Corinth-Lake Dallas Area? (Houston, Plano, Irving: fit in, real estate, home builders)

[Doodlerah]

Hi,
We are considering a move to the Corinth or Lake Dallas area. My husband has a job offer and we are not familar with the towns. We have a Junior High and a High school student. I know half of Corinth School systems are Denton and the other half is Lake Dallas. Does anyone know this area at all? Also, any information about the school systems would be helpful! Does anyone have any opinions about the surrounding areas? We really want a quiet calm place to live and raise our kiddo's. We are coming from Houston and looking to move by Christmas. Wow..so much to do!
Thanks!

[momof2dfw]

Corinth has GROWN. It used to be a name on the highway exit sign when I commuted to Denton way back when. You are correct that it has a split ISD, some go to the Denton ISD and some to Lake Dallas ISD. I saw in one real estate listing they listed Ryan HS? I hope that is wrong if not that is HORRIBLE. Not the school but the commute to get there. Ryan HS is a HUGE fairly new high school. I looked up the listings and there are some very nice homes that are on larger lots, custom homes, lots of extras, big trees, some waterviews, golf course, etc. Back in the 80's when they first started building in Corinth it was all of the very small, built on top of each other, low end tract home builders. So the quality was not there at all.

As for the city itself, it is a bedroom community. Mostly residential w/ strip centers of stores and such. No industry to really speak of. For any variety you will probably end up going into Denton (closest) or Lewisville. Especially when it comes time to get the kids clothes and shoes and such. Denton is also growing. The Golden Triangle Mall in Denton has had a facelift and they are working on the Loop around town (about time). This is sad to say but hopefully the old attitude in Denton of their "hometown" crowd is dying off. I'm a native Dallasite and lived in Carrollton and commuted to Denton for college. Whenever I would write a check I would get asked for a local address and phone number. Um, it is "local", I'm just down the road from here. To them I was an "outsider". I can only imagine how they treated anyone not from this area at all.

As for the houses, like I said, it looks like you can have a large lot w/ trees and a nice house if that is what you are looking for. I would also probably expand my search to include the areas of Shady Shores, Lake Dallas and Hickory Village. A bit closer to the lake and you would have more choices. And if you are wanting acreage or the opportunity to have horses you could in those areas.

The killer here might be the commute. If you are going to be commuting to anything near Downtown Dallas, North Dallas or the Legacy area of Plano, Las Colinas, etc you are going to be in some VERY HEAVY traffic. Not much work has been done on I-35 since I commuted it daily in the early 80's. North of Lewisville once you cross over the bridge going North the road narrows from 3 lanes to 2 in each direction. And w/ the new Hwy 190 aka George Bush Turnpike now connecting at I-35 on the North side of Carrollton it is even more so. Although the opening of 190 going on West of I-35 out into Irving has helped it still backs up. The Dallas County portion of Stemmons aka I-35 is in dire need of being redone. There is an HOV lane that begins in Carrollton all the way to the Loop 12 interchange.

Now for something kind of interesting about that area. Lake Dallas is home to the Von Erich's. They were a HUGE wrestling family. The dad was Fritz Von Erich. They had several sons that got into wrestling also but sadly they all perished from either suicide or drugs. There is only one living son and he still lives up in that area, I believe in Shady Shores on some acreage. I never have gotten into the wrestling thing but back in the late 70's early 80's everyone around here knew who they were. Some of the boys went to NTSU (now UNT) in Denton. You would see them out and about. It was a "big deal" for some. Then it is hard for some of us to get used to calling the lake anything other than Lake Dallas. Even though that is also a town on Lake Dallas it is also what it was called forever until early in the 90's. Now it is Lewisville Lake. Now if you run into some crusty old person in that area that only remembers the old days you can "fit in" with them.

As for the lake itself. Fishing, boating, etc. Not for swimming. EWWW! And not safe w/ all of the boats on that lake . That is one lake that in the last 15 years has gotten VERY crowded and I would not get on. I've been up there to one part up out of Little Elm twice now in the last two years and that part of the lake does not see the crowds that the rest does. Also the water level is WAY DOWN right now. All of the lakes in Texas are manmade except one and so there is a huge risk of sandbars and trees that are under the water. Right now you can really see them but it only makes it worse.

[sqray59]

I live in Lake Dallas, it is an Ok town. It does have a lot of bars and very little shopping, even grocery store. For that we drive to Hickory Creek or Corinth, which is just a hop skip and jump away. After all they call these small lake towns that are all close together, "Lake Cities." Lake Dallas has it's newer nicer area as does Corinth and Hickory Creek, of the three I would have to say I prefer Corinth the best. You seem to already know about the schools so nothing new that I can add. There is a newer lake just north of Denton (I35 E.) Lake Ray Roberts both Lake Lewisville and Lake Ray Roberts have every kind of camping, boating, swimming, and other recreational opportunities available. Of course all of these communities are only about 30 to 45 minutes to Dallas or for that matter about an hour or less to Ft, Worth for special outings, shopping,eating out or maybe a zoo. All in all I like the location and close proximity to just about everything with easy access to the highway. Hope this answered some of the questions that you have had. Good luck and enjoy your move

[Aestrae]

Post is old but thought I'd let folks know that Denton ISD's newest high school is steps away from Corinth. Their first all-four-years graduating class had 13 valedictorians with 5.0 averages! I think there were several million in scholarships and kids going to the AF academy, Naval, Harvard, Princeton, as well as UT and UNT. It's nice for our kids to get a decent education in public schools. Denton High now has an IB degree if you want that.