Is this possible in Dallas area?

[carrie9142]

Hi everyone! I have a question about Dallas and the surrounding suburbs. My husband it thinking about doing his residency at Baylor in Dallas (I don't really know where this is in relation to anything else!). We were wondering what would be the best suburbs for that area, what the drive would be like, and if there would be any affordable, nice houses. By affordable I mean under 150k. He really loved that program, but we are just worried about traffic time and housing availability. So...can it be done? Anyone have any websites, resources, or opinons?

Thanks!

[karlatta]

It's definitely possible to get a house for under $150k in the Dallas area. It's just that I'm not sure how close you could get and still be in an area that you would find desirable. It's been almost 10 years since I lived there, so I have no idea what the areas surrounding the hospital are, nor do I know how the traffic patterns flow. But based on houses that my relatives have purchased recently in the Dallas area, I know you can definitely find a house - it will be the length of commute that will be trickier. You might have to be quite a ways from the hospital to be in an area you like. (I'm talking 40 minutes, an hour, something like that.)

[TriSigmaNC]

Housing for 150k in or near Dallas? I'd say only you could get a SHACK for that. It would be in a nasty, horrible area. Even in a suburb (like Plano or Mesquite or Rockwall) you could get a house for possibly $200k plus for maybe 2-3 bedrooms. If you're interested, other suburbs I would suggest would be: Mckinney, Allen, Richardson, maybe Arlington, Irving (not so great), Oak Cliff horrible, but in your price range, Fort Worth may be better price wise, and is a good town.

I hope this helps, I don't mean to be so negative, but just wanted to be honest. I lived there for quite a few years. If you're just looking for an apartment to buy, you may be able to get one, but again for low end of $180k?

eta: Closest to the Hospital: Dallas, Oak Cliff, Mesquite, Richardson, Plano, Rockwall, McKinney, Allen, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth in order. If you want to know any specific areas inside Dallas, just ask.

[Dizzy]

Try these neighborhoods (in Dallas):

Lake Highlands
Kessler Park (Oak cliff)
Bishop Arts (also Oak cliff)

Outlying suburbs to try:
Garland
Richardson
Allen
McKinney (very far north, tho)
Lewisville

I'd stay away from Irving, Mesquite and Arlington. And Fort Worth is a surprisingly looooong drive. It can take up to 2 hours in traffic, and 45 min to an hour with no traffic. The houses are definitely cheaper, but i think the commute would get frustrating after awhile.

Hope that helps!

[kristin9903]

There are definitely houses in your price range in the metroplex...but you have to ask yourself what his maximum commute time would be. Previous posters are correct...commutes from where the cheaper houses are would be long. My DH commutes from our home in North Fort Worth to Addison (west of Downtown Dallas) and it takes him 1 1/2 hours during morning traffic. If your DH would have to be on call, or have to come in on short notice, living far out could not be an option for you.

The other issue is that where the houses are cheap are where the builders are. If you're only planning on being in DFW for a short period of time and need to sell your house, keep in mind that it could sit on the market for a while. I've seen houses in my subdivision sit on the market for more than a year before they sell.

That being said, I know that there are some condos or 1/2 duplexes that would be around your price range in the Addison area. The commute wouldn't be too bad and real estate tends to not sit on the market for that long, since there are no builders slashing prices all around you. :)

Good luck with your decision. I recently did a clinical rotation for nursing school at a Baylor hospital and it was fantastic! Definitely a nice place to work. :)

[carrie9142]

Thanks for all of your input. The crux of my question is really how long of a drive is DH going to be looking at if we get a $150k house in a decent neighborhood? Is he looking at at least an hour one way? This is really our biggest concern and pretty much the only reason we would not want to move to a bigger city.

Karla-Thanks for your input. You know how we (esp. M!) feel about traffic! How much different is Dallas' volume compared to Houston?

TriSigmaNC-Somehow I think we could probably find something besides a shack ;) it would just be further away. Thanks for the neighborhoods!

Dizzy-Thanks for all the neighborhood info! I really appreciate you offering to help if we really go through with this :) We won't know for sure until March :rolleyes:

Kristin-Glad you liked Baylor! My DH loved it. You are right about commuting and call being a big negative point. I really don't want him to have to add another 2-3 hours to his day everyday, but it is his decision if he thinks it is worth it or not. Some of the residents just come in an hour early before traffic and study-that way they don't have to study at home. I just think it would suck to work a 12+hour day and then sit in the car another hour or two. Yuck!

