We are looking at moving to the Dallas area.  One of use will work in north Irving and the other downtown Dallas.

What suggestion do the DFW people have as where to get a house.  We will need to be a nice clean area with good schools.  HOA's do not bother us as I hate to be in areas that people live like crap and don't care if their run down house lowers your property value.


We are thinking about Frisco.  Would this area be to much of a traffic nightmare?

Thanks for any suggestions.

I cannot really speak for the traffic but I live in Frisco and love it. I work in Plano and just drive up/down Preston to commute.

Toll roads are a thing here so don't forget to budget for them if you plan to drive on them.

Last time I went downtime during the work day it took about 50 minutes at 8am to get from Frisco to the downtown area of Dallas.

Frisco to Irving.....you'd be fighting Dallas North Tollway and George Bush Turnpike both directions. Or Sam Rayburn Tollway, 35E and George Bush Turnpike both ways.

Frisco to Downtown Dallas.....eff DNT all the way down to downtown Dallas.


ETA: Frisco is a very nice area and is expanding at a crazy rate right now.

I have family in the Frisco area now.  It seems that the DNT is the only real way to get to downtown Dallas.  If you go out before 8 or 7 how bad is the traffic?

Before 7 would be fine. 7-8 is when the tollway is at its busiest.

North Irving (Las Colinas) is pretty nice. No tolls to go to downtown Dallas. Might be slightly faster, too.

Yes, and the worst is yet to come.

Why is that ?  Just growth?[

Yes, future growth in that area is going to be intense.

Any other suggestions?  Or anywhere but that area.

Closer to work

I think I will try that.. The issue with the DFW area is it seems to have more hood rats and FSA In Multiple locations.  I know where in Houston, SA and Austin that I would get a house but DFW has allways seemed confusing.   Unfortunately the Park cities area is just out of what I am willing to spend.

The traffic can be pretty awful during rush hour, just took me 2 hours to get home (had to go across the metroplex), if you have a office then live close to it.  I have clients all over, and work out of my house, so I spend a lot of time on the road

Don't know what you can afford but Coppell puts you 10-15 minutes from N. Irving and in 5 minutes or less you can be on Hwy 35 heading south to downtown.  

You are also 5-10 minutes to Bass Pro, 10-15 minutes to a decent gun range, 10 minutes to the airport, 5 minutes from a major mall (Vista Ridge) and as usual in DFW, 5 minutes from 50 restaurants. Very good schools if you have kids.  No FSA in Coppell and you would be 20 minutes from Frisco.

Thanks

I will take a look

i live in Frisco and commute to downtown daily. it's 35min w/o traffic, 45min with moderate traffic, and you can just say it's an hour daily an hour in each direction. DNT and 75 are your best bets to get downtown, and both get backed up unless you get into the office for 7am and leave by 3:30pm b/c even at 4pm, DNT gets backed up at Addison till Bush and 75 get backed up around 75 to 635 all the way to Bush.

Thanks

What do you call backed up ?  I know in Austin backed up is when you are going less then 5-10 mph for extended periods of time.

in the afternoons, DNT will be backed up, exactly what you're talking about from 635 till you get past Addison, so after Bush, the tollway will be free. 75 isn't as bad all the time, if you carpool use the HOV, actually i see a lot of people who drive by themselves and they use the HOV.  to me, it wasn't worth the $4 or so in tolls to use DNT when it saves me less than 5min.

That helps to know.  If you had known what you know now would you still have a house in Frisco?

We are starting to think we should look around the Coppell area.  It looks like it will be easy to get to the Irving area (hidden ridge). And easy for downtown.  We think.

Anyone know if there are areas of Coppell that should be avoided.  Is it all about the same in that school district.   We just don't want to have some FSA section 8 get built near us like Obama and HUD are pushing.

There are areas of Coppell that are old and also relatively new.  I have lived there for over 20 years.  You can find houses from 250K to 3 million.  There are some areas not as affluent as others but the median house price is now over 400K and the average family income is fairly high.  There just aren't many FSA deadbeats around here.  It is mostly built out, very little land or lots available so not much new construction is going on.  Brand new construction that is happening will run you around 450-500K and up but they are really nice.

If you have kids, all the schools are quite good from elementary all the way through high school for both academics and sports.  Crime here is very low with the occasional bicycle getting stolen.  

Go to realtor.com, use Coppell in your search criteria and see what is out there.  I recently saw a couple for 275-300k that were pretty nice.  Even considered one of them myself.  Having said all this, it is very much a sellers market in all areas around north Dallas.  Nice houses in Coppell can and do sell in 1-3 days and it is like that in a LOT of areas.  I know of no one who has lost money on a house around here.  During you research, if you have questions about specific pockets or areas, IM me any time.

ETA:  we have a fairly nice golf course, a couple of good lakes in the area if you are a boater and Grab-a-Gun is just down the street from me.   Coppell is like many areas, you can have 400-700K homes on one street and two streets over, they are 200-250K.  Just be selective.

Wife's former coworker moved from coppell(banking major $$$)to a condo in lewisville. She works all over, offices in home. She's happy with the move but no kids.

Yup, there are some very nice condos / town homes on the Coppell - Lewisville border.  You can cross the border between the two towns and prices drop significantly if you are in the Lewisville school district.  There are also some very nice homes on the border between the two.  Coppell is about 152 per square foot and you literally go a quater mile up the street to Lewisville and prices can be 100-120 per square foot.  The Coppell schools seem to bring a premium.