http://interactive.dmagazine.com/content/best-dallas-suburbs-2014/

Annually, I travel to Dallas for work and this list seems consistent with my observations.

I haven't been to Tx so no help there but City Data forums can be helpful when researching unfamiliar locations. If you click the link below you'll see a list of the sub forums for all the major cities (including Dallas & Fort Worth). Click on the city sub forum you want. There is a "Search This Forum" tool on the right upper side of the page. That helps narrow it down. Put the areas you mention above in the search box and you'll get threads or posts mentioning them. If you post your own thread, it's pretty common for people to ask your housing budget, school needs, time willing to spend on commute, etc.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/texas/

Where will his office be? We lived in the Dallas area for several years and still have many friends there.

Grapevine is very convenient to DFW airport. We have friends in Coppell, McKinney, Allen, Richardson, Flower Mound, Highland Village, Plano, Lewisville, Copper Canyon (love it there-many homes with acreage), as well as Dallas itself.

I would look at distance from his office and school ratings and narrow it down from there. A real estate agent can help you.

School ratings:

https://rptsvr1.tea.texas.gov/perfreport/account/

My sister and her family relocated from Southern California to Lewisville which is just north of Dallas about 8 years ago. They love it.

Thank you so much for the positive comments and links! My husbands place of employment has a Dallas address, but he stated it's in the Grapevine area, whatever that means. He said it's about 15 min from the airport. I plan to talk with realtors, and I know they will be helpful. But, past experience has shown me that they are not allowed professionally to recommend a particular school district, only give you the information. We just want a school for my daughter that will be a good fit for her and an area to live in that will be welcoming, and that we can be excited about. Personally, I need a bit of space. I need some mature trees, space for a small garden, and no neighbors right up on me. Hope I'm not asking for too much. Our sons will be getting an apartment together and will not be going with us at this time. :( This is VERY hard for me to deal with. In past moves, we have always moved as a family. I feel like I'm leaving a chunk of my heart behind. We don't want a monster of a house payment because we want disposable income to be able to visit our son's and help them financially.

Thank you again for the help. Any advice is appreciated!

I would also want to know where his office will be, whether he will flying often or driving to certain areas as part of his job and what activities are most important to you. Do you want a new home/small lot, an older home in a subdivision with a larger lot, or a place with even more breathing room? Also, does your daughter have any special interests in or outside of school. Her activities or interests would be a factor too. There are a lot of strong schools up there (I live outside Houston but have lived in Dallas twice, Ft. Worth once and visit my son up in Denton fairly often), but if she has an interest in band, orchestra, theater, sports or a special area of study, that may influnece your choice. There may be magnet schools or special programs for fine arts, math and science or technology, professional training. Expect the top schools to push AP and/or dual credit courses. Also look at school size -- my sons' school enrollment is in the 2400-2700 range, but if we lived one black further west, they would have attended a school of nearly 5000 students. Some kids feel lost in that large a school (makes activities all the more important).

Something you may or may not care about, but you should be aware of what people will be talking about as the top 10% rule. The Texas Legislature years ago got convinced that folks from smaller communities were at a disadvantage when it came to their students being admitted into the most popular state universities -- namely UT Austin and Texas A&M. In their infinite wisdom, they passed a law that says that students graduating in the top 10% of their class are guaranteed admission into a state university. They later amended that to be the top 7 or 8% (not sure which it is) for UT and A&M because there were too many students on auto admit for other students to have much of a chance getting in. Under the lower figures, it is still an issue for a lot of students. It is part of what drives some students to load up on AP courses and even take more during the summer sessions -- all to drive up their GPA and class standing a little bit more. If you add a magnet program on top of that, things can be pretty competetive for some kids - and some deal with that well, others not so much.

Either way, try to help her keep it in perspective -- I haven't known any student who didn't get into a school they were happy with, though some do go to a second choice for a year or two and transfer in - either a community college or Blinn for A&M or UT San Antonio for UT Austin. And lots of students go out of state, including my oldest. My youngest also had a top choice that was out of state -- with a waiver of out of state tuition, it would have cost less than in state state universities. Ya never know. If she is happy and has the courses and activities that interest her, she should do well. If possible, have her along to visit the new schools. At least take a look at the online info -- many have Facebook pages for the school and major activities.

I have heard that Argyle is an area that has great schools and is very popular with pilots because it is a good commute to DFW. Southlake has a retail mecca that really suprised me -- it was the nearest Apple store for getting my son's phone serviced. It looks like nothing from the freeway (was doubting we were in the right place for an Apple store), but holy moly once you get in there! That whole area has grown so much -- the road construction is still trying to keep up.