Yikes! That is a scary thought about houses sitting on the market. We would be in Dallas for 5 years for sure, possibly 6 if he decides to do a fellowship. A long enough time to make buying worthwhile, but not such a long time.

Thanks!

[lml41981]

Carrie,
I live in Forney, which is about 25 minutes from Baylor. My home was a new build. It has gone up in price, but there are less expensive homes in our neighborhood. Forney is growing, so there isn't much here yet, but we're near a lot of stuff and we're getting stuff.

As for what TriSig said...absolutely untrue. You can nice nice homes in the $150k range. Maybe not a huge home in the City of Dallas, but neither of our homes were above $153k and our current one is 2k square feet.

I'll PM you with some info.

[DallasLady]

Housing for 150k in or near Dallas? I'd say only you could get a SHACK for that. It would be in a nasty, horrible area. Even in a suburb (like Plano or Mesquite or Rockwall) you could get a house for possibly $200k plus for maybe 2-3 bedrooms.

I don't agree with that at all. She will probably have to go to the suburbs, and the house may not be huge, but you can get something decent for 150K in the metroplex. I live in Plano (a suburb you mentioned) and all the houses in my neighborhood are very nice, 2000 square foot 4/2.5 homes for under 200K.

Try www.ebby.com It's a great search engine for homes in the DFW area.

[thedoorchick]

I agree with the comments on $150K; it's absolutely doable and you will have much more than a shack, and not in the hood. I'm shocked anyone would even say otherwise.

Most of our friends live in homes under $150K. Ours is slightly more, but we have 4 bedrooms, which is clearly more house than a family of two really *needs*. We are in the mid cities area which is about 25 miles away. My commute is about 40 minutes, and I would venture to say that you could live just about anywhere in the Dallas area and keep the one-way drive under an hour.

[ash313]

You could also try Frisco.
You can definitely get a house for $150K.
McKinney is also a good area.
Both are very nice areas for young couples/families.

[TriSigmaNC]

I meant INSIDE Dallas. I'm sure you could get a decent small (not 4+) in a suburb, but I was answering for INSIDE Dallas. And yes, I lived there for quite a while, went house hunting and have had many of my closest friends buy houses in the suburbs, but not one of them has paid under $170, so that's the experience I was going from.

[TriSigmaNC]

I don't agree with that at all. She will probably have to go to the suburbs, and the house may not be huge, but you can get something decent for 150K in the metroplex. I live in Plano (a suburb you mentioned) and all the houses in my neighborhood are very nice, 2000 square foot 4/2.5 homes for under 200K.

Try www.ebby.com It's a great search engine for homes in the DFW area.

also, so clarify, I wasn't bashing any suburbs, I was only bashing Oak Cliff from my personal experience. You must have read my post wrong. sorry.

[thedoorchick]

Although Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, and other areas due north of downtown are very nice and parts of them are quite affordable, I don't know that I would recommend those suburbs to someone with a commute to downtown.

My commute is to downtown, and you couldn't pay me to live in those towns, nice as they are, because the drive would be hellish.

Richardson wouldn't be a bad choice, and Cedar Hill is quite nice and reasonably close. Duncanville and Grand Prairie are close to Cedar Hill as well.
I meant INSIDE Dallas. I'm sure you could get a decent small (not 4+) in a suburb, but I was answering for INSIDE Dallas.
Well, your original comment was:
Housing for 150k in or near Dallas? I'd say only you could get a SHACK for that.
so I don't think it was clear that you were speaking of only houses within the Dallas city limits.

I do agree with you on Oak Cliff. I don't care for that area at all, although you could certainly get a lot of house for your money.

[ag-girl]

It is absolutely doable to find a home at that price. While Frisco and McKinney are both nice and new areas, it would be a long commute.

Take a look at Richardson. It might be an older home, but still nice.

Here's a website that might help you. Although I would say the driving times are without traffic.
http://www.davedowns.com/commutedistancetime.htm

[lauren f s]

We just bought a house for around $150k and we're maybe 20 minutes outside of Dallas.

[thedoorchick]

Here's a website that might help you. Although I would say the driving times are without traffic.
http://www.davedowns.com/commutedistancetime.htm

I agree. It lists my commute as 25 minutes and the only time I've gotten there that fast was when I left my house at 5:30 in the morning (don't ask; special circumstance!)

[lml41981]

I meant INSIDE Dallas. I'm sure you could get a decent small (not 4+) in a suburb, but I was answering for INSIDE Dallas. And yes, I lived there for quite a while, went house hunting and have had many of my closest friends buy houses in the suburbs, but not one of them has paid under $170, so that's the experience I was going from.

