Who can tell me about Dallas, Texas?

trickg · 02-08-2006, 01:20 PM

I just got off of the phone a while ago with a friend of mine and what he told me has really got me thinking about some things.

Here is the gist of what he told me:

He's going to relocate to the Dallas area and just put a contract on a home, equivalent to mine in terms of square footage and yard space with a ton of other amenities that mine doesn't have....and in terms of price is WAY under what mine is.

Due to some things that have happened out here in the Baltimore/DC area in the past few years, my wife and I have been kicking around the idea of maybe relocating somewhere, but we don't really have a direction thus far - just somewhere off of the East coast. What he told me regarding Dallas really has me intrigued. For one, due to the skyrocketing real estate market here, I could sell my home and virtually buy an equivalent home out there with the equity I have in my current house. To add to that, while my wife and I might take a small percentage pay hit if we relocated our jobs (me a Database administrator, her an elementary school teacher) to that area, by way of percentage, we would make far more in an area where the cost of living is far less.

So, with all of this, what can you guys tell me about Dallas in terms of schools, cost of living, real estate, suburbs, and job markets, and above all, music opportunities?

rjzeller · 02-08-2006, 02:54 PM

Patrick -- Good Luck whatever you decide to do!!!

I and my wife have been pondering a move to Tucson or Phoenix for years now, but just haven't pulled the trigger on it. I'm a DBA too, small world, eh?

I don't know much about Dallas, but I would adminish you to consider many areas before committing to a move. Quality of the schools, real estate TAXES, sales taxes, income taxes (actually, I seem to recall that Texas is fairly low on the list of tax burdens, but cannot be sure w/out further verification), auto insurance, gas prices, food prices, quality of living, etc....

I'm betting that compared to Baltimore/DC, you'll come out way ahead financially, but you should do some serious research, first. (I think realtor.com and salary.com both have cost of living estimators that take in a wide array of factors). You can also try findyourspot.com to see if what you really want can be met by the Dallas metro....

Another thing you might want to do is wait for your friend to get settled in, then go visit him/her for a few days and see if you really DO like the area. You may get there and just hate it. Or you may get there (like I did when I visited AZ for the first time), and think to yourself, "my God, I just HAVE to live here." It's not quite like LIVING there, but at least you'd have an idea.

..of course, if you moved there, you'd be surrounded by a world of Cowboys fans...not sure I could stomach that....

Z

wrbandel · 02-08-2006, 03:03 PM

Patrick,

Our own Gzent used to live in Dallas, or near there. Await his reply, I'm sure he'll give some good insite.

Warren

gzent · 02-08-2006, 03:08 PM

I lived in the Northeast side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area for just under 13 years.

The schools were overall lousy. If you lived in a wealthy, well funded district then they were decent, everywhere else they were horrid. When we moved out of TX I did a lot of research on where to live and raise our kids, which led me back to MN. Anyhow, one interesting fact - the highest mean SAT scores for public schools in the DFW area was at or lower than the average for the state of MN. Many of the small, rural schools around here have test scores that would put the best public schools in Dallas to shame.

More, the public schools are huge. Plano, a city of close to 200,000 had 2 high schools when we left. Why? Well, to win more football games of course via a bigger pool of athletes. Rochester, where I work, has a population in the 80,000's and has 3 public HS's and several private. I live in a small town of ~5700 about 12 miles south of Rochester. My kids really like it there and the school is superior to the larger Rochester public schools in many ways.

A side note, the public schools in TX were improving when we left in '99, following Governor Bush's push for mandatory testing.

Real Estate - yes housing was cheap and I mean that in every way. We had a 2 story, 4 bedroom tract home, almost 2500sqft and sold it for about $145K when we left. It was, however, very poorly constructed with the cheapest materials and labor possible. You had to spend major money on a true custom if you wanted windows, siding and shingles, etc to last more tan 10 years.

Suburbs - the only tolerable place to live as far as I was concerned. The bad part was the real estate taxes were very high since there is no state income tax. So, if you wanted a decent school system and low crime you had to live in a very expensive suburb, end of story.

Job Market - Was always very strong and fast paced. Lots of high-tech jobs with the presence of TI, EDS, BNR, Northern Telecom, IBM, etc. It was pretty dynamic however, nobody stays at a company for very long down there, it seems.

Music - not sure I wasn't really into performing back then. I do know they had some incredible HS bands. The town where we lived, Allen, routinely gets invited to march in Macy's or the Rose parade.

Then there is the weather. Can you say HOT! Imagine 99 degrees every day in the summer with about 5 days of rain. October was nice, the winters can be, but usually have 2-3 ice storms a year. Spring was monsoon season.

