Pros and Cons of Dallas 2022

So you're moving to Texas. Maybe you're moving here by choice, or maybe you're relocating here for a job, or you have family living here. Today we wanna talk about the top five pros and cons of what it's really like living here and what you may want to be prepared for.

Pro # 1 - Cost of Living in Dallas Texas

The number one PRO for people moving here is the Cost of Living. I know it is not the cheapest place in the entire country to live, but we are getting multiple people wanting to relocate here. Not only for the family values for the location but for the weather. And a lot of people are moving here because our cost of living is a lot cheaper than other places. We can specifically target places like the east coast and the west coast, maybe New York or California, but we even have places like Chicago and some areas in Florida, surprisingly that our clients are wanting to move here and get out of those high price points. I know I was surprised when we had some clients reach out saying they were moving from Florida. The areas that they were living in were getting expensive and they heard great things about Texas and they were ready to move here. We've also had some clients moving here from Arizona. They realized they could get a lot more home. They were working from home now, thanks to the pandemic and they just knew that they could get a much bigger home to be able to start their family, move to somewhere where their values were more in line and they are so excited. Those specific clients are actually closing here in the Dallas area next week, they're moving here because of the cost of living. I know we can talk about things. With inflation going up and the cost of everything going up specifically gas, which is a huge hit for a lot of people. Our gas is actually quite a bit lower or at least in line. In other states here in the center of the country,  our gas has finally gone back down below $4 gallon, hallelujah, some of these other places are paying. Upwards of $7, a gallon of gas is crazy. So here that's a huge chunk of money that people are having to pay when driving to and from work or just even anywhere around here. So gas is one of those things, but the cost of living to actually go out and purchase a home, say you want a home, that's not, super outdated, totally cookie cutter. Just, in the wrong part of town that you weren't really hoping to live in. Your people are moving here and thinking I can get a house for $500,000 or, certainly less than a million dollars and it could be much newer. It could be a lot more updated. It could have a pool because especially down here where our weather is nice. A lot of people have pools. So they're just realizing that there are a lot more amenities that they can afford to have here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. So people are moving here because of our cost of living

Pro #2 - All of the Activities to do in Dallas Texas

The number TWO PRO is the number of things that there are to do here. Our weather is pretty nice here most of the year, there's a lot to do. We have so many lakes, so if you love being outdoors, you love swimming. You love boating and paddle boarding. you can find so many different places where you can do that. There's even some great little neighborhood community. I guess you could say rivers, lakes, whatever you wanna say, that we have friends who go out and just enjoy paddle boarding and they can do that right there in their own individual communities. So lots to do, not to mention the number of sports that are here. If you are big into whether it's professional football, baseball, basketball, or soccer, let's get real, are we playing golf? Are we playing? I don't know, lacrosse water polo. It does not matter. There are so many things to do, but we have pretty much every major sports team here in the Dallas Fort-Worth area, and if that's what you love to go to, do you have multiple options? Of where you can enjoy that. We have teams from all over coming in here. If your favorite team may not be based outta Dallas it doesn't mean that your favorite team won't be visiting here at some point, and besides all the sports, maybe you love going to concerts. Of course being how Dallas is this huge metroplex,  tons of the big name concerts are passing through the Dallas Fort Worth area, whether it's down in Dallas or whether it's on the Fort worth side, or whether it's even up more north towards the Frisco Plano area, you can find any Concert during any season because all of the big names are coming here. We also have a great community of the arts. If you are really big into going and seeing plays in musicals in the symphony orchestra. Dallas has options all throughout the entire DFW area and you can enjoy that too. It just seems that you don't have to be in these big, huge names. You don't always have to be in downtown Dallas to enjoy these things, but there are so many great community events. All throughout DFW where you can also enjoy that. You don't always have to see, the top group like in professional sports. You don't always have to go see the Dallas Cowboys or the Texas Rangers play. We have minor league teams here, but it goes the same thing with concerts. It doesn't always have to be, who's on the billboard top 10, but some of these groups that have been around for a while, or maybe aren't quite as popular, you can find them whether it's out in Plano at the legacy hall, whether it's down at smaller venues down in Fort worth concerts, galore everywhere. And not only that we have events. Pretty much in every city happening year-round. So if you wanna go see hot air balloon festivals, if you wanna go to a barbecue festival or October Fest or main street days and these great huge street fairs down in grapevine, we have that too. So anything you are looking to go and enjoy, you probably can find it here in the Dallas area.