Even so, we had a perfectly nice 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 1500 sq. ft. house INSIDE Dallas that we got for less than $150. They can be found, you just have to be looking at the right time. Sweeping generalizations like you made are just silly and borderline offensive to people who may live in the area you are bashing.

eta: Closest to the Hospital: Dallas, Oak Cliff, Mesquite, Richardson, Plano, Rockwall, McKinney, Allen, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth in order. If you want to know any specific areas inside Dallas, just ask.
Actually, Allen is closer than McKinney. Irving is also closer than McKinney, Rockwall and Plano. And there are good and bad areas of all towns...you just need a Realtor or a friend who will tell it to you straight.

[thedoorchick]

Irving and Arlington are peculiar in that there are some very decent, nice (and not unaffordable) areas, then a few streets over it's a totally different feel. It baffles me.

[karlatta]

Irving and Arlington are peculiar in that there are some very decent, nice (and not unaffordable) areas, then a few streets over it's a totally different feel. It baffles me.
The same is true for Grand Prairie.

[lauren f s]

Irving and Arlington are peculiar in that there are some very decent, nice (and not unaffordable) areas, then a few streets over it's a totally different feel. It baffles me.
That's so true! We had an apartment in Las Colinas and were looking to buy in Irving and while one street would have the nicest little houses, just 2 over would be kind of scary! We're in Coppell and love it here :).

lml41981: I think you live near my parents! Technically they're in Mesquite, but they're so far east past most everything else in Mesquite that you're practically in Forney. It's a beautiful area!

[lml41981]

lml41981: I think you live near my parents! Technically they're in Mesquite, but they're so far east past most everything else in Mesquite that you're practically in Forney. It's a beautiful area!

heh...We aren't even technically in Forney. We are outside city limits, but we don't really have a city name. In fact, Forney PD does not respond to our neighborhood, Kaufman County SO does. We're between and around a lot of towns: Heath, Rockwall, Forney, Sunnyvale and Mesquite. And rumor has it that our neighborhood will be annexed into Dallas.

[jessicamjohnson]

LML41981- annexed? what? :confused:

[lml41981]

LML41981- annexed? what? :confused:

That's what the SO said at our neighborhood watch meeting a few months ago. They didn't say it with certainty but said that was the rumor.

[PrincessCJ81]

Do you have any idea what time DH would be going to work? I realize he'll be on-call sometimes, but what about the majority of the time? If he works before 8am or after 10am the commute isn't all that bad, but in-between 8-10 it's pretty crazy. DH does a lot of driving for his work and he said Mesquite to Baylor is about 20-25 minutes in average traffic, but in 8am-10am traffic it could easily be 1hr traffic, unless you take city streets- about 35 minutes during traffic. We recently were looking at houses and we found tons of homes in Mesquite in the 150K rangs. I work in Irving so it was too far of a drive for me, but there are several new, nice areas you could live in. Do you have kids? School districts make a difference in taxes, just something to think about. I wouldn't let the commute prevent you from taking on such a wonderful oppurtunity. I moved from OK and was really worried about the stress of commuting, but it's worked out just fine and though some days are stressful, overall it's not that bad! I commute from Flower Mound to Irving approx 25 miles, on city streets at 8:30am it takes me about 30 minutes.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[AHammer]

Just a few comments -- FWIW I've lived in Dallas my entire life. Real Dallas, not the 'burbs.

First off, avoid oak cliff at all costs. it has a bad reputation for a reason. it's #1 on the list for violent crime in the dallas area. i just wouldn't feel good recommending the worst area in a city that's consistently in the top 10 of highest crime cities. just avoid it :)

Second on the list is lake highlands, a bipolar neighborhood. Depending on where you are in LH you may find yourself near some awful run-down apartments or you may be on a street filled with million dollar homes. They aren't separated by a huge distance. I grew up in LH, still visit every weekend, my mom teaches there. it's very dear to my heart, but I wouldn't buy a $150K house there.

Richardson is nice, as someone else said the homes tend to be older, but you can find some really cute neighborhoods, especially in the northern part. I teach and go to church in Richardson, it's a tight neighborhood. I live right on the dallas/richardson border in far north dallas. i love the area.

Anything north of plano would be a hellish commute down US75, I'd avoid that at all costs unless your husband won't be commuting during rush hours.

many of the other 'burbs people have mentioned are nice, I just don't know much about them. Good luck to you and your DH!!!