Safe Family Friendly Neighborhoods in Dallas TX

If you are looking for really great schools I suggest Plano, Coppell, or Frisco although the cost of living is a little higher in these areas the schools are worth it.

Note: city, county and school boundary lines can be different from each other, they can divide a neighborhood on a borderline.

Lakewood is very nice w an excellent elementary. It's very close to downtown. Very active family area. Zip 75214. Also, Lake Highlands is a new growing, very nice community. Close to downtown also. Middle school & high school, I would go private.

I live in a wonderful suburb Northwest of Dallas called Flower Mound (zip code 75022). It is the LISD school district and has excellent schools. Anywhere you live in Flower Mound, you cannot go wrong with schools. They are all great. Wellington is a very nice area of Flower Mound (Wellington is a development), along with Bridlewood (Bridlewood is on a golf course - very nice). I live in a development called Stafford Estates, which is also nice. Bridlewood is the nicest, then Wellington. If you have mega mega bucks, you will want to live in the super rich part of Flower Mound, which is off of Wichita Rd. Flower Mound is a kid friendly town with festivals and a Christmas parade. Perfect place to raise a family. Southlake is also an excellent suburb with excellent suburbs - more expensive than Flower Mound (25 minutes from Flower Mound). Highland Village (13 minutes from Flower Mound) is also an excellent suburb w/ excellent schools. Good luck.

I think I live in the best neighborhood in Dallas. It's called Sparkman Club Estates and it's in the 75229 zipcode. The neighborhood is just a little over 50 years old and is truly unique. You have many 2nd generation families who have moved back to the neighborhood they grew up in to raise their own families. Lots of kids. Everyone knows their neighbors. We have a neighborhood club (membership optional not a HOA) with 3 pools, clubhouse, tennis courts and a park. Our elementary school, E.L. DeGolyer, is ranked Exemplary and we have very involved families. I would recommend checking it out. Good luck with your search and your move.

75235 has Love Field Airport w/ lots of air and car traffic w/ poor air quality plus a lot of industry and hospitals.
East of 75235 is Highland Park - very nice and safe but very, very expensive (old money).
75237 - not so good, I wouldn't live there.
75212 - unless you are in Kessler Park, I wouldn't think of the surrounding area.

I have lived in the Dallas area all of my life. If you are looking for a safe area you can look at Plano, Frisco, Rockwall, Heath, McKinney and Allen.

Dallad has high crime and pretty bad schools. If you are in the DISD area you will most likely have to put your kids in private schools. Although most elementary schools are okay I wouldn't think of sending my kid to a middle school or high school in DISD.

There are pockets all of over including Richardson, Dallas, Carrollton, Mesquite & Garland but you really have to know where you are looking.

Good luck!

If he could handle the commute Grapevine, Southlake and Colleyville are excellent places to live.

I have lived in Dallas on and off since 8 years old and we moved back to Dallas less than a mile from where I grew up. I have learned over the years that most Dallas neighborhoods aren't going to be "safe". There is crime everywhere - even in the very wealthy areas.

I have friends in Flower Mound and they love it there. I also have friends in Allen who drive to Dallas daily and don't seem to mind it. I couldn't do such a long commute after commuting from Virginia to Maryland for four years, so we live nine miles north of Dallas in Lake Highlands.

Housing costs are pretty low for the location, but we have lots of run down apartments that surround many of the neighborhoods. The nice thing about LH is the family/community feel. Many of the people who live here grew up here. In my neighborhood I know of at least four people who graduated in my class at LHHS and many who were in my sisters' classes too.

Moss Haven Elementary school is highly sought after in my neighborhood. Even though I went there, I opted to send my daughter to private school, but everyone I know who sends their kids to MHE loves it.

Good luck!

We moved to the DFW area almost 7 years ago. We based our home search almost solely on school districts. We looked in Flower Mound, Southlake and Grapevine, which are all nice areas with good schools. However, they are all very landlocked and concrete. We chose to head south a bit and landed in Mansfield. Awesome schools and great neighborhoods. One of the fastest growing cities in Texas, but still has a very "hometown" atmosphere. We have many friends here that commute to Dallas and Fort Worth, as we are almost right in the middle of the two downtown areas. Anywhere you live, around Dallas, you will face traffic and commute times. Good luck!