Oh, did I mention FIRE ANTS?!? These are the most destructive and evil little creatures on earth! I could write volumes on the evils of these red tormentors. People up here complain about mosquitos in the summer - I just laugh at them. One step in the wrong place in your yard can cause you more pain in a matter of seconds than a lifetime of mosquito bites!!

Hmm...what else....? Well, that about covers it - a very strong high tech job market, cheap housing, horrid schools, urban crime issues, intolerable summers and fire ant...yep, that's how I remember it.

Greg

trickg · 02-08-2006, 03:10 PM

The idea of living in Texas has always resonated with me, and I'm not sure why. I've stayed in San Antonio twice for nearly two weeks each trip, and I really liked San Antonio.

My wife and I have been chatting via email about this today and for the first time ever since I have been with her, she is finally open to the possibility of going somewhere else, and to that end she did say that we should keep ALL options open before making that kind of a commitment. I have really disliked living in this area for a long time, which is probably natural since it is densely populated and I'm from rural Nebraska, and this idea has become a ray of sunshine of future possibilities.

I'll do some more research on the subject and different areas that we could consider, but Texas seems to fit for a number of reasons.

As for waiting for him to get settled, I don't think he's going to go soon - I'll have to call him again and get some details, but if we are going to do this, I would want to complete the whole thing before the start of the 2006-2007 school year, which gives us about 7-8 months to do our research to see if this is something that we really want to do.

gzent · 02-08-2006, 03:15 PM

Patrick,

Let me reinforce what Richard said, do lots of research, books, the internet, census stats, etc. and find out what is important to your family and how an area rates. Do NOT go on recommendations of friends.

Greg

trickg · 02-08-2006, 03:18 PM

Wow. Greg, it sounds like you HATED it there! Are you only listing the negatives or can you simply not remember the positives?

In light of the fact that Dallas is only one possibility now, (my wife wants to keep ALL options open) I'm open to suggestions about other areas of the country.

To list off some negative about how I feel regarding where we now live:

Real estate is so high, single family homes are virtually unaffordable by anyone who is not in a professional career and making dual income (both he and she work)

Damp and dark most of the winter, and hot, humid and muggy in the summer

Terrible traffic

High crime (both DC and Baltimore and it's spilling in the suburbs)

Schools are less than exemplary

Densely populated

Always in a rush

Have to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere

Overall high cost of living

Rude people

Overall loss of strong morals and family values

Of course these are all just generalizations, but part of why I have always had a gripe about this area.

gzent · 02-08-2006, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trickg

Wow. Greg, it sounds like you HATED it there! Are you only listing the negatives or can you simply not remember the positives?
......Positives?.....my job at TI, cheap housing, low utility bills (except in summer), virtually no snow, good, smooth roads, excellent deals on new and used cars, I liked my Church a lot....that's about it.

In light of the fact that Dallas is only one possibility now, (my wife wants to keep ALL options open) I'm open to suggestions about other areas of the country.

......The midwest, hands down the best for rasing kids.

To list off some negative about how I feel regarding where we now live:

Real estate is so high, single family homes are virtually unaffordable by anyone who is not in a professional career and making dual income (both he and she work)

Damp and dark most of the winter, and hot, humid and muggy in the summer

Terrible traffic
.....yeah, we had plenty of that in Dallas!

High crime (both DC and Baltimore and it's spilling in the suburbs)
.....ditto

Schools are less than exemplary
....ditto....

Densely populated
...not so bad compared to most big cities..

Always in a rush
...very much so in Dallas

Have to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere
....at least, maybe more....

Overall high cost of living
....depended on where you wanted to live. If you were living in the sticks it was dirt cheap, of course, rural TX is, well, rural TX.

Rude people
....heck yeah, way more so than midwesterners. Probably because Dallas has such a wide variety of people living there from everywhere you can imagine.

Overall loss of strong morals and family values
...can you say football, football, and more football?

Of course these are all just generalizations, but part of why I have always had a gripe about this area.

You don't sound like someone who would enjoy Dallas. Its a big city in every way possible. Once you got used to the winters I would bet you'd enjoy Minneapolis/St. Paul much more so.

I knew a lot of people from the Midwest when I lived down in TX. They all seemed to complain about missing the midwest or just moved back. Native Texans had somewhat of a chip on their shoulders, maybe because they never lived anywhere else, but probably they got sick of "Damn Yankees" as they called us moving there and getting the best jobs.

trickg · 02-08-2006, 03:39 PM

I just got an email from my friend - the town where he bought the house is Rowlett, Texas.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Rowlett-Texas.html

It doesn't look too bad - population roughly 55,000, median household income is $70,000 and the median home price is $116,000.

