Looking for house near Alcon (Fort Worth, Arlington: power lines, HOA, how much)

[Sandhill3]

My wife and I will be moving from Illinois to Fort Worth very soon, and our goal is to find a house within 15 miles or so of my new job at Alcon, to the south of the city. My wife works from home, and I really don't want a long commute. Our price range is 200 - 250K. We don't have kids yet but would like to start a family in TX, and we have a fairly strong preference for public schools. Our goal is to find a home with at least reasonably good schools.

Based on my research so far, it looks like Mansfield and Burleson may be our best bets. We also may be interested in Benbrook, but I haven't been able to find much information on it. Crowley is close, but from what i have read it is not a desirable place to live. I think we might really enjoy living in Fort Worth - I have been told that there are no good public high schools in Ft Worth, but I read some good reviews about Paschal HS on this site. We definitely don't want to move again if possible.

We would like to move fast on our home purchase, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I realize that it may sound like we are limiting ourselves geographically, but I have a fairly long commute now and I just hate it.

We are both VERY excited about our move to Texas!

[loves2read]

if you have not started a family, a high school is the least of your worries

FTW ISD has some very good elementary schools--
the district is just totally screwed up however and based on what I read in the papers I don't know that the people who live in the district (a very large one) or the people currently on the Board or the admin staff are going to be able to get their heads out of their collective b-hinds and save the district...but that is just me--and I don't live in FTWISD

You should consider how much small town living/attitude you can live with
Burleson has been growing like house afire the past 6 yrs--lots of strip malls fronting on the freeway--but it is still a small town and a country town--very conservative in many many ways
not sure about parks available or libraries or how far the city services extend into the county area

You might check out Aledo--west and south of FTW--schools are generally considered better than Burleson or FTW
area is growing--not much retail in Aledo because it is very rural/spread out still--but Weatherford has more to offer
just pretty isolated--can take 25 min to get to grocery store--think closest hospital is in FTW--long way to go...

[Squirl]

check out Kennedale.....home prices are good and the scools are rated well.

[RockyJoe817]

Since you don't want a long commute, your best bet is Burleson.

[ChristieP]

Crowley is also an up-and-coming suburb, and it's really close to Alcon.

[ameiurus]

Crowley is not so bad as long as you stay south of the power lines. That's the demarcation line between Crowley HS and North Crowley HS. The former has much better schools.

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[LuvsFW]

I really can't speak to any of the suburbs, but I do know that in your price range, you could find a nice, but older, home in the TCU, Westcliff, Ryan Place, Fairmount, Arlington Heights or Ridglea neighborhoods in FW. Your commute would be anywhere from 15-25 min. (against the traffic) and you would end up being in a good school district (elementary) when the time comes.

[Sandhill3]

Thanks to everyone for your responses! My wife and I recently began serious house hunting, and we have decided that we would like to live in or near Fort Worth rather than somewhere like Mansfield or Aledo. We love the city of FW, and we want to be very close to my office on Altamesa.

Since we don't have kids yet, we have decided that we do not need the top public schools (and we haven't been able to find anything in Tanglewood), although we would like to find a place where the public schools at least have the potential for improvement in the years to come. Are there any up and coming public elementary schools that anyone can recommend?

As far as neighborhoods, we are intrigued by Fairmount, but some of the houses (and residents) there look a little sketchy. Mistletoe appears out of our price range. Our last house is an old one in a historic district, and we are not sure that we want to go down that road again. I would welcome any thoughts about Fairmount.

On the other hand, we don't want suburbia. So our current plan is to focus on established neighborhoods in FW. We like Overton Park, TCU area and Candleridge. The houses in Candleridge are very reasonably priced, but we have not been able to find much information on Candleridge. Is there something that makes Candleridge undesirable? I understand that Poynter elementary is pretty bad. If anyone has opinions on Candleridge, please let me know.

Any other good neighborhoods (especially with mature trees) with houses under 275K in south FW?

On the whole, we are very pleased with Fort Worth - it is a wonderful city and we are thankful to be here!

[loves2read]

personally I think the FTWISD is going to continue to be in disarray for years...and while there are some good elementary schools the jr highs are where the problems really start to show
the new "girls school" is one attempt to remedy bad jr highs--but that is one school and its success is yet to be proven...
the Paschal zone right now is probably the "best" zone in FTWISD with some elementaries probably better than others--but junior highs are problem areas...and bear watching

I would say target houses/neighborhoods in the Paschal zone and be ready to pounce--
sorry can't help you with specific info on that subdivison--maybe some others can
this is website for the neighborhood HOA I believe
http://www.candleridgehomeowners.com/
it seems to be little out of date with some info but at least there is website
this is link to the CITY DATA website about Candleridge
https://www.city-data.com/neighborhoo...-Worth-TX.html

[LuvsFW]

Welcome to Fort Worth! I'm glad you've been looking around established FW neighborhoods! I agree that Fairmount is somewhat sketchy. There are some great houses....it just depends on how much of an "urban pioneer" you want to be!

Have you not been able to find anything in Ryan Place? Those would be affordable, and I think the elementary school would be Lily B. Clayton...if not, I'm pretty sure most of the kids there transfer to Lily B. It's a great elementary.

Have you looked at Riglea or Arlington Heights yet? Those areas will both be affordable with good elementary schools too...lots of shopping and restaurants, and not much farther away from Alcon.

Re: Candleridge...I really don't know. I have never known anyone who has lived there. At one time, it was suburbia! Maybe it still has that stigma, and the school district isn't good at all. (Southwest H.S.) I know the neighborhood is established now, and you can probably get a lot more house for your money than in any of the above neighborhoods. I just don't really know....