To my surprise, I’m house shopping. Anyplace in particular I should consider?
There are a LOT of variables, including where you work, whether you want DART rail/bus access, whether you eat out or cook at home, how often you are going to be at DMS, etc.
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Certainly be prepared as well. Houses in my area don’t last on the market more than about a week.
I would say it would depend on your budget and what
kind of a neighborhood you want to live in, Plano and Firsco
properties and I think Richardson will be at premium prices,
If you are willing to live in an area with lots of diversity, then you might want to
look at NW Dallas and even down into Oak Cliff, North Oak Cliff is a hot area
so expect higher prices, Of course the Bishop Arts area is very hip and trendy.
It is a lot more like Austin than the rest of Dallas,
Think about the places you like to go and how to get there, Getting from Plano to the
space is either lots of stoplights or high tolls, In spite of all the road work on I 35
I still find it to be a fairly fast road, except during rush hours and they are off for OC, they
start earlier,
Can you tell I LOVE Oak Cliff? Its is the prettiest part of Dallas
Seriously. I just closed on my first house last week. The market is insane. I was shocked at the demand. The seller of my home had the house on the market for 2 days, and there were 5 competing offers.
Where do you work and how much do you want to spend? And do you prefer cheap house / long toll-ridden commute, or expensive house, short easy commute? Regardless of any of that, I wouldn’t buy a house in the Dallas ISD.
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Ugh. That doesn’t sound terribly promising.
Spouse will be working in Irving, so something in that area close to the space is an option. What I’d be giving up is an apartment on the 31st floor in the business district downtown. I also have a garden space in Deep Ellum that is providing all my salad greens right now. I’m going to miss that, as well as the couple of miles walking round trip as exercise. I can also walk to the Y for a swim.
What I’m looking forward to is a couple of parking spaces that don’t make me cry. Parking in this building is rotten. I use mass transportation a lot. If we live in Irving, I’d want to be close to the train because I love getting to the airport for $2.50 and not having to talk to anyone.
Nothing in the Dallas ISD is a good reminder. I suppose a minimum commute to Irving is important. I’m fortunate that price isn’t an issue, but value is always important. (Although it sounds like my timing is going to be off for that value goal.)
I heard someone speak rather poorly of Carrollton the other day, but what is the prospect for something in the Irving/Carrollton/Farmer’s Branch area? Either a house or a condo would do.
Nothing wrong with Carrollton, at least in my experience. Anything in that general area has more foundation shifting than the norm, just keep that in the back of your head.
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The Dallas ISD has some great magnet schools, Townview is one of the top schools
in the county and Booker K Washington school for the performing arts is the equal of
the the one one in NYC.
Most any of the further northern suburbs will be at a premium price, You might think about
looking in the older areas of Irving, Avoid Las colinas and the Valley Ranch area, the soil
there is very expansive there will be foundation issues
Dallas had soils that expand and contract with moisture, Foks water their foundations in
the summer!
Granted, I am in an apartment, but I have lived in Carrollton for the last 9 years and have been quite happy here. I live close to belt line/marsh so I have easy access to Addison and all of it’s offerings on belt line. The makerspace is just a few minutes down the road and you have easy access to 35, 635, George Bush Turnpike, and Dallas North Tollway. Might be work looking in the Carrollton/Farmers Branch/Addison area, I commute to Arlington daily for work and it is normally a smooth drive, as most of the traffic is going the opposite direction.
My company’s HQ is in downtown Chicago. Parking here is cheap and easy!
if you like gunshots come and see me.
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When we house-hunted awhile back, we particularly considered Carrollton since it was close to both our works and were familiar (had apt there). We wanted that area since we both did contract IT and it’d be centralized (ish) if contacts changed.
Anyway, wound up in Lewisville. Like the community, nice variety of areas/prices. It takes 20 min to get to dms if no construction. It’s 30 min to Irving near 183/Beltline area (25 min to north Irving las colinas area). The tollway makes the drive not too bad.
Big decision makers turned out to be that very comparable houses (size/age/design) between Carrollton and Lewisville, there was $20K diff in price for same house all for being a slightly north drive up the highway.
**note, that could have changed in recent years due to some large companies relocating headquarters to Frisco/Plano direction, and we’re next area over for cheaper prices/slight commute (found this out hard way when we were gonna contest tax valuation and turns out value DID go up (yay?) but adds to taxes too). But that could be lots of places. Realtor can run comps between similar houses in diff communities though.
Also watch parts of Carrollton with foundation issues. Some were fine, some seemed to affect whole neighborhoods.
If consider Lewisville, strongly suggest staying south of the lake or traffic issues over the lake can significantly lengthen commute at certain times.
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Little known fact: the City of Dallas charges property tax on automobiles; most (all?) of the 'burbs do not.
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What? I owned a house in Dallas for five years and never paid property tax on my car.
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This thread is almost a decade old, but alleges Dallas did once charge property tax on automobiles, collected at time of registration renewal.
I’ve never heard of it, either, and thought nowhere in the Republic of Texas did so, though I’ve never actually lived in Dallas proper…
They did something similar in Milwaukee.
I’ve always been fascinated by the way different government entities find their money and how it varies across the nation.
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They did, in the 1990s. They don’t anymore.
@clk75201 In addition to “avoid DISD,” now that I think about it, I would avoid Dallas proper altogether. The police and fire pension mess has a great chance of screwing up Dallas property taxes for decades. Even if the Lege does bail Dallas out so they don’t have to raise property taxes by 130% (like hizzonor the Mayor says), I doubt Dallas gets completely out from under that mess.
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Got it. Although property taxes here are minimal compared to what I pay in Wisconsin, it’s still good to remember the political mess Dallas is now. Permitting, taxes, schools…it’s all in there.
New to Dallas from Seattle WA. We looked all over & bought in Carrollton because it’s close to airport ( still travel for work). Our neighbors are friendly, home is not huge like the new stuff being built ( I don’t have time to clean 3000+ sq ft). Addison was too much like Seattle where townhouses reign & not enough yards for garden but we liked the restaurants, Irving, where we stayed for the first couple of months, had crazy traffic most days, Grapevine & Southlake were nice but so many shopping centers made for congestion on weekends. Realtor pushed hard on Frisco but we didn’t love it because most of the homes looked like the home next door & I imagined if I drank one too many margaritas I would wind up in my neighbors’ house!
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