Pro #3 - Diversity in Dallas

The number three pro with living here in the Dallas Fort Worth area is the amount of diversity that we have. And not just straight diversity, but the opportunity for religious diversity as well. If you want. I remember when we first moved here, I could not believe, people were here from all over and it didn't matter what ethnic background you were part of. It didn't matter what religion. Background, you were a part of, it just seemed that everybody, it was just like this big, huge melting pot.

At first, when I thought we were moving to Dallas, I thought everybody spoke with a Southern accent and said, y'all well, come to find out. It was this huge melting pot of people from all over the world. Our kids went to high school and middle school and elementary school with kids.  everywhere. And it just seemed that everybody went to a different church in our community.

Everybody was from, it didn't even necessarily have to be a different country, but from a different state. And it was just fun to see all the different cultures and backgrounds and not to mention accents that came out from where people had moved from and how much our kids really enjoyed getting to know people of all different backgrounds. So that was a huge pro for us when we moved here.

Pro #4 - Weather in Dallas Texas

The number four pro that we have heard from so many clients is our weather, granted it's hot, and sometimes people don't realize how hot it is. They may be ready to get out of the snow. They're thinking, you know what? I don't care. I want sunshine all the time. I wanna be able to be outdoors all the time. They come here and they may be in for a little bit of a shock, but overall, if you just really wanna be able to be outside all the time, Yes in the summer, it's hot, but it doesn't mean that there aren't many ways that you can enjoy the outdoors. You can enjoy it out at the lake. You can enjoy it out at the river. You can enjoy it in your own swimming pool or at one of the many community pools that we have found. All throughout the Dallas area, not to mention we have the Gaylord resort and Great Wolf lodge here in Grapevine so maybe if you just need some staycation and a great fun place to go, hang out, go rent a room for the night and have a great fun place to take your kids.

We also have multiple water parks around the DFW area. Everything from hurricane Harbor to Hawaiian falls. We also have six flags, being able to be outdoors any time of the year is a huge bonus for so many people moving here to the Dallas area.

Pro #5 - Friendly Place to Live

And the number five pro with moving here that we have found is the people. It does not matter where we have gone and not to mention what we had to help teach our children was manners and how kind people were, everybody seems to be out walking their dogs. Everybody's out, just, whether it's in the morning doing their lawn and people are like, hi, how are you?

You check out at target and it's what can I do for you? How can I help you? Yes, ma'am no ma'am and just getting to know everybody. Our kids were a little bit shocked when they were little and we'd first moved here and they're like, why is everybody talking to us?

Why are all our neighbors here? Why is everybody stopping by? But we have just realized that we have just grown to love the community that we are involved in and not to mention when our kids played sports when we would be all over the Dallas area, for work events or different things. It just really seemed that there were a lot of people just truly trying to help out the neighbors, especially when we had these crazy ice storms, people were coming together in the communities. Like I had never seen before, trucks offering to pull people out, people offering to take diapers and formula to babies, and people offering food, and I just thought, granted, you get that when you meet your great neighbors, no matter where you live, but it just seemed that the community was coming together. Everybody was willing to help one another. I know it's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time. You can get on some crazy Facebook groups where people are griping about who knows what, but overall when you get to know people around here and the majority of the people that we have found in and around the Dallas area have just been so warm and welcoming. And so many of our clients who have relocated here have said the same thing.

Con #1 - The Traffic and Construction

So now let's get into the cons of living here in the Dallas area. The first and probably the biggest con. I personally have a problem with is, all this, we may have four seasons here. They may not be the same kind of four seasons as some of these other places. But what we do have in Texas is called construction season.

It does not matter where you're at in Dallas, whether you're on the east side, the north side, the south side, the west side, anywhere. Especially when you're in real estate and you are driving all over, whatever freeway you were on, there's always some sort of construction going on. Granted, when we first moved here, I had, I thought it was, I thought I was never gonna drive here again.

