Moving to Dallas Area

Consider Coppell (between irving and lewisville), i went to highschool here so dont know about the elementary schools but it is one of the top districts in the dfw area. Valley Ranch is really nice same area as Coppell. Plano, Mckinney, Allen on the north side of Dallas. Go west a little and I would recommend Southlake, Grapevine, Keller. I would not suggest living in the city of Dallas. The school district is horrible, high crime rate, and while there are some VERY NICE neighborhoods they are quiet expensive and few and far between. Avoid anything on the south side of the downtown area.

We have our house in the market in Richardson. GREAT school district. 30 minutes from Irving. We're within walking distance from the elementary and senior high schools. If you had to, you could walk to the SuperTarget and Sprout. It's rumored that trader joes will come to Plano. Central Market is down the road. Richardson is part of Dallas county but is its own city. If your hubby wants to take public transport, there is a Dart rail station about 10 minutes from our house. You can get to the main highway easily. There are several public pools and a sprinkler park within 10 minutes drive. Bus public transport is within a 5-10 minute walk. IM me if you want more info and I'll send you the link to our MLS Listing. Good luck with he move.

Hi!
I live "in" Dallas (not in the suburbs), and here is my two cents:

Unfortunately, Dallas is not much of a walking city and there isnt any place in Dallas that I know of that really fits that criteria.

You could look into the M Streets and Lakewood. Both are great neighborhoods not far from THREE Targets! And - there is a Trader Joe's under construction on Lower Greenville, which in the M Streets and real close to Lakewood.

DISD schools, in general, are considered "bad" but the elementary schools for the M Streets and Lakewood are GREAT. In addition, DISD has an excellent Magnet program for middle and high school, and 2 of our high schools are ranked in top ten in the country, and a few more in the top 100.

There are several nice private preschools in the Lakewood area. I would just google Lakewood Preschools and go from there.

Also - can get to Irving in @ 30 minutes, and in close to lots of cool restaurants, White Rock Lake, the Arboretum, and the Dallas Zoo. And, of course, the swanky North Park Mall - where there is always some good people watching...

Edit to add: Please check out Dallas itself, and not just the suburbs. I am THRILLED with my neighborhood and my Blue Ribbon neighborhood school and think all the people in the suburbs just don't know what they are missing.

I grew up in th Chicago area, but I never liked COLD. So, TX works great for me. I live in Dallas but am in the Plano school system. There's an area of Dallas that is Collin County, where you get the best of both worlds. If you live in the city of Dallas and Dallas County, you will be DISD which is not a school system you'll want. The 2nd Trader Joe's in the Metroplex opens in Plano in September. The only other Trader Joe's is over towards Fort Worth. I wouldn't go much farther North than Plano or Allen if you have to travel downtown...traffic here is awful! You could check out Highland Park and University Park, which are pricey areas, but housing is probably on-par with Chicago housing prices down there. So, not as much sticker shock down there. They have independent school systems that are good and have you closer to the city. You also could look out towards Coppell as an option, too. I know an awesome Montessori preschool if you end up on Plano. PM me if you want the info.

Thank you everyone so far! This is super helpful. The insider mom view is invaluable. I really appreciate your input!

We moved to DFW area less than two years ago from Austin, and we live in west Plano, it's completely opposite of what Austin was, but we like how everything is conveniently located, we don't have kids yet so I can't speak for schools, but know Plano ISD is a great school system.

Something to consider that I don't see being listed here by pps, we do have a lot of toll roads, so depending on where you live, you can have a large monthly toll bill.

Come on down! The heat is ridiculous - 105 today. But, you really don't need a winter coat, gloves, snow boots, chains for your tires, a snow shovel, etc. We have a winter, but it's very mild and lasts about a month. I do not see lizards unless we go camping. There are Targets every 5 miles inthe suburbs of Dallas. They are building a Trader Joes.

There are lakes you can live near here too. Very nice ones!
http://traveltex.com/things-to-do/attractions/Lakes-near-...

