White Settlement and NW FW Relocation? (Fort Worth, Amarillo: HOA, low crime, new home)

[MelNSW]

Howdy all..

My husband and I are both ex-USAF and now TX certified teachers (ELA, ESL, and History). We've lived in Australia for a year and are planning to come back to Texas. We lived in Greenville and Mesquite but are looking at Central Texas, Amarillo-Canyon, Denton, or west Ft Worth / Weatherford. Yes, that's pretty much all over the map but we want to keep our options open in case the jobs are hard to come by in a certain area.

Question is - can anybody tell me their impressions about White Settlement and/or NW Fort Worth? I may have found a job opportunity in the Castleberry ISD but wanted to ask around before I jumped in head-first and put in my application.

I saw that there were some decently priced houses in that area, but looking at neighborhoods online can be deceiving as we found out when we moved to Mesquite and found ourselves at the mercy of the HOA and in not such a great area of town.

I've been to downtown Ft Worth, the Botanic Gardens, and the Stock Show and loved them all, but am more concerned about ending up in a high crime neighborhood than access to night-life/entertainment.

Thanks for your help!

[Synopsis]

I live in Northeast Tarrent County, but lived on the West side of Ft. Worth about ten years ago just South of White Settlement. If you're concerned about crime, I would tend to avoid that part of town, it's probably one of the higher crime areas of the city. I lived in Fort Worth, South of Highway 80 and it was okay there, I never experienced any crime, but I always heard of people getting mugged and even murdered at bus stops and various other places in White Settlement. On the other hand, where I currently live (in Northeast Tarrant County) there is very low crime, almost nonexistent. I hope this information helps. Feel free to ask anything and I'll do my best to answer.

[MelNSW]

Thanks for the info... I'll keep looking then

[LC81]

You might want to check out Benbrook.

[MelNSW]

Thanks - will do! I'm even looking at working in FW and either living on the far west limits or out in the country somewhere.

[LC81]

Yeah Benbrook is Southwest of the city pretty small, but not too rural, and if you get even further than that you have Godley, Acton, Cleburne, etc. Those are REAL rural areas that are pretty close to the Ft. Worth area. All of those areas I mentioned though are big natural gas drilling boom towns right now, so they may start to grow here soon. I used to work in the industry so Im kind of familiar with those towns.

[MelNSW]

Looking at the map, that seems like a good area. We'd like to be "close" to the city or on the periphery so small towns outside of FW seem nice. Weatherford is high on our list right now too. Guess the issue now is finding two teaching jobs in the same area - I'd better get back to resume writing.

[LC81]

I forgot about Weatherford, looks like you are doing good research. Thats another town that sounds like what you are looking for. Good Luck with the job and town search. Im looking to move to the Northwest myself.

[txbaker]

Well I Lived In White Settlement A Few Years And About 5-8 Years Ago It Was O.k. Not The Best But Since Then It Has Become More Dangerous And Honestly Take A Drive Through There Before U Make Any Decisions. Honestly It Has Become Very Trashy And Unsafe There Is Lots Of Theft, Robberies, Assaults Not To Mention Lots Of Drugs Being Brought Into That Area The Local Paper That Is Given Each Week There Usually Has An Article About How Police Busted A Drug House For Cooking And Distributing Meth. Thats Ashame For A Town So Small. I Would Never Recommend That Area To Anyone To Relocate To. Good Luck On Finding Something You Can Also Check Out And Compare Crime Rate In Cities If You Google It.

[MikePannell]

There are alot of areas in the that area, alot of new home develpments.