No kids would have us downtown Dallas or Fort Worth. Very different vibe in each. Long term consider Trophy Club/Roanoke and Northwest ISD.

There are many decent areas in the dfw metroplex to live. It all depends on your needs and taste. Do you prefer a quiet, more rural/ suburban setting? Or do you prefer a more urban, social type atmosphere? How far are you willing to drive to work? Do you have kids that make schools a concern?

Hard to answer the question without knowing the specifics. If you can elaborate more, I could try and point you in the right direction.

For example, many people have recommended Trophy Club. Nice houses, close to airport, but extremely expensive and more of a yuppie crowd. If that's what you like, then it would be perfect. But for the same money, you could find a place about 45 minutes to an hour drive from the airport and have the same custom home on 5 acres. All depends on what you want.

If it were me, I'd stay out of the city limits of Dallas. Highland Park and University Park are the only decent areas in the actual City of Dallas and are all older homes that are among the highest prices in the metroplex. Plus, you're smack dab in the middle of all the traffic and crowds.

If you want to be fairly close to the airport, get a decent bang for the buck on your property, and be in a somewhat less congested area, I would recommend Roanoke, Justin, or Argyle.

What's Grand Prairie like?

I live in Grand Praire..far south GP down by Mansfield. Been here for 10 years and love it. Excellent schools, all housing, schools, malls and restaurants new. PM me if you need more info. Only 35 min drive to airport. Definitely more affordable than going north of airport.

I'm not even sure what to ask. I'm based at Love. Curious about drive time, schools, and neighborhoods.

South Grand Prairie is where the growth is happening (south of 20 - closer to 287).

I would probably choose Mansfield ISD over Grand Prairie ISD for schools.

If you buy in the DFW metroplex, make sure you get your mineral rights with the property/house. Natural gas leasing has cooled off, but if you retain your mineral rights, you have the option of leasing, as opposed to not getting mineral rights and the previous owner getting royalty payments on your minerals.

Only problem with Mansfield and Grand Prairie is that 20 going to DAL Love tends to clog up pretty good going up the hill to the 408/12. You can try paying $$$ to take 161 to 30 to Love, or even 161 to 183 to DFW, but 161 turns into a parking lot near 183, and you're now paying for the privilege of parking on a toll road.

That sounds unpleasant, but I guess there are no good options for avoiding all of the traffic. We are moving from the middle of nowhere Arkansas and the wife doesn't want to end up in a subdivision where the houses are right on top of each other. We are going to need to look further away from DFW to find what she wants and still have it be affordable

Good options in the NW Plano Frisco area.
Fairly new and not too far out like north Frisco. Not too far from Downtown. If that matters too ya. Some people it does and some it doesn't.
$383K house I pay $8300 per year in property tax that goes up as they up the value every year.
Opinions will vary wildly. Plano has tons of white collar jobs for the other half if he/she works.
It's hard to go anywhere now without paying tolls. Another way for the man to get in your pocket and the entire area is slowly getting more and more toll roads.
Further west seems to be less toll roads.

Out to the West, north of Fort Worth the Alliance area. It's growing, but the houses are not on top of each other. We built up here in 2010 and are quite happy. We're stuck in the conundrum of having pay Fort Worth taxes, Keller ISD taxed and PID. Overall, though, not too bad. I can make the parking lot at DFW in 30 minutes by taking the back roads. It's a little slower, but traffic is consistent.

Getting over to DAL might suck, though. 114 and 183 aren't the best roads, but since they've built those toll lanes, I think it's gotten better.