Why are you not a fan of Plano (especially if your kids live there)? I live and work in Plano, so I don't commute, which is great. I have a 15-minute drive two and from work, and Plano is not really a suburb, seeing as how it has 300,000 people. It's a city in its own right, so a person doesn't need to get out in Dallas traffic unless they work in Dallas. The streets here are great, too (the only downside is that they are constantly maintained, so there is always some form of construction going on, which can be a pain--but it's to keep streets nice.). All of the main streets are at least six lanes, sometimes more, so it makes the traffic flow well. I rarely, if ever, sit though two light cycles anywhere (also because the traffic light intervals are set properly.) If you absolutely don't want to live in Plano for some reason, Frisco is nice (though they haven't kept up quite as well with street construction for their traffic and population, but it isn't too bad. There is nothing wrong with Lewisville, but it's a little more blue-collar, in general. Grapevine is fairly nice, but there will be still fewer trees out there (in an area where there already aren't a lot of trees, to start with.). You would be very close to DFW, which could be good if you will be flying a lot. From Plano, it's about 30 minutes to DFW (at non-rush hour times), but we normally fly out in the pre-dawn hours and fly back at night when we go on family vacations. DFW is a great place to live. It's very short on natural beauty, as the land is very flat with few trees (compared to Louisiana), but there is always a lot to do. We usually only go into Dallas for concerts or theatre productions, but we do like to go to Fort Worth for a fun weekend now and then (it can also be easily done as a day trip--about an hour or so from Plano.). The Stockyards and Sundance Square (downtown) are fun, and there are some great art museums and the Ft. Worth Zoo. Ft. Worth has a small-time vibe, even though a million people live there. It's a distinctly different vibe from Dallas, which is full of pretentious people.
Are you going to be living w/ your wife and kids? Do they not like Plano? I have some commercial property in Lewisville, but not sure that I would want to live there. Stacy is correct in that it is a bit more blue collar. If I were to live in DFW, I think I would live in Coppell or Dallas itself, around Preston & Northhaven. Great neighborhood and the home prices are increasing nicely. Coppell would be much closer to DFW Airport and is much newer. The Preston & Northhaven area is a very mature area w/ lots of live oaks and such. Both have great schools.
Grapevine, Colleyville, or the HEB area. Tarrant County my friend. Stay away from Dallas County even though Stacey will probably disagree with me. I lived in Colleyville for 7 years and loved it. Also Keller is a good place to live. Great school district for the kids too.
I won't disagree with you on Dallas County, but Plano is in Collin County, which is definitely my county of preference up here. We looked everywhere from Ft. Worth to Dallas before buying a house in Pllano.
Now, you truly aren't joking there. My 5th grader is fond of saying that in her 5th grade class of 120 or so kiddos, about half of whom are Asian, that there are only two "cool" Asians. She's not kidding, either. And Asian female drivers are the worst on earth.
Oh yeah, I always forget Collin County. How far does that extend? Does it go up to Greenville or Sherman? Or is Plano just on the far West side of it. I guess I could google it. Ahhh, Frisco is in Collin County. The last time I was in DFW my brother was getting married in Denton. My mom lives in Burleson, we stayed in Fort Worth. The night he got married we drove from Burleson to Frisco then to Denton and back to Fort Worth. That's like driving to New Orleans from Alexandria. Ridiculous.