The 635 freeway here in the Dallas area is one of the major freeways that kind of makes this loop around Dallas and they were building this huge double Decker freeway system. With the HOV lanes down below carpool lanes down below and the regular lanes up at the top. And it didn't. And I used to drive to the other side of Dallas very early on the weekends, and it didn't matter. It was almost like we were sitting in LA traffic during the middle of the week during rush hour. But granted that problem has been fixed. It doesn't mean that the 635 freeway can't be a total bear during rush hour traffic, but construction is everywhere. If you're driving down the 35 west down into Fort worth or many of those other freeways, if you're up north, because of the amount of growth going on up through the north part of Frisco into Prosper and Celina or heading out west off the 380, don't get me started. There are so many freeways. There are so many roadways here and even the main, even the neighborhood roads, some of these main roads throughout the city, it just, you're out driving around, showing property, taking clients out and some road is gonna be under construction it seems no matter what time of day and what season you're in construction is happening all the time because Dallas has all this growth going on. So our freeway systems always seem to be in the middle of construction. 

Con #2 - The Weather can Be Brutally Extreme

The number two con, which, a lot of people are moving here for the weather. They love the warm sunny days they wanna get out of the snow. I don't think they totally realize how totally brutal our summer heat can be. Granted, we are gonna talk about how it is July of 2022 right now. And this is. In the last 10 years, this is our 11th summer here. And this is absolutely brutal. I feel like I'm living back in Arizona. Again, the heat is so crazy hot. We've had almost zero rain and it has been well over a hundred degrees, I can't even remember how many days they said, I think we're looking at almost 40 days right now. People are just absolutely dying with this heat. The utility companies are telling us to try and conserve our utilities. Our kids are not wanting to go outside because it is just so brutally hot. Whereas we used to take 'em to the pool in the lake during the summertime. We're barely doing that just because of this heat and how crazy hot it is.

So definitely something to be prepared for. It does not mean we don't have multiple ways to cool off. It does not mean that we don't have air conditioners, but I'm just saying if you are coming from up north where you thought. Your nighttime's cooled off. Here, our night times are cooling off to about 80, or 85 degrees right now and we still have that humidity granted in Texas during the summer. Usually, our humidity is super high. To me, it seems a lot lower than it usually has been. I feel like I'm, burning up from the inside. Like I have been, like I used to in Arizona, granted, we're still about 10 degrees cooler than Arizona, but it's a little bit drier, and everybody's yards are dying. Nobody can even seem to water their yards enough. So definitely that summer heat within. This being our 11th season here in Texas, it has never been this bad for us, but something to think about and making sure that you have a great air conditioning system to keep you cool in the summertime.

Con #3 - Bugs and Snakes

The number three con with living here in Texas is the number of bugs. Everything from mosquitoes to the cicadas, which are so loud here in the summer, you can barely hear yourself think and not to mention snakes. Yes. I said that snakes. We have had friends who found their snakes in the pool, on top of that, granted, most of the time, those snakes have been completely harmless. Our kids have found. All of a sudden crawling up into the garage. Completely terrifying. I want nothing to do with that, there are also with the number of trees here with the amount of green space, whether you live next to a park or a golf course, or a lot of these, We could call. 'em like a river, a wash area with lots of trees behind you. We've had friends who've lived over near some of these grassy green belts and yes, they have found some copperhead snakes coming into their backyards we can get those. It is absolutely horrifying. I want nothing to do with it. Thankfully, I do have a few boys who are, they're okay with picking up the bugs. They're okay with shoeing out the nasty things that come into the house. But I hate 'em and yes, you can find them here in Texas. We also have been known to see the occasional Bobcat, coyote, and deer walking through the street and yes, we still do have the armadillos, the bunny rabbits, and the squirrels. So we do have. Quite a bit of wildlife, but for me, huge con mosquitoes I'm eaten alive. And these cicadas, when they're just so loud, you're sitting inside the house and you can hear them buzzing crazy loud, but being a little bit more careful when you're outside. If you see the snakes, not to mention. My husband had taken my son to a party out at the lake on our friend's boat a couple of weeks ago. And they were sitting on the dock waiting for everything to get finished, and they saw a huge snake swimming through the water, not to mention the huge fish granted. I said I was, I didn't know if I was ever gonna get back on a boat and back out in the lake. Once he sent me the video of that. Obviously, I don't think that snake was quite as harmless, but I don't care. Can you imagine, I don't know snakes grand and Arizona, we had rattlesnakes, but that was pretty much up out in the desert. And here our friends have seen them, pretty much in their backyard or out on the golf course next to the lake. And no, thank you. 