Mansfield ISD is awesome. Fantastic schools and nice area to live that is not as fast paced and "city" like southlake and grapevine, frisco areas that are north. We like the slower paced living with all the benenfits of the city and fantastic schools. We actually live in Grand Prairie, but we are in Mansfield school district. If you move south instead of north just be sure you are in Mansfield ISD and not anywhere else! The homes are so so so much more affordable here too. You can get double the house for the same amount of money! Good luck!

Where will you be working? Commutes can be very long in Dallas. A lot of the great family friendly neighborhoods are North of the city of Dallas but if you go too far north you could have a very long commute to work. Neighborhoods like Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Southlake all have decent school districts. The school systems in Dallas are not that great and the ones i mentioned above are good but a lot of them are very large. That is why you will find a lot of private school alternatives in Dallas. The Highland Park school district is also ranked very high however the cost of housing is also very high but that is one of the better public Dallas school systems.

Good Luck!

Flower Mound was recently found by the FBI to be the safest community for its size. Their schools are in the exemplany category as well. I love living in FlowerMound and would recommend you start your search there. I would never recommend living in Dallas, especially if you have children.

I have lived in the Dallas area for over 40 years. I am a Mom and Grandmother. I really would not live anywhere in the Dallas school district.
You need to be in Richardson,Plano or Carrollton Farmers Branch schools. The ultimate best is Highland Park schools which is in the middle of Dallas but very expensive. We now have the dart train all the way from Carrollton to downtown Dallas.

Hello,

I grew up in Dallas and currently live in Sparkman Club Estates - 75229 zip code. It is not far from where I grew up. It is probably one community that acts like a small town in a big city. We have a neighborhood pool that really brings us together in the summer. A monthly newsletter, events and I know not only neighbors on my street, but all over the subdivision. We have an exemplary public elementary school - DeGolyer that both my boys attend. Plently of private schools and a couple of charter schools as well. We have lived here for 10 years and it will take alot for us to move. There are a few rent homes available and plenty of realtors live in this neighborhood. It is really a gem and hard to describe the feel until you experience it. Downtown is a quick commute from her and both airports, especially Love Field are in close proximity as well. Best of luck and happy to give you more infomation if needed ____@____.com

You may also want to look in 75229.

if you want to not have more than a 30 - 40 min commute to downtown, you need to live inside what they call the "635 (lbj freeway) loop"..inside that loop is a pretty decent commute to downtown and other areas. the 75228, 75218 zips are older neighborhoods with good size lots and large trees but you are in the dallas independent school district and its not the best - its not horrible - but its not the best. there are tons of private schools that serves those areas (montessoris, etc). 75238 is an older neighborhood also....over 50 yrs old. great lots, large trees, good communities and you are still in Dallas, but in the Richardson Independ School District (rated much better than Dallas ISD). SOmeone else mentioned the apartments and yes, there are a lot, but if you search the neighborhood and the surrounding zip codes you can find areas where the apartments are not so dense. the area is referred to as Lake Highlands. Great areas with original homeowners and younger families. Feels like a small town. about a 20 min commute to downtown. A lot of our friends who lived in Plano, Allen and Frisco have moved down here to cut their commute. If you want newer homes, go north of the loop to Allen, Frisco, McKinney. If you have any more questions - you can email me and i can give you the link to a website where you can search homes by zipcode. Good luck!

My husband works in Dallas and we live in Bedford - 76021. It's a solid middle class area. Not ideal for working in Dallas - but he can park and ride the train into work, which he enjoys. The drive is about 45 minutes.

Working in Dallas *usually* doesn't mean living in Dallas. There are lots of very nice surrounding cities. My husband is a programmer and there are lot of jobs in the Plano area for his profession. If I had to do it over, I would probably move North of Dallas (Plano area).

I live in North Oak Cliff, home to Kessler Park, Stevens Park, and Winnetka Heights (area codes 75208). Our community is essentially a large Dallas historic/conservation/arts district located less than 10 minutes from downtown. We have good schools and an amazing Oak Cliff wide PTA called the Rosemont Early Childhood PTA. Our community is driven by front porches, block parties, and strong neighborhood associations.

If you are looking for a suburban environment, it won't be for you- but if you're looking for a eclectic, artsy, community oriented and a little granola crunchy area, this is the place for you!