It's also outside of Dallas, but close enough to take advantage of some of the things Dallas has to offer. I hope my friend doesn't end up hating it - he currently lives in Tampa, but the Dallas area is where his kids and ex wife are, and he wants to be more involved in their lives.

I'll do some digging - now that Pandora has escaped from her box, I've got some reading and research to do!

Solar Bell · 02-08-2006, 03:44 PM

How's your Spanish?

-cw-

02-08-2006, 01:20 PM	#1
trickg Forte User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland Posts: 2,056	Who can tell me about Dallas, Texas? I just got off of the phone a while ago with a friend of mine and what he told me has really got me thinking about some things. Here is the gist of what he told me: He's going to relocate to the Dallas area and just put a contract on a home, equivalent to mine in terms of square footage and yard space with a ton of other amenities that mine doesn't have....and in terms of price is WAY under what mine is. Due to some things that have happened out here in the Baltimore/DC area in the past few years, my wife and I have been kicking around the idea of maybe relocating somewhere, but we don't really have a direction thus far - just somewhere off of the East coast. What he told me regarding Dallas really has me intrigued. For one, due to the skyrocketing real estate market here, I could sell my home and virtually buy an equivalent home out there with the equity I have in my current house. To add to that, while my wife and I might take a small percentage pay hit if we relocated our jobs (me a Database administrator, her an elementary school teacher) to that area, by way of percentage, we would make far more in an area where the cost of living is far less. So, with all of this, what can you guys tell me about Dallas in terms of schools, cost of living, real estate, suburbs, and job markets, and above all, music opportunities? __________________ Patrick Gleason email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com "What we do in life echoes in eternity" "At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius

02-08-2006, 02:54 PM	#2
rjzeller Forte User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Rochester, MN Posts: 1,212	Patrick -- Good Luck whatever you decide to do!!! I and my wife have been pondering a move to Tucson or Phoenix for years now, but just haven't pulled the trigger on it. I'm a DBA too, small world, eh? I don't know much about Dallas, but I would adminish you to consider many areas before committing to a move. Quality of the schools, real estate TAXES, sales taxes, income taxes (actually, I seem to recall that Texas is fairly low on the list of tax burdens, but cannot be sure w/out further verification), auto insurance, gas prices, food prices, quality of living, etc.... I'm betting that compared to Baltimore/DC, you'll come out way ahead financially, but you should do some serious research, first. (I think realtor.com and salary.com both have cost of living estimators that take in a wide array of factors). You can also try findyourspot.com to see if what you really want can be met by the Dallas metro.... Another thing you might want to do is wait for your friend to get settled in, then go visit him/her for a few days and see if you really DO like the area. You may get there and just hate it. Or you may get there (like I did when I visited AZ for the first time), and think to yourself, "my God, I just HAVE to live here." It's not quite like LIVING there, but at least you'd have an idea. ..of course, if you moved there, you'd be surrounded by a world of Cowboys fans...not sure I could stomach that.... Z __________________ There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who do not.

02-08-2006, 03:08 PM	#4
gzent Forte User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Rochester, MN Posts: 1,876	I lived in the Northeast side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area for just under 13 years. The schools were overall lousy. If you lived in a wealthy, well funded district then they were decent, everywhere else they were horrid. When we moved out of TX I did a lot of research on where to live and raise our kids, which led me back to MN. Anyhow, one interesting fact - the highest mean SAT scores for public schools in the DFW area was at or lower than the average for the state of MN. Many of the small, rural schools around here have test scores that would put the best public schools in Dallas to shame. More, the public schools are huge. Plano, a city of close to 200,000 had 2 high schools when we left. Why? Well, to win more football games of course via a bigger pool of athletes. Rochester, where I work, has a population in the 80,000's and has 3 public HS's and several private. I live in a small town of ~5700 about 12 miles south of Rochester. My kids really like it there and the school is superior to the larger Rochester public schools in many ways. A side note, the public schools in TX were improving when we left in '99, following Governor Bush's push for mandatory testing. Real Estate - yes housing was cheap and I mean that in every way. We had a 2 story, 4 bedroom tract home, almost 2500sqft and sold it for about $145K when we left. It was, however, very poorly constructed with the cheapest materials and labor possible. You had to spend major money on a true custom if you wanted windows, siding and shingles, etc to last more tan 10 years. Suburbs - the only tolerable place to live as far as I was concerned. The bad part was the real estate taxes were very high since there is no state income tax. So, if you wanted a decent school system and low crime you had to live in a very expensive suburb, end of story. Job Market - Was always very strong and fast paced. Lots of high-tech jobs with the presence of TI, EDS, BNR, Northern Telecom, IBM, etc. It was pretty dynamic however, nobody stays at a company for very long down there, it seems. Music - not sure I wasn't really into performing back then. I do know they had some incredible HS bands. The town where we lived, Allen, routinely gets invited to march in Macy's or the Rose parade. Then there is the weather. Can you say HOT! Imagine 99 degrees every day in the summer with about 5 days of rain. October was nice, the winters can be, but usually have 2-3 ice storms a year. Spring was monsoon season. Oh, did I mention FIRE ANTS?!? These are the most destructive and evil little creatures on earth! I could write volumes on the evils of these red tormentors. People up here complain about mosquitos in the summer - I just laugh at them. One step in the wrong place in your yard can cause you more pain in a matter of seconds than a lifetime of mosquito bites!! Hmm...what else....? Well, that about covers it - a very strong high tech job market, cheap housing, horrid schools, urban crime issues, intolerable summers and fire ant...yep, that's how I remember it. Greg __________________ www.bethanybrass.com - Helping fellow trumpet players achieve musical excellence

