What is the city of Alvarado like?

As from previous thread of mine, I am moving. We have looked online at Alvarado. Anybody got thoughts on the town, ie., school district, real estate prices, good place to live, "actual" driving time into downtown FW from the southern cities? It looks good online. Bonus is that Alvarado is only about 40 minutes from Cresson!!!

TIA,
Alan

The schools don't look very good.

http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools...st=TX/p=1/fp=1

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Originally Posted by smartmx5

"actual" driving time into downtown FW from the southern cities?
Alan

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Where I-35w and I-20 intersect the traffic sucks really bad. Going south it does not loosen up until after Burleson. YMMV.

Just give this map a look at 5:15::Blowup::

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Originally Posted by Ataim

Where I-35w and I-20 intersect the traffic sucks really bad. Going south it does not loosen up until after Burleson. YMMV.

Just give this map a look at 5:15::Blowup::

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Yep, you need to try the drive it's a hella good time, do you guys even have traffic in Tyler. ;)

I still think this kid had a good plan. <copy & paste>

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Originally Posted by altiain

If you're pressed for time on the move, my suggestion would be to find an apartment for six months somewhere in the area, move into that, then take your time to find the right house. You don't want to rush into buying the wrong house in an unfamiliar area, especially in today's market where it may be extremely difficult to sell it and find something else.

When we moved from North Richland Hills to Murphy (about 55 miles from NE Tarrant County to south Collin County), we took three months of looking and looked at over fifty homes... and I had been working on this side of town for over a year and was pretty familiar with the area. Taking the extra time to find what we wanted was worth it.

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Generally, I'd say Alvarado is not the best place, its more like Hicksville.

There is nearby Lake Alavardo, which is pseudo private with homes\acreage all around. I have seen some very nice homes around there- and some are for sale.

The drive north\south to the Fort is tough at best in morning\evening traffic- mostly due to on-going construction at the 35 & 20 intersection.

FYI- Cresson is probably 30 min from Alvarado

Here is the map. :confused:

http://dfwtraffic.dot.state.tx.us/#m...D%2C2000%29%3B

Thanks for all the information. We are 'kind of' pressed for time. I get 60 days corporate housing. It will start about March 1st. So by May 1st, we hope to be able to buy. We will keep in mind a place to rent as a second choice. I can really appreciate Altiain's thought process. I will take a look at Lake Alvarado. The traffic map is pretty cool. And yes, we do have traffic in Tyler. We are the official retirement community of Texas. The city is about 100K with about 250K total in the county and commuting workforce.

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Originally Posted by smartmx5

Anybody got thoughts on the town
Alan

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::Bust1:: Speed Trap

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Originally Posted by Titus

The schools don't look very good.

http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools...st=TX/p=1/fp=1

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That seems to go against the information we are being told that less students per teacher will equal better grades!! :confused: I hope the school would have been better.
Thanks for the new Website!!!!!

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Originally Posted by smartmx5

And yes, we do have traffic in Tyler. We are the official retirement community of Texas. The city is about 100K with about 250K total in the county and commuting workforce.

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Just Fort Worth by itself has 540K and Tarrant county has about 1.6M people. ;)

What grade are your kids in??

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Originally Posted by TurboDuane

::Bust1:: Speed Trap

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+1, ABSOLUTELY.


Venus ( is a hole) has a new development by Choice Homes with 1 acre lots. I took a tour and was quite surprised- nicer than I expected, but I wasn't expecting much. Starting around 150K. Venus is mid-way between Midlothian and Alvarado.....all speed traps BTW.

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Originally Posted by smartmx5

That seems to go against the information we are being told that less students per teacher will equal better grades!! :confused: I hope the school would have been better.
Thanks for the new Website!!!!!

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The Students per teacher numbers are deceiving. Instead of telling you how many kids are in a class, it is telling you the ratio for the whole school. It counts people like librarians, music teachers, etc, so the actual classroom numbers will be higher.

The Math and English numbers are telling you the percentage of students that pass the Math and English proficiency exams. In our search for a home, we are looking for schools where both numbers get into the 90s. There are schools where both numbers are 100%, but we can't afford the homes in those areas (See Southlake). You can look at Plano to get an idea of what a good but still somewhat reasonable area looks like.

The other tool I like is the Ebby.com home search tool. They list the schools for the house in the property details of about half of the homes. For those that are not listed, you can click the Property Map button, and then check the "Public Schools" box. This will mark the schools near by on the map so you can find what the near by schools are. Once you have the school name, you can go back to Schoolmatters.com and search on the specific school.

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Just Fort Worth by itself has 540K and Tarrant county has about 1.6M people. ;)

What grade are your kids in??

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No kids yet! Hope to have a few soon.

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Originally Posted by Titus

The Students per teacher numbers are deceiving. Instead of telling you how many kids are in a class, it is telling you the ratio for the whole school. It counts people like librarians, music teachers, etc, so the actual classroom numbers will be higher.

The Math and English numbers are telling you the percentage of students that pass the Math and English proficiency exams. In our search for a home, we are looking for schools where both numbers get into the 90s. There are schools where both numbers are 100%, but we can't afford the homes in those areas (See Southlake). You can look at Plano to get an idea of what a good but still somewhat reasonable area looks like.

The other tool I like is the Ebby.com home search tool. They list the schools for the house in the property details of about half of the homes. For those that are not listed, you can click the Property Map button, and then check the "Public Schools" box. This will mark the schools near by on the map so you can find what the near by schools are. Once you have the school name, you can go back to Schoolmatters.com and search on the specific school.

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Titus,
You are just a wealth of information. Thanks!!

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Originally Posted by smartmx5

Titus,
You are just a wealth of information. Thanks!!

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No problem... I have a little girl that starts kindergarten next year and we are getting ready to put our house on the market, so I have been right in the middle of the whole school search thing.

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Originally Posted by Titus

...we are getting ready to put our house on the market...

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But why,

You have a lovely house in a nice secluded neighborhood.

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Originally Posted by Titus

No problem... I have a little girl that starts kindergarten next year and we are getting ready to put our house on the market, so I have been right in the middle of the whole school search thing.

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You know there is always private school. ;)

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

You know there is always private school. ;)

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But don't you have to be one of those religious types to do that? :D

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Originally Posted by Radio-Active

But why,

You have a lovely house in a nice secluded neighborhood.

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Want more space and a better school for the kido.

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

You know there is always private school. ;)

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And you call your self a CB. :rolleyes:

IF I wanted to live someplace like downtown, I probably would. As it is, it seems silly to pay for school when there are excellent free options in areas that interest us.