Thank you. My daughter is bright, in advanced math classes and wants to go into nursing. She plays the violin but is much more interested in sports, specifically softball, basketball, volleyball, and track. We are very interested in dual enrollment courses. She would be lost in a school of 5,000 so I will keep that in mind. Honestly, at her age she is most interested in making friends and getting to know the community. Although, she likes to visit large cities, we currently live in a city of 28,000 people and she hasn't moved since she was 3 years old. This will be a big adjustment for us all.

By and large, people in Texas are pretty friendly. Getting involved in orchestra and/or sports will give her a school family and she'll make lots of friends. They are really important for getting kids connected and not letting them get lost

She will also be close to some schools she may want to check out for nursing. TCU in Ft. Worth and Texas Women's in Denton both have good nursing programs, but my familiarity with the is a bit dated. My roommate and some friends were nursing majors at those schools. And your daughter's school/career thoughts may change between now and then.

Sounds like a suburb will be a good choice. There are some areas between Grapevine and Denton that are still a bit more rural. We drive through Ponder and Argyle and a realtor told us they have good schools and are desirable areas for pilots and others who work near DFW. I'm not as familiar with them. My college roommate moved to Plano for the schools after she married and they still live in the same house. The schools we see in competitions are larger -- Flower Mound, Hebron (both Lewisville ISD and about 3300 students, give or take 100), Duncanville (south of Dallas - not your target area).

If the realtors won't talk candidly about the schools, DH needs to talk to folks at work, the hotel where he stays until you get situated -- approach folks at Starbucks, Look at some different areas and then when you start narrowing it down, go talk to the folks at the schools. FInd out how approachable the administrators are and you can get a feel for whether the school and studenets are a good fit.

Best news -- the weather is great right now and the housing market tends to be better for buyers Oct - Feb. Good luck with it all.

I lived in the Plano area, out by Southfork ranch of the Dallas TV show fame, they are estate lots of at least 2 Acres or more which was very attractive to us. Parker, Allen, McKinney are all nice areas. Dublin estates was the area we were near. If you want property it is available you just need to let the realtor know.

http://www.larrymowatt.com/

Donna Agan is a wonderful agent. We liked her so much she came with me to Houston when I was relocating here and helped me. She works all the areas of the North Dallas area and especially those with property. A great place to start.

Thank you for the agent suggestion. Her website is laid out very nicely :)

Look at Sperling's Best Places site. You put in a zip code and you can see the communities breakdown. Religion, income, real estate etc.

I live in the DFW area, The traffic in the area you mentioned is absolutely awful so the closer to your dh's work the better. I would start with Grapevine. Excellent schools and close to lots of things. The Carroll school district is excellent too as is Colleyville. Keep in mind that are here the school district lines don't always match city or county lines so you need to make sure you know which school your potential home is zoned for. Those are some of the more expensive parts of the metroplex but like I said the traffic is terrible during rush hour in that area so any of the other cities with cheaper homes and excellent schools may cause your husband to have an awful commute.

This is assuming that your dh will actually be working in Grapevine just north of the airport. The DFW area is very spread out and extends now all the way to the OK border since there's no natural barriers to sprawl. Just the DFW airport is larger than the island of Manhattan.

There are many nursing schools in Texas. DF (who is a nursing professor) just accepted a Dean position at one of the Universities and moved there.

https://www.bon.texas.gov/pdfs/education_pdfs/education_programs/ApprovedRNschools.pdf

Oh my goodness. I'm overwhelmed. I can't thank you enough for your opinions. And thank you for the links. I think things will become more clear once he is actually there working next week and can ask lots of questions from co-workers. Beginning to talk to realtors will be the next step. It seems that if many of the schools in those areas are good, perhaps picking a community first might be easier.

The location of his work is the most important thing. He can have an hour commute one way in certain areas just going what would normally be considered a short distance. So that is why we keep mentioning that. Some areas around there have grown so so fast and the road ways gave not grown enough for the population. Finding out those things will save him time and lots of frustration, all of you because anyone driving will be frustrated. I loved the area we lived in and traffic was not as bad out there but my husband worked in Plano. He did have an office in Grapevine and in Dallas proper, he hated the days he had to go to them for meetings etc. Seriously you need to pack a lunch for some trips around DFW. It's just a very large area geographically and heavily populated.One of the bbest things my agent Donna did for me was get a big map of the DFW or just Dallas with each smaller city well marked so I could easily and quickly get a grasp of where each one was. If she said we are going to be looking in Allen today I knew where that was in relation to the city and his work. It's essential in a spread out area like Dallas. Get one of those maps!

PS don't be alarmed when you look at a complete map of the DFW area and suddenly realize it is a giant penis! The first time I realized it I freaked out a little! Once you live there and see it over and over on the news and weather it is less of a shock.

http://i.imgur.com/4B7c5.jpg

It's become known as map porn what a thing to be famous for lol.

I never realized that. It's much more vulgar than the monkey my neighborhood makes.

I had never heard it called that, but I don't think I have ever looked at that wide a view either. Welcome to Texas. LOL