I was in your situation a year ago! Totally understand the blind feeling of it all. Since we didn't know the area at all we rented (still are). Our criteria was a one story (we didn't want huge electric bills in the summer for cooling empty space), a big back yard and in a good school district. We eneded up in Southlake which is just about 30 minutes from Dallas. My husband works in Irving (close to Dallas) and the schools there were not what we were looking for so its worth the commute. Now we didn't know anything about Southlake when we moved here...its very very prestigious, there isn't even one apt complex, very clean and nice. We just found what we were looking for at the right price per month. Honestly if I tell people I live in Southlake I'm instantly judged, its really werid. But doesn't bother me because my boys are thriving in school and the district is top notch. I'm not rich and we live in a great modest cul-de-sac with great neighbors. There are great rentals that come up in Southlake and I know there are a some in Grapevine. Grapevine is great too! Some of Grapevine falls in the Carroll School district so you may want to look into that. Comperable schools is Trophy Club, and Coppell. I have heard great things about Flower Mound as well. Further out is Frisco, Plano and I have heard good things about there and the schools too. I don't think its that horrible of a commute to Dallas but not sure.

we absolutely love our neighborhood. great location, trees, active hoa, awesome schools, good quality one story home built in the 70s, good sized yard, friends close by, etc. my husband also works downtown and we decided to move a bit closer a few years ago because with rush hour traffic, his commute was about an hour each way. which really starts to add up when you have little ones. we lived in the panhandle of richardson, right by murphy and plano. there are plenty of beautiful, nice, big, more affordable new homes out that way and in several of the suburbs of dallas but the drive just wasn't worth it. still, more than 2 years later, my husband and i comment to each other about how much we love it here. we are barely outside the 635 loop but his drive can be as little as 20 minutes on a perfect day but averages closer to 30. our area code is 75248 and our kids will go to richardson schools. before becoming a mom, i was a teacher, so when we were looking to buy a different house, schools were a top priority. if you go to the richardson isd website and click on each individual elementary school, you can see the school's stats and get a small picture of what it is like (test scores, programs offered, educational rating, etc). another thing about looking at homes and considering the schools, double check that the schools listed on the sellers information is correct. sometimes it isn't and i've known people who have bought a house thinking that their kids would go to one school but they were actually zoned for another, even if the other one is technically closer. the richardson isd website has a feature where you enter in an address and the schools pop up and i always used that as a double check.
my neighbor is a real estate agent and is really familiar with this particular area if you are at all interested.
good luck!!! you are smart to be doing your research now and to plan on renting until you get a better feel for dallas!
also, send me a personal message if you have any other questions :)

When we were considering moving here we went to a site called good schools and used that. It was very helpful with not only statistics but parent reviews. We used it to narrow down our list then visited the three schools we had chosen and one definitely stood out. I grew up in Dallas and after 29 years of being gone I love being back in the metroplex. Welcome to Texas.

We moved here 10 years ago knowing absolutely nothing about Dallas. We chose Highland Park based on the schools and solid home values. We now have a freshman, 7th grader and 3rd grader who have gone through HPISD schools and we've been extremely pleased. The schools are better than most private schools with the benefits of public, like well developed extracurricular activites (music, theater, athletics, debate club, etc).
Right now, given lower prices, it would be a good time to get "in" so to speak. It's also very convenient to downtown.
Check out HPISD schools - you'll be pleasantly surprised!

The zip codes 75212 and 75235 are not thought of as good residential areas although I'm sure there are acceptable neighborhoods in both. 75237 is south and not usually first on most lists but it all depends on your family's priorities. You might want to check out zip codes 75218 and 75238. They are centrally located and contains some very nice, older homes. Is your main goal is to be close to where your husband will work? A neighborhood with lots of kids? Access to the best schools? Newer as opposed to older homes? Dallas schools are not at the top of the heap so if it's financially feasible you might want to look into private schools. Best of luck to you!

I just saw this in my inbox, and it seems like no one mentioned Coppell 75019. It is in a great location, close to the airport. My husband commutes to downtown and has done so for 12 years now. The schools are great, and they are planning on building a Town Square soon. For sure worth a look, depending on whether you want to live in a suburb or Dallas proper. Coppell is closer to downtown than Southlake, Grapevine, Colleyville, Flowermound.

the very best is Highland park if you can afford it. By the college, SMU, you could rent a condo and be in the Highland park school district.
Seems like everyone in Dallas send their children to private schools.
We moved from Kessler park (Oak Cliff) area to Colleyville for the school.
Southlake, Colleyville and Grapevine are all excellent schools and not to far of a commute.
good luck