Con #4 - Property Taxes

The number four con here, living in Texas is what we talk about all the time and how much, you need to be prepared for. It is our property taxes. Our property taxes here are quite high. Our property taxes here do seem to go up every single year based on our property value, and if you have lived here in Texas over the last year or two, you know how you were in. You were in for a rude awakening with the huge jump that your property taxes had this past year with the amount of equity you probably gained in your home. So people don't realize it's always changing property taxes go up and the property taxes are based on pretty much the value of your home, where your home, is located, and how new your home is. So a lot of those factors do come into play when they assess your property taxes. So something to be. Careful,  you need to go and get yourself preapproved when you're purchasing a home.  They'll give you that ballpark estimate of what your property taxes are if your home values are gonna go up. So are your property taxes? We do get to file that homestead exemption to help save a little bit of money, you just never can tell what the next few years are gonna bring and if your house is gonna keep appreciating. So are your property taxes 

Con #5 - Dallas is so Flat

The number five con for us is how flat Texas is. Okay. Granted. I said this before, it's not all of Texas, a lot more west of Texas. You can get some mountains when you're down, maybe around near Austin, you can get the hill country to me. That's not really mountains either, but we really don't have any mountains here in Texas.

We have a few minor rolling Hills, but we have no mountains. Again, we moved here from Arizona and we had mountains. I knew where it was north. I knew south, east, and west based on the mountains. And here sometimes we've for the longest time somebody said your house faces north and south, or somebody asked which direction our house faced and I said it was north and south. My husband had to correct me. No. No, it's not it's east and west. Why was that? It's because I have these huge trees in the back of my yard and I can never pay attention to where the sun is setting. Granted, I can pay attention to it. I just choose not to, because we have so many trees and if you're out driving down the street, we have a lot more windy roads around here. And frankly, I don't know which direction is north, south, or west half the time because we have no mountains. So if you truly want that mountain life, if you want to be able to go into the mountains because it's actually cooler in the mountains. I think that's probably the thing that I miss the most, knowing that you can get to the mountains quite quickly. When you head up into the mountains, maybe 20 minutes based on, wherever you live. Granted in Arizona, you had to drive a little bit further than that. But if you're in some state where there are mountains, you can typically drive up into the mountains and you can have this huge temperature drop.

Here in Texas, we don't have that luxury. We have no mountains to drive up to escape the heat. So just something to think about, if you wanna know where the direction of your house is if you wanna know which direction you're driving in.  I just heavens every single day that we have navigation on our cars and Google maps on our phones because that helps get me to where I need to go because if I had to rely on just my own sense of direction of which way was north, south or west, I probably wouldn't do it. And I had friends who. I have friends who've lived here, who said the same thing. They're like, I have no idea which direction west is just because, having that sense of direction, because I have lived in areas where you knew that the mountains were in the east or in the west, and it just helped give you that sense of direction.

So Texas is very flat and we have so many trees. You're not quite sure which direction you're going, but that's probably just me anyway. So that's our top five pros and cons when living here in Dallas, Texas.  If you need help, know where exactly you should live or what maybe some of these communities have to offer, because you're moving to Texas and you want the absolute best place for you and your family.

That's why you call us. We are here to help answer all of those questions and the more we get to know you we know your personality and what it is you're looking for. That's how we can help you determine the best neighborhood for you. So call us, send us a text, email us, and let's schedule a time to get on a Zoom call and get to know each other because we would absolutely love to help you make that move here to the Dallas, Texas area. That is much easier.