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Moving to Dallas Texas - Free Advice Welcome! (1 Viewer)

Psychopav

Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
My company is relocating me to the north Dallas area, and I'm looking at houses in Frisco/Plano or perhaps closer to the airport. I was born and raised in Chicagoland, and this is going to be a major change for myself and my family.

I already know that there is one (ONE) Italian grocery/deli in the entire city, called Jimmy's, and thank God they have Italian beef. I also know that the north suburbs kind of look and feel like any other suburban area (read: my current stomping grounds).

So...does anyone have any advice to share? Anything from house hunting tips to things to do would be most welcome! I've got 4 kids, first grade through sophomore year of HS so I'm interested in pretty much anything and everything age-wise.

Things I know so far:

  • They get hail and ice there. If I can find a house that recently had to replace the roof due to hail damage that's a good thing, since that way the insurance company pays for the new roof instead of me.
  • They don't have basements there. Seriously! WTF am I supposed to put all my crap?!?
  • Swimming pools don't include diving boards or deep ends. The one thing I have to bribe my kids with to "smooth the transition" and now they can't even break their necks having fun.
  • Lots are super tiny/houses are super big. It seems the only thing Dallas has more of than land is stubborn ranchers not willing to sell.
  • Traffic is not bad but they think it is. This is true of pretty much everywhere I've traveled. Everyone thinks they have the worst traffic ever but unless you've lived in Chicago, NY, or LA, I'd say you haven't really seen traffic so don't sweat it.
  • It's hot, but it's more humid in Chicago. I was there on a couple of hundred degree days there a month ago and it was more miserable in Chicago over the weekend because of the humidity.
  • There are a ton of transplants there so I won't be alone in my culture shock.
  • There are Bears fans everywhere.
  • Dallas appears to be in the middle of nowhere.
  • Illinois is not nearly as flat as I thought it was.
All of this is just scratching the surface. Where should I live? What should I look for when house hunting? Why don't they have basements, anyway?

TIA

Will answer yours!

GLL peas

 
I've been to Dallas and the one thing is remember was that it rained and everybody started driving 30 mph

 
JIMMY BUFFETT LYRICS

Download "Dallas" Ringtone

"Dallas"

If you ever get the chance to go to Dallas

Take it from me, pass it by

Cause you'll only sing the blues down in Dallas

Take it from me, don't go and cry

[Chorus:]

And I'm leaving this town as soon as I can

Gonna stop off for a while and see my woman

People do you wrong down in Dallas

I know well, they've done it to me

Stealin' all your bread, they're so callous

I know well, just look and see

[Chorus]

And people like me just can't be free

The promo man won't let us us be

If the people who knew could get away

I'm real sure they'd leave today

Now come on down and lose your mental balance

Look at me, half crazy now

Talkin' to chairs, strange and I know it

Look at me I'm doin' in now
 
I've been to Dallas and the one thing is remember was that it rained and everybody started driving 30 mph
Yeah, looking forward to that. It should be pretty funny until someone smacks into me. :o

 
JIMMY BUFFETT LYRICS

Download "Dallas" Ringtone

"Dallas"

If you ever get the chance to go to Dallas

Take it from me, pass it by

Cause you'll only sing the blues down in Dallas

Take it from me, don't go and cry

[Chorus:]

And I'm leaving this town as soon as I can

Gonna stop off for a while and see my woman

People do you wrong down in Dallas

I know well, they've done it to me

Stealin' all your bread, they're so callous

I know well, just look and see

[Chorus]

And people like me just can't be free

The promo man won't let us us be

If the people who knew could get away

I'm real sure they'd leave today

Now come on down and lose your mental balance

Look at me, half crazy now

Talkin' to chairs, strange and I know it

Look at me I'm doin' in now
This does not sound promising.

 
Housing is inexpensive, yea they have no basements. Several reason for that is that when it rains, it comes down in buckets and you would soon find your basements flooded. There is land, though. Huge lots. 3 and 4 car garages everywhere. Frisco is a straight shot down 121 to DFW, Most developments are new so, there isn't yet a lot of tree cover. Easy to get around with the121 and the Dallas North Thruway.they are tollways but the tolls are reasonable. COL is inexpensive, Lots of recreation area.

 
If you get a craving for a Chicago dog check out this place. Just opened recently. Went there for lunch last week and wasn't disappointed.

 
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If you get a craving for a Chicago dog check out this place. Just opened recently. Went there for lunch last week and wasn't disappointed.
Nice! Plus, Italian beef here as well. Who says you can't find it outside of Chi town, eh?

Now I just need to find a pizza place...

