I also live in Benbrook/Aledo. Our house is by Whitestone and we can get to downtown via 30 or CTP within 15-20 minutes most days. Our lot where my shop is located in Westland off of 30 & Camp Bowie West is only a 15 minute drive to downtown.

If you can afford it, Southlake is not only a great place to live, but the investment is excellent.

Grew up in 76109 went to Tanglewood. The new Overton Park is now probably better though. Youll probably want to switch the kids over to private before middle school and through high school though. Lot more to do along the I-30 corridor west of 35 than out in Aledo. 76107, 76109, 76110 are where Id look if I were you. You can still get decent stuff in Monticello for that price range.

We moved to a small town last year about 15-20 minutes N/NW of Texas Motor Speedway. We love it because it's a small town kind of out in the country. For that budget, you should be able to get a nice house with acreage and a shop. Everything is starting to blow up just south of us and I imagine we will eventually get roped into the growth, but figure if it's done right, it will increase our property value and could bring some good retail/restaurants.

I will say, it's not the most convenient, but we're 15-30 minutes from shopping and eating in Denton/Lewisville/Ft Worth. My biggest complaint is that it's the same for grocery stores, but we go to Frisco once a month for HEB. It's about 45 minutes from the house. Once the new one opens in Alliance it will be about 25-30 minutes.

If you're looking in Southlake/Keller, I'd also consider Argyle.

We're in north Keller (76262) and love it. Super convenient to get to the airport or pretty much anywhere else in the metroplex.

Not in those two areas but SE Arlington. 76017. Martin High School. I have nothing but good to say about Martin. It's basically a technical college. My daughter is taking AP Physics and calculus as a junior. She'll be able to take A&M Academy (A&M professors) for engineering calculus and a couple of other classes as a senior next year. I think all of those monster schools have tremendous options for gifted kids and they're so big there isn't really a bullying issue for the nerds that she's reported. Just too many kids.

My cousin teaches at Martin. Seems like a very tight knit school. She's been there forever. The only problem with Arlington is it full of empty nesters. It's a very nice area but not many younger families there.