Where to live? hmmmm.
Plano was just voted the 2nd most vain city in the country....cosmetic procedures, hair, nails, clothing, etc. That's a lot of pressure for girls growing up through jr high and high school. I wouldn't move my daughter to Plano. North Dallas is pretty well considered to be money. Big Hair, big diamonds, country clubs. If that's you - go for it. Sorry to any of my peeps out in Plano or North Dallas. It's just stereotypes, I know. ;) I live in Grand Prairie. It is exactly 11 miles to downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth. I love the versatility it gives us. We can go either direction, depending on our mood. Fort Worth is awesome. It has a whole differant feel than Dallas. Between the 2, you can get anything you want in the world!
www.greatschools.org

Driving into dowtown is a pain. He can take the train into downtown and save a headache. Look for cities that have a dart station.

I live near, though not in, Lakewood, and my child attends Lakewood Elementary. We love the school. I am also walking distance from White Rock Lake, several restaurants, and a good neighborhood Y. Target isn't too far, and the new Trader Joe's won't be too far either. Probably a drive rather than a walk, though my really fit neighbor likes to walk to Lower Greenville from our street. :/ I don't live in Little Forest Hills or Forest Hills, but there are some good house values to be had there, and there are all sorts of shops and restaurants to walk to along Garland Road, as well as the Arboretum. I have gotten mixed reviews on the local elementary school (Sanger), though.

Lizards? LOL
You've received some good advice already. Not sure of your budget, but if you were near a lake in Chicago then you can probably afford an upper middle class home here. I'd suggest Coppell, Grapevine, Lake Highlands, Frisco, west side of Plano, Castle Hills area of Carrollton. Those all have good public school systems and aren't too far from Irving. If you really want City of Dallas, there are some really cute neighborhoods but expect to do the private school route. Oakcliff, Kessler Park, Park Cities areas, Highland Park, White Rock Lake area. The original homes in these areas will be smaller than the ones listed above but will have a lot of charm and lots of big trees/mature landscaping.
One last thing - expect to drive...alot. DFW is very spread out. It's not uncommon to have 45 minute one way commutes for work or go to malls/attractions that are over a 30 minute drive each way.

Can't help you with the heat, but I can help you with location! We just moved to a neighborhood near Walnut Hill and Webb Chapel in Dallas. Depending on the size of house you want to how much $ you want to spend, there are lots of options from Webb Chapel to Midway, just South of Walnut Hill up to Forest. It is a really nice area! And I'm surprised at house quickly you could get to Irving (15 min or so). There are several Targets close by, and there is supposed to be a Trader Joe's at Walnut Hill and 75 (just about 15 min east of here if traffic isn't bad).

Please don't listen to people badmouthing the Dallas school district, especially those living in the suburbs. Do your own research. This neighborhood has some great elementary schools, a good middle school, and apparently one of the best high schools in the country - all public schools! DISD gets a bad rep, and it's not warranted for some areas of the city.

Feel free to send me a PM if you want more details - I've lived in Dallas proper for 12 years now and we've done lots of research lately with our recent move.

We moved here from NYC a year ago after finishing school. We too would have loved shopping "within walking distance" but we had to weigh our pros and our cons. We looked at 2 places: :Lake Highlands and Richardson. Schools were important to us. We heard some of the top schools were in Richardson ISD. We wanted affordable housing and my hubby wanted public transportation. He drives 5 min. to the DART and parks and takes it downtown. We have very affordable housing. We pay less than half for what we paid in NYC and doubled our sq. footage. We have a backyard! We have a 2 car garage! We have space! We found all of that in Richardson which is very family friendly and we love our neighborhood. Homes from the 50's and large shady trees everywhere. We love it here. It's not far from downtown and lots to do here. Very very affordable. My daughter is in gymnastics ($34/month), ballet/tap ($40/ month), swimming lessons ($50 for 2 weeks), storytime at the great library here, etc... She'll be in a preschool here 3 days a week for under $200 a month. Great diversity here, great food, nice people, etc. Yes, we miss the city life, but our quality of life is so much better here than it would be in any big city while we attack our student loans. Highly recommend it here. If you have any more questions, let me know! Welcome to Texas!