a $100k 3 br? Probably in Mesquite or Garland, both blue collar, lower-middle class suburbs to the east/northeast. Not anywhere near a 5 acre lot- maybe .25-.3 acre?

Also, you know that homes don't appreciate quickly in the DFW area, right? Some neighborhoods like Garland and Mesquite have had stagnant prices for decades. Unless you REALLY know you're going to relo and stay here for 5-10 years, I wouldn't even mess with buying. You'll lose money when you sell if you can't stay that long (after paying realtors & closing costs). Just rent.

Hiking, camping, fishing- yes, lots of that within a few hours of Dallas. Unless you plan to go home and fish every night after your 2 hour drive, why don't you rent somewhere closer to the city and play outside the city on the weekends?

[Willsson]

You should visit the Texas Travel Guide for a review of the geographical regions of Texas. You can even download a PDF of the travel guide.

Hiking and Backpacking in Texas

Best Hiking in Texas | Best Hiking Texas

Texas Hiking

Best Scenic Drives in Texas | Best Scenic Drives Texas

Texas Drives Texas Scenic Drives.

Farmersville might be okay if your job is in northern Dallas 'burbs. Alvarado is a stretch unless you have complete control over your time work/home/play and can telecommute. I would think most people with like minded professions are going to be located more to the north of urban Dallas. You'll be fairly secluded in Alvarado.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

100k wont get you anything anywhere you would want to live. Farmersville and Alvarado would make for horrible commutes.

[VonHuffenHausen]

The towns you are talking about are not in or near Dallas. You are talking way out in an entirely different area. You would have to live/work in those towns.

There is no such thing as a home that size for 100 grand in a middle class neighborhood. You could probably spend 1-150 for an efficiency or decent but older one bedroom small condo for that price (factor in HOA dues) and live in a fun part of the city for people your age.

There are plenty of places to fish, hike and camp, once again, not in the city (except a few small lakes with limited fishing).

Dallas is a major international city and is not rural. Now if you do go far away outside of the city you can find something like that in Hill Country which is excellent for those activities. Also there are great places like Possum Kingdom (don't know how bad it is after the wildfires). But if you lived in Dallas, we are talking several hours of driving to get there.

If you stated where the job was you would get better advice.