 
Housing is inexpensive, yea they have no basements. Several reason for that is that when it rains, it comes down in buckets and you would soon find your basements flooded. There is land, though. Huge lots. 3 and 4 car garages everywhere. Frisco is a straight shot down 121 to DFW, Most developments are new so, there isn't yet a lot of tree cover. Easy to get around with the121 and the Dallas North Thruway.they are tollways but the tolls are reasonable. COL is inexpensive, Lots of recreation area.
I wish I could find those 4 car garages and huge lots. Fair number of 3 cars but lots are not very big at all, at least in what I've been looking at.

Good point on the basements. My motto is "all basements flood" - which is why we have too damn much stuff: no finished basement. Now we need to get rid of our junk before we put the house up on the market. No easy task. I'm hoping this move will help us stop collecting so much crap. :)

 
There's one thing that's been kind of bothering me. All of these places I've been checking out are very...homogenous. I am a very orthodox guy by many standards, and I use the term "orthodox" because while many would consider me conservative, my values are much more Catholic than explicitly politically right wing, although I'm the first to admit that the two overlap in many ways.

Which is kind of beside the point except for one thing. Right now, I live in a very middle class suburb. Housing costs here in good old Bolingbrook, IL, range from low income to upper middle class. The community is diverse, my church is diverse. The neighborhood is diverse.

Are there any towns near enough to North Dallas with a similarly diverse demographic, or are my choices really limited to mostly WASP country (no offense intended)?

 
1. Buy a truck.

2. Get some Truck Nutz.

3. Pull to the shoulder when someone wants to pass you.

 
There's one thing that's been kind of bothering me. All of these places I've been checking out are very...homogenous. I am a very orthodox guy by many standards, and I use the term "orthodox" because while many would consider me conservative, my values are much more Catholic than explicitly politically right wing, although I'm the first to admit that the two overlap in many ways.

Which is kind of beside the point except for one thing. Right now, I live in a very middle class suburb. Housing costs here in good old Bolingbrook, IL, range from low income to upper middle class. The community is diverse, my church is diverse. The neighborhood is diverse.

Are there any towns near enough to North Dallas with a similarly diverse demographic, or are my choices really limited to mostly WASP country (no offense intended)?
You are looking in white flight areas. Anything north of the wall (635) is going to be pure wasp.

####. Even uni moved north of the wall recently.

What sort of upper limit are you at housing wise. Ironically the more diverse areas of town are more expensive. But keep in mind diverse in dallas = gay.

 
I'm looking at houses in the $400-$450 range, 3400+ sq feet. Gay diversity is decidedly the opposite of what I'm talking about here Culdy. Good point. I'm talking more about cultural diversity.

 
There's one thing that's been kind of bothering me. All of these places I've been checking out are very...homogenous. I am a very orthodox guy by many standards, and I use the term "orthodox" because while many would consider me conservative, my values are much more Catholic than explicitly politically right wing, although I'm the first to admit that the two overlap in many ways.

Which is kind of beside the point except for one thing. Right now, I live in a very middle class suburb. Housing costs here in good old Bolingbrook, IL, range from low income to upper middle class. The community is diverse, my church is diverse. The neighborhood is diverse.

Are there any towns near enough to North Dallas with a similarly diverse demographic, or are my choices really limited to mostly WASP country (no offense intended)?
Only white people live in dallas.

 
There's one thing that's been kind of bothering me. All of these places I've been checking out are very...homogenous. I am a very orthodox guy by many standards, and I use the term "orthodox" because while many would consider me conservative, my values are much more Catholic than explicitly politically right wing, although I'm the first to admit that the two overlap in many ways.

Which is kind of beside the point except for one thing. Right now, I live in a very middle class suburb. Housing costs here in good old Bolingbrook, IL, range from low income to upper middle class. The community is diverse, my church is diverse. The neighborhood is diverse.

Are there any towns near enough to North Dallas with a similarly diverse demographic, or are my choices really limited to mostly WASP country (no offense intended)?
Only white people live in dallas.
Now I know that can't be true. I read all about the Cathedral and how it was renamed for Our Lady of Guadalupe because of the large Mexican population.

Es verdad?

 
Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".

 
The Mexicans live near the farm/ranch communities, the blacks live in the rich athlete communities, the gays live where all the cool bars/restaurants/galleries are. The whites are scattered, the poors in town and the rich Yankees where you are looking up North. The rich native Texans live in Houston and Midland.

 
The Mexicans live near the farm/ranch communities, the blacks live in the rich athlete communities, the gays live where all the cool bars/restaurants/galleries are. The whites are scattered, the poors in town and the rich Yankees where you are looking up North. The rich native Texans live in Houston and Midland.
Houston? Good Lord, I don't want to live in a swimming pool, just enjoy one from time to time.

How can Dallas be more segregated than Chicago? That's unpossible.

