thinking about moving to Dallas.... (Plano, Frisco: rent, mortgage, new house)

[livingamericandream]

I'm currently live in Orange county, CA. The house mortgage here is too much and my family want to move to Dallas area within a year or two. We have 2 1/2 years old boy, so we want to move before he starts kindergarten. I need to know what cities are good to raise kid, that come with good school district (from elementary all the way to highschool), safety neighborhood, close to well managed hospital, has park and recreation for family gathering, and definitely affordable mortgage.

Thank you so much in advance for your feedback

[Glassbox]

Lady, you're going to HATE it here!

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by livingamericandream

I'm currently live in Orange county, CA. The house mortgage here is too much and my family want to move to Dallas area within a year or two. We have 2 1/2 years old boy, so we want to move before he starts kindergarten. I need to know what cities are good to raise kid, that come with good school district (from elementary all the way to highschool), safety neighborhood, close to well managed hospital, has park and recreation for family gathering, and definitely affordable mortgage.

Thank you so much in advance for your feedback

There are Dallas suburbs that meet most or all that criteria. Generally, the north central suburbs would meet your criteria, but there are many other good locations. I'm not very knowledgable about Dallas suburbs for family life, but there are plenty of people here that are, and that are quite willing to help.

[rosscountry]

If I were you I would rent a house for a year and spend some of your free time driving around to the various parts of the metroplex. It is huge!

You are going to find a lot of bias to the Northern burbs for now until some other areas start to promote themselves better. You will find that if you visit that there are MANY areas north, east, south, west of Dallas have what you are looking for. Good schools, shopping, dining are wide spread.

The only limitted resources I see is if you want to live near a lake or acreage.

[southern living]

Originally Posted by rosscountry

If I were you I would rent a house for a year and spend some of your free time driving around to the various parts of the metroplex. It is huge!

You are going to find a lot of bias to the Northern burbs for now until some other areas start to promote themselves better. You will find that if you visit that there are MANY areas north, east, south, west of Dallas have what you are looking for. Good schools, shopping, dining are wide spread.

The only limitted resources I see is if you want to live near a lake or acreage.

well stated rosscountry.
some suburbs in this board are underrepresented for far too long and plenty of erronous info about them have been posted. Im a cedar hill resident and im going to change that

[kacvb1974]

Originally Posted by rosscountry

If I were you I would rent a house for a year and spend some of your free time driving around to the various parts of the metroplex. It is huge!

Another huge ditto. I've been here for 33 years, rented for 14 of those years all over the metroplex, and it STILL took me 5 months to settle on a neighborhood once we were ready to buy. The options are kinda staggering since one of the few truly redeeming things about Dallas is there is so much affordable housing in so many good spots. I have some bias towards certain 'hoods but being stubbornly loyal to only one 'burb or city--which as mentioned, is rampant on boards like this-- is pretty silly.

When you do get ready to take the plunge or if renting for a year is not an option, just be certain to get an agent who is willing to drive you around without pressuring you to commit to some imaginary boundary lines. Our first agent insisted on sticking inside a very small territory even though we pleaded to look elsewhere. Again, silly when you consider the options here.

[Lina0707]

Well if you are moving from California i dont know how you would do with the weather here i mean its pretty warm all the year which is great but Summer time it gets HOT.

I can tell you that Dallas is a good place to raise a family. personally i lived in west Plano, TX and it's really nice with good schools then I moved to Frisco TX which is close to it and even better since we bought a new house with ( First Texas Homes) you will definitely get a lot for your money in Dallas

Moderator cut: need at least 10 oher posts to make specific recommendations