Which area in TX to invest?

[Hiro Kakeda]

I live in CA, and am thinking about relocating to TX to start investing. My funds are about 500k ( cash) and I'd love to flip houses. I know it's seller's market and hard to find the deals, so I wanted to ask people who flipped or are flipping in TX; which city, the price you purchased at. Thank you in advance!

[Hattie Dizmond]

@Richard D. is exactly correct about school districts driving home values in Texas.  However, I would disagree slightly on which ones to target.

Richardson ISD is ranked in the top 25 in the entire nation and is seeing phenomenal appreciation right now as a result. Richardson has the added benefits of 1) predominately voluntary HOA's, 2) much lower property taxes than areas like Southlake & Highland Park, 3) moderately priced homes, 4) outstanding employment and growth opportunities.

Grapevine/Colleyville would be my next choice.  It is smaller than Richardson and more centrally located to the greater DFW area.  The schools and quality of life are the biggest draw here as is the proximity to DFW airport, for those who travel for work.  The ISD is also very highly ranked, though not so much as Richardson.  Grapevine/Colleyville overall has slowed slightly in the last 3 months.  Although, areas feeding the new Heritage HS are still selling under 30 days, at or above asking.

I completely agree with Richard about Keller, North Richland Hills, HEB, and I would include Watauga as well.  Stay away from Ft Worth & Dallas ISD's.  (Dallas Lakewood Elementary is good.  Ft Worth ISD Ridglea Hills Elementary is good.) 

I disagree about Mansfield.  The town's growth has not been good for the ISD there.  He's spot on with Arlington.  The exception would be far SW Arlington, specifically addresses feeding Ditto & Little Road elementaries.  (Around the DFW area, you will find a heavier bent toward school district performance and housing demand for the lower levels of school, particularly elementary.  I suspect it is partially due to the length of time a child will spend in the Elementary school and the desire to not disrupt the child, during that time.)  Even in Richardson ISD, there are 3 particular Elementary school feeder areas that squash the rest of the district.  (You should also note that, in Texas, school districts can cross city boundaries.  Richardson is a good example.  It does NOT include a small portion of Richardson, which is in Collin County, but it DOES include portions of Garland & Dallas.)

There have been some excellent articles written - mainstream press - about why Texas doesn't experience the RE bubble & burst phenom a lot of the rest of the country does.  Texas's market is very stable.  Even during the subprime crisis, the market in Texas experienced most of it's impact due to the sharp constriction of the lending market.  People couldn't get homes financed, so people with homes to sell were forced to drop the prices.  However, since the homes were never overvalued, there was not the dramatic impact you saw in markets like CA & FL.  The real property value impact in Texas was generally restricted to stagnant or non-existent appreciation for a time.

I am a huge fan of Texas and make no apologies for that fact.  We lead the nation in job creation...Dallas leads in terms of large metropolitan areas.  Property taxes are higher than a lot of places, but you get what you pay for.  People & businesses are moving to Texas.  Period.