Hi,

I have been contacted by a company in Plano, TX for an interview. It sounds interesting so I am doing a little investigating on the Dallas area. I have never been to Dallas, so I really have no idea what I would be getting into haha.

Some info on housing\neighborhoods would be awesome!

Things that are important:

1. Commute, I would like to stay away from long commutes
2. What are clean\safe neighborhoods?
3. I am 32, single, so somewhere near where the single ladies are haha
4. Would prefer a house, at least 2 bedrooms, 2 car garage.

What is the rent like and the average price for a house in Dallas these days?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

 

Well that's a bit too much to answer here, although I'm sure some will try. I'll PM you my realtor's info. He's a good friend and one of the few people I trust for the kind of info you need. He only works the Dallas side of DFW and is word of mouth only.

If you speak with him and still have questions, I'll try to help out since I just went through all of this searching a few years ago here.

 

Are you going to be in Plano or Dallas? last time I was in Plano, it took me aobut 30-40 minutes to get to downtown dallas.

 

When you start looking for a home dont be fooled. The home prices are low compared to the west coast but the taxes are through the roof. I moved from the WA and got a big shock at tax time.

 

Company is in Plano so I would probably look to live close by.

 

Oh yeah? I was looking at some houses online, a $140,000 house in Plano would go for about $450,000 here in Vegas. Vegas has priced me out of the house market so I am looking to relocate.

 

There are a lot of nice homes down here in that area. Make sure when you talk to a Realtor that you have them show you what the yearly tax rate is. Mine is about $5000 for a 165g home. Apartments range from $700 and up for a two bedroom. Good luck with the job.

 

Cool, thanks for the info

 

since you said you we're looking at a job in plano..why not just move to plano? it's a nice area...

 

Frisco/Mckinney are very nice too and have tons of new construction. Those towns are just a quick drive to Plano.

And while property taxes are a bit higher than other parts of the country, we don't have state income tax so it's a nice trade off.

Also, here's a great site I found that brakes down the a bunch of stuff per metroplex city:

http://www.davedowns.com/propertytaxes.htm FYI, in Plano, a $165k home would be about $3927 per year (not $5k).

http://www.davedowns.com/homeprices.htm - average prices per sq/ft

http://www.davedowns.com/commutedistancetime.htm - commutes- Reference the Legacy Business Center which is where most corporate hqs are in Plano.

I think you will like it here as there's tons to do. Since we don't have the best scenery (unless you love a good sunset) we make up for it in culture and entertainment.

 

west plano,allen,mckinney,frisco are all great areas north of dallas

 

wow, thanks for the links etc.....

I'm looking to move to the dallas/plano/Murphy area in 2 years tops.....

I'm gonna be down in Dallas around columbus day weekend in october 2007....

I'm gonna try to check out austin also...see what life is like down there...

 

My apologies $4100 on 165g. Then again my appraisal this year went up 15g. So my taxes went up a lil bit more too this year. Just dont get caught unaware on the taxes. WA state has no state tax either and the property taxes were less than half of here.

 

Yeah as far as taxes go. I live in Vegas, a $300,000 house has about $1800 in taxes. We don't have state tax here either. But, the thing is, a $140,000 house in Plano would be about $350,000 here. So guess it's a trade off. You pay less taxes here, but you get raped on the actual price of the house.

 

TheDean - what company in Plano?

Plano is a fairly large area of North Dallas. I live on the West Side of Plano off Preston Road and it's a GREAT area of town. I'm 30 and single. It's convenient to everything...except downtown is a little bit of a hike, but with no traffic, you can be there in about 25 mins from where I'm at. But with everything there is in Plano, almost no reason to go South.

If you need any help or suggestions, shoot me a PM. I'm real familiar with the area and surrounding areas.