02-08-2006, 03:10 PM	#5
trickg Forte User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland Posts: 2,056	The idea of living in Texas has always resonated with me, and I'm not sure why. I've stayed in San Antonio twice for nearly two weeks each trip, and I really liked San Antonio. My wife and I have been chatting via email about this today and for the first time ever since I have been with her, she is finally open to the possibility of going somewhere else, and to that end she did say that we should keep ALL options open before making that kind of a commitment. I have really disliked living in this area for a long time, which is probably natural since it is densely populated and I'm from rural Nebraska, and this idea has become a ray of sunshine of future possibilities. I'll do some more research on the subject and different areas that we could consider, but Texas seems to fit for a number of reasons. As for waiting for him to get settled, I don't think he's going to go soon - I'll have to call him again and get some details, but if we are going to do this, I would want to complete the whole thing before the start of the 2006-2007 school year, which gives us about 7-8 months to do our research to see if this is something that we really want to do. __________________ Patrick Gleason email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com "What we do in life echoes in eternity" "At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius

02-08-2006, 03:15 PM	#6
gzent Forte User Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Rochester, MN Posts: 1,876	Patrick, Let me reinforce what Richard said, do lots of research, books, the internet, census stats, etc. and find out what is important to your family and how an area rates. Do NOT go on recommendations of friends. Greg __________________ www.bethanybrass.com - Helping fellow trumpet players achieve musical excellence

02-08-2006, 03:03 PM	#3
wrbandel Pianissimo User Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Rochester, MN Posts: 164	Patrick, Our own Gzent used to live in Dallas, or near there. Await his reply, I'm sure he'll give some good insite. Warren

02-08-2006, 03:18 PM	#7
trickg Forte User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland Posts: 2,056	Wow. Greg, it sounds like you HATED it there! Are you only listing the negatives or can you simply not remember the positives? In light of the fact that Dallas is only one possibility now, (my wife wants to keep ALL options open) I'm open to suggestions about other areas of the country. To list off some negative about how I feel regarding where we now live: Real estate is so high, single family homes are virtually unaffordable by anyone who is not in a professional career and making dual income (both he and she work) Damp and dark most of the winter, and hot, humid and muggy in the summer Terrible traffic High crime (both DC and Baltimore and it's spilling in the suburbs) Schools are less than exemplary Densely populated Always in a rush Have to drive 30 minutes to get anywhere Overall high cost of living Rude people Overall loss of strong morals and family values Of course these are all just generalizations, but part of why I have always had a gripe about this area. __________________ Patrick Gleason email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com "What we do in life echoes in eternity" "At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius

02-08-2006, 03:39 PM	#9
trickg Forte User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland Posts: 2,056	I just got an email from my friend - the town where he bought the house is Rowlett, Texas. http://www.city-data.com/city/Rowlett-Texas.html It doesn't look too bad - population roughly 55,000, median household income is $70,000 and the median home price is $116,000. It's also outside of Dallas, but close enough to take advantage of some of the things Dallas has to offer. I hope my friend doesn't end up hating it - he currently lives in Tampa, but the Dallas area is where his kids and ex wife are, and he wants to be more involved in their lives. I'll do some digging - now that Pandora has escaped from her box, I've got some reading and research to do! __________________ Patrick Gleason email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com "What we do in life echoes in eternity" "At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius

02-08-2006, 03:44 PM	#10
Solar Bell Moderator Utimate User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Metro Detroit Posts: 5,526	How's your Spanish? -cw- __________________ Chuck Willard *The Willard of Oz* "Don't be afraid to see what you see." Ronald Reagan The average response time of a 911 call is over 4 minutes. The average speed of my 9mm is 1250 fps *When seconds count....the police are only minutes away.*

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