Need Apartment advice in Keller/Grapevine/Flower Mound

[ChristieP]

The apartments on Mustang Drive have many low income residents and LOTS of crime. The crime is bad enough that the GPD put in a police substation on Mustang by the football stadium. The apartments themselves are mostly quite old, and one complex has had two buildings have major fires in the last few years. The apartments, and two very similar trailer parks, send all of the kids for that area to Timberline Elementary, which is GCISD's only low-performing school. The house neighborhood residents either use private schools for elementary, or they use GCISD's choice program and send their kids to Glenhope Elementary. That's why we always tell people not to live in any of the apartments on Mustang Drive.

[Chriswilkes1992]

Sorry for the late reply but thought I would chime in as someone in a similar situation. My fiancee works in Southlake and I work in downtown Fort Worth, but we decided just to be close to her job. We settled on an apartment in a cluster of apartments off of Dooley and Northwest Highway, pretty close to the Gaylord and Great Wolf Lodge. They are all nice and in your budget. The elementary school is Silverlake Elementary I believe which is supposed to be good (we don't have kids). We can potentially walk to both Main Street and the Lake if we wanted to, as both are about a mile away. We may have to relocate just because we are afraid we may be priced out soon as this area is really growing and the houses and apartments nearby are becoming pretty expensive. We are now also looking at the Glade area apartments as well as Bear Creek area. There aren't as many amenities in Keller as there are in Grapevine. Way less entertainment options (bars, restaurants, parks, etc.) But those are considerations for us as we are a young couple. We aren't fans of NRH or HEB either.

[ChristieP]

Glad you found a good place! That's a nice part of Grapevine. Hopefully rent won't get too high for you. Come to Grapefest in September.

[Chriswilkes1992]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Glad you found a good place! That's a nice part of Grapevine. Hopefully rent won't get too high for you. Come to Grapefest in September.

Right now it is fine but we are waiting to see what they offer us for next year's lease. Everywhere we've been in DFW rent has gone up close to $100 a year so this isn't just Grapevine. We are a young couple and have lived in Denton, Dallas, Fort Worth, and now Grapevine. We think for a suburb, Grapevine is about as good as it gets for things to do, such as Grapefest, Mayfest, all the places on Main Street, etc. However, we understand when we look for a starter house Grapevine (or at least our area) may be out of budget. But we will see!

[Chriswilkes1992]

Just to update in case OP is still following: my teacher fiancee has informed me that Silver Lake Elem. is not that great of a school. I guess it makes sense because our immediate neighborhood is nice but a lot of apartments/duplexes for young professionals without kids (like us). Best bet for schools is Lincoln Vineyard off of Hall-Johnson or Monticello/Kesington off of Glade (technically Euless). We liked those and the proximity to the highway for me, but the price was a little much for the neighborhood, mainly due to nice schools both feed into.

[ChristieP]

Silver Lake is GCISD's dual language school. There's a waiting list to get in...

[Chriswilkes1992]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Silver Lake is GCISD's dual language school. There's a waiting list to get in...

That is pretty cool, I didn't know that. We had a similar program in Irving sorta, but they never stayed consistent with it. We would switch classrooms some times but it felt like they were just using us as guinea pigs to see if it would work, now that I look back on it. She worked in GCISD but not Silverlake. She definitely didn't say it was a bad school, just had heard it's not the highest rated in GCISD.
Just an update: as expected, this area is getting too pricey for us. For the money we decided to go with more amenities and closer to my work instead and are moving back to Fort Worth, but downtown this time. Our new place downtown will only be slightly smaller and is the same price as Grapevine, just to give OP perspective. This area is really booming, just reading about all the new development on the Palmeiro tract and how many apartments they will be building. The train station development will also be big. We liked it here though, we are just a little young for the suburbs I think... Will hopefully be back once we start looking at houses.

[meechi53]

Originally Posted by loves2read

How close is close?
114 is the pits for commuting at rush hour from what I have seen...
So Thinking she can use 114 for main commute artery might not be best idea unless she has flex work hours

It is lot easier to find a decent elementary school in tier 2 ISD than a junior high...
ISDs in TX do not go by city boundaries...maybe you know that

Think your rent might be on low side for newer areas

And I was thinking about Hall Johnson too...
There are apts around Grapevine Mills mall and into Lewisville but that means using 114

Google for Region 11 that is TEA site for Tarrant/Denton area schools

114 is not bad going west in the morning and east in the evening, I work around that direction as well. Takes only 20 minutes from Las Colinas to Carroll Dr. You'll be against traffic if you choose the Grapevine area. You might be able to get into some of the new apts downtown grapevine, they seem to be in your price range. Nice, walkable area suitable for families.