Hi there,my family and I are moving to Dallas (Irving) from the Uk for my husbands work,this may seem very random,but could realy do with advice on cost of living(gas,water,electric,air con,taxes,eating out ect)good areas to live in,schools ect,we are still very early on with our research,so any advice would be much appreciated many thanks

I lived in Irving, TX between 2001-2004.

Was obviously a little while ago, but from what I remember, pretty cheap cost of living. I rented a 1 bed flat with about 600 sq ft for a little over $500/month.

Main expense was definitely keeping the a/c going, but in my relatively small flat it wasn't expensive.

Irving has plenty of the usual chain restaurants and quite a few others.

When I was there it was a dry county, so no beer or wine in the shops Not sure if that's changed since I lived there. Worth checking

Most lived further afield. I had no kids at the time so I had no interest in schools, but I got the impression they were not great. Many lived out in Grand Prairie, Arlington and even the Plano area (though the Plano drive must have been awful).

A few went for Fort Worth since they could get more house (though compared to what I was used to in the UK, eveything seemed huge!).

Irving is great for visits from the UK due to being right by DFW airport.

The local film studio in Irving was used to film scenes from Robocop

Right, that's all I got on Irving

Ouch...Dallas?

Anyway, weren't there a similar thread a couple weeks back? Might have been Houston, but the gist would be the same.

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

http://www.greatschools.org/

a couple sites to get started on

I'm in North Dallas (Plano) and I'd be happy to help, but you need to put in little effort too - your list of questions is too broad and vague, and would take many pages to answer. Eating out? I paid $390 for a meal last week, and $8.75 yesterday. Good areas to live? Preston Hollow if you have more than $2M for a home, Frisco if you have less than $150k. You get the idea.

Are you going to rent or buy? Are you coming over for a couple of years on a temporary visa, or moving over for life? What ages are your kids - are we talking kindergarten or senior high? Water, gas, electric and air will depend entirely on the size of your apartment or home.

So... give us a little more information and plan your questions and I'm sure we can give you some good advice.

Hey thanks guys,my head is all a pickle,soooo many questions,so much to do,very excited but very nervous at the same time,thanks alot for your info.one more question,im getting the impression Dallas isnt the best place in the world to live???why is this???scary

It's Texas for a start but at least it ain't Houston

But then again, all depends on what you want out of life and what you fancy doing with your time. Some love it, some hate it for various reasons including isolation, religion, guns, lack of seasons, massive mozzies...but then some love the heat and countryside and ability to do outdoor things and live in a massive house shooting squirrels.

Nah - Dallas is ok

I'm also in Plano - been here for about 18 months. I think the worst thing I could say about it here is it's pretty bland - there's certainly not much in the way of natural beauty

On the other hand, I do find day to day life here very easy - you can get your kids into decent schools easily, you get them into almost any sports you want, plenty of activities around.

Have you had a chance to visit yet?

Oh - and welcome to BE

Bob, have you ever even been to Dallas?

Personally, I liked Dallas.

The uptown area of Dallas is a lot fun (for a year I lived off McKinney... my brief "yuppie" stage) and your dollar goes a long way in Texas.

Not exactly a cultural mecca, but I enjoyed it. Really depends what you're looking for.

If it's a big house with a pool and lots of sun, the suburbs of Dallas are great.

If it's a small town feel with liberal and open minded neighbors, maybe not so much.

Has nice places to head to for a long weekend as well. Head town to Austin to feel young again. Check out San Antonio for a Venice like experience (well, not quite!). Or drive right down to Corpus Christi for the beach.

Texas has a lot to offer if you're willing to look for it and don't mind a few hours in the car.

We would be comming over on a work transfer so its hard to say how long we will stay, I supose it all depends on how the job goes and how much we like the place. We intend to stay for a couple of years at least to give it a chance.

Our daughter is 6 so we would be looking at Elementary school's, from what we have seen so far the elementary schools seem to be rated better than the high schools in the area's surrounding Irving.

We would rent until we become more familiar with the areas and would be looking for a 3 bed, ideally with a pool looking to pay no more than $2000 per month. We dont really want to have to commute too far so our initial prefferance would be in Coppell/Grapevine (Is this realistic?)

We have no idea on costs of things like cable TV, ISP's, Mobile phones/car/home insurance. We know there is no state tax in Texas and the sales tax is less than the VAT we pay in the UK, is there any other taxes we need to be aware off? Is there anything like council tax or rates?

Thanks again for the responses so far, as any advice / tips is greatly appriciated as we aint got a clue


Forgot to mention,as were moving from Belfast we dont do religon,soo had had enough of that gargin,but each to there own,but looking forward to meeting new people and enjoy what Dallas has to offer cheers

I'm not really familiar with that area - the forums on city data are normally pretty good on commute details - so maybe have a check there.

We currently pay $150 per month for a cable/internet/phone bundle - that's with Time Warner Cable - check out their website for what they've got in your area.

If Verizon Fios is available in your area, I hear that's fab, so maybe check that out to.

If you are putting together a budget - the other big ticket item to consider is health insurance - check that out with your husband's employer as to those costs.

No council tax - property tax is paid by the property owner so will be reflected in the rent you pay.

When we were looking for rentals, we found there were very few with pools in our price bracket as the insurance/maintenance can be more expensive for landlords - consequently, we pay quite a bit more rent for a house with a pool than for a similar house without a pool.

Check out realtor.com for rentals.

Oh, one last thing about Coppell - we considered that area. While Coppell has good schools, some of the houses there fall in the school catchment area of somewhere else (Farmer's Branch, I think) and the schools are not quite so good there.

He shot JR.

You don't half talk some crap Bob!

Isolation - yes, I suppose that can be an issue anywhere when you're a new immigrant. I'm pretty sure I would have felt that way anywhere at some stage.

Religion - yes, people here tend to be more religious than in the UK and many parts of the US, but in nearly 7 years here I've only had three people really try and talk to me about religion.

Guns? I've been here over 6 years and I haven't seen ONE, with the exception of the cops.

Lack of seasons? You must be thinking of somewhere else. It's bloody hot here for a very long summer, but you get a more "real" winter than the UK (well, except this year's UK winter...)

Massive mozzies? I'm pretty sure 50% of America has them worse. Now if you'd said chiggers or snakes or spiders...

So, price of living, bills etc.

TV/FiOS Internet/Telephone - $180 per month with premium movie channels
Gas - $300/month in the winter, $10/month in the summer
Electric - $100/month in the winter, $400/month in the summer
Water - $75/month or $100 if we fill the pool

This is for a 4000sq.ft home, so you can adjust for a smaller place.

Property tax is a big one, but you don't pay that directly when you're renting.

Naa...couple of friends are from Dallas though, one moved back to San Antonio and loves it a lot more, one moved back to Dallas for the work and someone else went to Houston and really doesn't like it compared to Dallas...saying that, he got sick of LA and Boston too