You will love Waterview. Having lived in Rowlett for many years, I can tell you that the built-in waterpark and golf course make it one of the nicest communities you can select. We have all the usual facilities in Rowlett, restaurants, shopping and so on, and are near the Firewheel mall, a new popular shopping area. Waterview is near Lake Ray Hubbard but not on it. Rockwall, across the lake, features the Harbor area with fine dining right on the lake shore as well as shopping etc.

Being on the north end of Rowlett is somewhat of a disadvantage traffic-wise since development was faster than the road, but that is about to end. The Geo Bush Turnpike construction that will pass near the southeast entry to the Waterview area has begun. When completed, you will be able to get to Plano, Richardson and nearby north suburbs easily and quickly. Right now you have to put up with some congestion to get to the current end of the turnpike at Firewheel mall, maybe 5-10 minutes.
Construction on the connection to I-30 several miles south in Rowlett has also started.

If you're headed down to I-30, currently the divided 4-lane Dalrock connection is congested during rush hour but moves fairly quickly. Working in downtown Dallas would probably take 40 minutes or so during congested times, even though it is only about 17 miles. If you're working in Plano/Richardson area, expect about 20-25 minutes or slightly longer if on the other side of Plano, and 35-45 minutes to get to north Plano/McKinney.

Tax rates in Texas are higher than in many places but we have no income tax. On residential property in Rowlett you can expect about 2.4% (24 mills) for total school, city and county taxes etc.

Many of the properties are in zone X (outside the 100-year flood plain) but your individual property survey will tell you if there is any risk there. Of course fully planned storm drain systems are in place in Rowlett.

You can contact me through my profile to find out other things or visit our website http://www.SumnerRealty.com

Check out Lake Grapevine and Lake Lewisville. You may actually be able to pull of waterfront or at least waterview in your price range.

Thanks again everyone.......after reading about your postings on the traffic I checked out Highland Village. I already deal with horrendous traffic and do not want to do it all over again. I'm really wanting to be near a lake since I'm into watersports, this seems like a nice area as well and now need to research it to see what's available in my range

If you are wanting to be close to Grapevine. Rockwall and Rowlett are a very tough drive to Grapevine. Especially during peak times. For that price range, you may want to think about focusing on Colleyville, and possibly even some areas of Grapevine. Southlake might be just a touch out of the price range but also could be an option. I guess ultimately it depends on how much you will be going to grapevine on a daily basis you should definitely rule out rockwall or rowlett.

hope this helps.

RJ

Steve,

By the way, the local FOX news station has a traffic watcher feature and videos of it also. You can find it at http://www.myfoxdfw.com/subindex/traffic. If you are really interested watch it for a week during the rush hour times here. You will get an idea of how traffic flows around the metroplex.

Good luck!

Hello Steve,

Rowlett to Grapevine is approximately 35 miles of driving. Unfortunately it is also on one of the busiest stretches of highway, 635. If you leave before/after rush hour going to work and before/after rush hour going home then you can do it in about an hour. If you do it during rush hour and just one fender bender occurs it is not possible to tell you how long it would take. It only takes one bad driver to shut 635 down entirely and here they issue driver's licenses from Cracker Jack boxes!

There are a lot of nice communities closer to Grapevine and even some to the North and Northwest of Grapevine. Traffic and commuting in the metroplex can be brutal! Use Yahoo or Google maps and look at the communities surrounding Grapevine if that is where you will work.

Good luck!

Emmanuel J. Scanlan
PS Inspection & Property Services LLC http://www.psinspection.com
214-418-4366 (cell)
TREC License # 7593
International Code Council, Residential Combination Inspector #5247015-R5 (Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing and Building)
Certified Infrared Thermographer (ASNT-TC1A Standards)
Texas Residential Construction Commission, Third Party Warranty Inspector #1593
Texas Residential Construction Commission, Inspector, County Inspection Program
Texas Department Of Insurance, VIP Inspector # 08507061016
Hayman Residential Engineering Services, Field Technician
CMC Energy - Certified Energy Auditor

Knowledge is power, but sharing knowledge brings peace!!

Would this be a tough drive to Grapevine from Rowlett?

Aslo, i've heard about the shores in Rockwall from a friend who lives in TX, is this somewhere we can get a nice house for 400,000? I'm downsizing from our current house and am not interested in a huge mortgage anymore, thank you

Sounds great Steve and I look forward to showing you just because you get a rebate does not mean you lose any service.

RJ

Thank you very much for the information Emmanuel and everyone else , this really helped me calculate my payments based on the down and look at questions on the forum which pertain to my circumstances. Once I get further along and if the job transfer goes through I will contact one of the Realtors posting on my thread, I have to admit the 20% commission rebate is a great sales tool!!

Steve

7's,
The current taxes are $7773 and the HOA fee is $1137 annually. This is a gated community located in the Dallas County and Garland Independent School District portion of Rowlett. The price was lowered again on June 11.
Call or email me directly with any additional questions or concerns.

Regards,
Dennis.Anderson@Century21.com
(214)217-0449

Hello Steve,

Those are good questions and concerns. I certainly can not give you comps for the area but there are other venues you can ask these questions in. Here is a list of BB's for the Rowlett and surrounding areas. Nobody can answer your questions better than the residents.
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/rowlett-tx http://www.city-data.com/forum/dallas/

Here are some other good resources for you:

Rowlett City WEB site http://www.ci.rowlett.tx.us/rowlett/

Rowlett Spans 2 counties, Dallas and Rockwall. You can find tax data at the following two sites Dallas is http://www.dallascad.org/ and Rockwall is http://www.rockwallcad.com/ that particular property is in Dallas County

This is a good source for MLS in the entire DFW area http://www.ccar.net/public/publicaccessmls.aspx

Don't forget Google maps which can give you actual street level views of the home. You can also move around and see other homes nearby. Just keep in mind that these are most likely not very current maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Another thing to keep in mind is that we have quite a bit of expansive clay soils here. Even though a property is not specifically in a flood hazard area these soils do not help. Properties should be properly built above the surrounding ground and sloped away or have other provisions for handling rainwater issues. This soil on average can only absorb 1/16" of water per hour so a soaking raining can cause ground run-off.

Check out my WEB site as I have hundreds of links in various categories that might be of use to you.

Good luck on the purchase!

Emmanuel J. Scanlan
PS Inspection & Property Services LLC http://www.psinspection.com
214-418-4366 (cell)
TREC License # 7593
International Code Council, Residential Combination Inspector #5247015-R5 (Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing and Building)
Certified Infrared Thermographer (ASNT-TC1A Standards)
Texas Residential Construction Commission, Third Party Warranty Inspector #1593
Texas Residential Construction Commission, Inspector, County Inspection Program
Texas Department Of Insurance, VIP Inspector # 08507061016
Hayman Residential Engineering Services, Field Technician
CMC Energy - Certified Energy Auditor

Knowledge is power, but sharing knowledge brings peace!!

For Rowlett this is definitely going to be one of the nicer neighborhoods. However it is a quite large development and does have a large range of house sizes. This particular phase would be larger homes for sure. If you send me your email I can send you the comps. The current annual taxes on this property are $7773. They have dropped the price by about 15k. You really never know how low a seller will go til you start writing offers. I am very familiar with the area as a whole, including Rowlett, Rockwall and many other areas.

I would love to help you find a new home in Texas and dont mind helping you look in a few different areas. I am a full-time Realtor and my lack of a large name broker allows me to rebate you 20% of the commission I make off the sale after closing.

Dont hesitate to call
RJ Avery
214-682-0598