 
Apparently the Dallas area has some of the hottest women in America so be prepared to start doing weekly who's hottest polls for us. :thumbup:

 
Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".
Hm. No inventory in those areas. That's ok because they're pretty far from where I'll be working.

What about south? Any suggestions there?

 
Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".
Hm. No inventory in those areas. That's ok because they're pretty far from where I'll be working.

What about south? Any suggestions there?
I was actually going to suggest Lewisville as more diverse income-wise (bigger range). One half of Flower Mound is more diverse in the income range sense. Flower Mound has a pretty solid mix of Indian, Wasp, Eastern European (like recent, culturally still strongly Eastern European).

Coppell is basically all Wasp or Indian. Southlake is totally Wasp. Grapevine is pretty Wasp-y.

I commuted from Flower Mound to Addison one summer and it was only 20 minutes driving if you leave at right time.

ETA: none of that is South. Sorry.

 
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Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".
Hm. No inventory in those areas. That's ok because they're pretty far from where I'll be working.

What about south? Any suggestions there?
As a general rule, I'd say the further south you go, the more diverse (darker) you will get. The further north you go, the less diverse (whiter) you will get.

 
It might be helpful to know what area you are working in so that we can know if the drive is even feasible.

I agree with the guys that said Lewisville and Coppell are somewhat diverse north of the airport. South of the airport, you can go pretty much anywhere and find what you are looking for.

 
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map

Use this as a guide

also this

http://judgmentalmaps.com/post/93214491560/dallas

Some questions

You have 4 kids, what is your budget for private school? Can you swing 120k a year for it? What about 80k? Does your wife work? How would you handle getting kids to multiple schools? Would you hire someone to drive them?

If the answer is no and no and no, then don't go any further down this diversity thing. You can't have both in Dallas, or most of Texas. Deal.

There are some areas where you can send kids to elementary school, but that's it. Those are probably closest to what you want, but not ideal because of your kids age range and need to send them to private later.

These are

-OakLawn

-M-Streets

-Lakewood

If you want a mediocre to sometimes excellent K-12 public education then you have to get somewhat north.

Lake Highlands HS district is probably the best compromise of diverse+good schools, but not all elems are good there.

Pierce HS is the second best option imo. The diversity there is asian (mostly), again not all elems are good there.

From that point you are looking at either a total whitewash for improved schools across the district or you are lowering the education quality.

If private is in the mix then you have tons of options.

 
post="17185432" timestamp="1409975950"]

Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".

Hm. No inventory in those areas. That's ok because they're pretty far from where I'll be working.

What about south? Any suggestions there?

There should be inventory in Allen/Frisco in the $400-$450 range. I live in Allen and there are homes for sale in my neighborhood. I'd guess they're in that range. Allen is somewhat far north, depending on where you're working.

As has been pointed out, you'll find that you get a lot more house for the money down here. It is possible to find large lots but you have to look a little harder.

Winters are nice. We get two days of ice where everyone freaks out and the city shuts down but then it's gone in two days. It's a lot less humid which is a bonus. My wife and I are in Chicago right now and 85 yesterday felt a lot warmer than 95 in Dallas.

You're right about Bears fans everywhere - I live with one!

Good luck on the move.

 
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Great info guys, thanks so much!

Private school is probably out of the question at the older grades. With 4 kids I'd need a bigger income or my wife to work (God forbid!! I'm a FBG for pete's sake ;) )for that to happen.

Work is at approximately LBJ and the Dallas North Tollway, but may end up moving a bit west of there next year.

 
post="17185432" timestamp="1409975950"]

Look at Allen for an established, upscale community. Love that area.

Look at Prosper (north of Frisco) for the up and coming "next Plano".
Hm. No inventory in those areas. That's ok because they're pretty far from where I'll be working.What about south? Any suggestions there?

There should be inventory in Allen/Frisco in the $400-$450 range. I live in Allen and there are homes for sale in my neighborhood. I'd guess they're in that range. Allen is somewhat far north, depending on where you're working.

As has been pointed out, you'll find that you get a lot more house for the money down here. It is possible to find large lots but you have to look a little harder.

Winters are nice. We get two days of ice where everyone freaks out and the city shuts down but then it's gone in two days. It's a lot less humid which is a bonus. My wife and I are in Chicago right now and 85 yesterday felt a lot warmer than 95 in Dallas.

You're right about Bears fans everywhere - I live with one!

Good luck on the move.

Yeah I heard about the ice storm and snowfall shutting down the city. Looking forward to that :)

The single hardest thing I've had to face in starting the great purge to get our house on the market is that I'll be selling my snow blower today. It's a fantastic machine, two stage, 22 inches wide, and it is easily one of my top five purchases of all time.

I'm going to really miss that thing. :'(

 
My mom lives in Carrolton. My parents moved there in 1982.

Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there, as much as my Mom tried early on to get me to move there.

 

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