As many people seek alternatives to big, dense, expensive cities, the priority is often finding suburban locations with a legitimate “downtown” presence. Craving a bigger home and better schools but also wanting nightlife seems a legitimate desire. Irving is one of these perfect-storm locations. It has 80 parks covering over 2,000 acres and big homes and yards to cover off the suburban criteria. Just as important, though, it has a legitimate downtown area with enough restaurants, bars, boutique shopping, and community gatherings to satisfy your social side. Being on the border of Dallas (and really close to Fort Worth) along the metro train line doesn’t hurt since every once in a while, we can crave something more robust than our suburban/urban lifestyle. Irving’s got that as well. 

One thing to check if you're moving with a family or planning to have kiddos is that while Irving public schools rate better than most systems in the country, its [**"B" score on niche.com**](https://www.niche.com/k12/d/irving-independent-school-district-tx/) is lower than many in the DFW suburbs. There are "A" rated schools in the district, though, so if standardized scores are important to you, then just keep an eye out for the better performers. 

 Urban Suburbia (or Suburban Urbia?)

LookyLOO Review of Irving

The kids would call Irving “chill” as compared to some of the fancier DFW suburbs. It has an active downtown scene but less of the highbrow shops and restaurants you find in Southlake, or Frisco, or either Dallas or Fort Worth. It does, however, have plenty of more casual dining, bars, and shops ideal for young professionals living downtown and families who just want somewhere fun to take the kiddos or more laid back for a date night. 

It also has those 80 parks we talked about, which means the lifestyle here includes tons of outdoor play. Running and biking trails, room for kids to run, throw a baseball (or really a football), or throw a ball to one of the dozens of dog-friendly parks. For the most part, whatever you’re looking for, casual nights out or weekends playing in the parks with kids + Rover, you’re going to find it. 

If you want to get a sense of the lifestyle of locals, check out the Irving [**calendar of events**](https://www.irvingtexas.com/events/).


Lifestyle

Irving is a legitimate business center all on its own. It has an amazing mix of Tech (NEC, PDS, Excela, Celanese), Energy (Exxon Mobil, NCH), Consumer Goods ( Kimberly-Clark, Michaels), Health (Christus, Medco), and tons of others. Irving residents work at these companies or commute to Dallas or Fort Worth. Everything is close. 

Perhaps one of the features most underestimated for either those who travel for work or newly remote workers who occasionally need to hit the road, Irving is a two-iron away from DFW airport. Ok, that would be a long two-iron, but seriously, it is just minutes away, and that makes all the difference in keeping families happy when they have to drop off or pick up a loved one who travels frequently. 


Worklife

Irving feels like a dream location for newly remote workers who want a robust economy backing them up in case their work-from home-life changes. The housing prices are low, even by DFW standards, the city is wired up with fiber for hardcore wfh digital nomads and it has a robust social and outdoor scene if you get pulled away from home for a few minutes to grab a beer or play some pickleball or whatever the kids are doing these days. It also has a large percentage of homes, apartments and condos available for renting. Which means if you’re living here as a trial or are saving up for your first home while you grind, Irving is pretty perfect. 


Remote Economy

Why You Should Move Here Now?

**Anonymous**
2 yr ago
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*Irving is a nice city. It is right in the center between Dallas and Fort Worth (which have more or less grown into each other). From all accounts, they have good schools and normal amounts of crime for a city of it’s size. There is a large area of Irving called “Las Colinas” which is a large business district where many tech firms (including Microsoft) have offices. Irving has all of the amenities of any large modern urban area. The housing is affordable compared with other major cities in the United States.*

For more reviews of what living in Irving is like from locals, check out [The Reviews](https://lookyloomove.com/locations/irving/reviews).




Reviews of Irving from Locals

**Irving** is smack dab in the middle of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, more commonly known as DFW Metroplex. In fact, it is located right in between Dallas and Fort Worth which would be convenient if you were just driving around in your own car. When you add on the fact it is on the DART light rail line which runs through Irving, and back and forth between Fort Worth and Dallas, it really becomes a plus. 

Many people think of DFW as a great big giant city (with 7.2 million people) with borders among the cities, suburbs and towns as largely irrelevant given the lack of natural borders from things like rivers or lakes. While there can be plenty of traffic in DFW for the most part the freeway system/turnpike gets everyone around in very short drives (or train rides) relative to most of the other large metroplexes. DFW is extremely new compared to the other big developed metroplexes and that means it is just more convenient. You’re 15-30 minutes into downtown Dallas or Fort Worth from a great majority of the suburbs which means if you choose to live that rolling lawn lifestyle it’s not far to hit the big cities. Most of the popular suburbs are directly north Dallas: Plano, McKinney, Frisco among others but there are also plenty in between the two cities: Irving, Arlington and Grand Prairie that draw a lot of attention as well. 

None of this means you have to live close to one of the big cities. The Metroplex is nearly 9,300 square miles, which means it is larger than the land areas of six U.S. states. If you want rural you can find it here. 


The Area

While most suburban cities confine the young professionals to downtown, Irving also has lots of apartment and rental options in downtown, Las Colinas and Valley Ranch. The Las Colinas option is nice given the Dallas Transit line (DART) has a stop there. While downtown pulls in the most youngsters due to the social options, you’ll find them sprinkled throughout the city. 
- Downtown / Heritage District 
- Las Colinas
- Valley Ranch


Young Professionals

Downtown

There are so many affordable options in Irving that young families can rent or buy their way into. Smaller ones like Townlake or bigger ones like the Hospital District, have low crime rates, reasonable prices, and enough commercial and recreational options to keep the little ones (and the big ones) happy.  If we were kicking off a tour of options we’d recommend starting with Townlake Li. If you’re looking to start in the city first, then look at the Heritage District. 
Townlake Li
- University Hills
- Hospital District
- Irving Heights


Young Families

University Hills

A lot of bigger or well-to-do families in Irving choose one of the master-planned communities to call home. Las Colinas and Valley Ranch are the two big ones and they are amazing if you want a “city” within a city. Jogging trails, their own schools, lakes, country clubs, hospitals, pretty much everything you can want from a suburban city are packed into these “neighborhoods”. There are also gated country club communities like Hackberry Creek that have big beautiful homes and of course the country club amenities but without the trappings of the master communities. 
- Las Colinas
- Valley Ranch
- Hackberry Creek


Established Families

Las Colinas

Irving

**msondo**
8mo ago
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While Las Colinas is nice, I would actually prefer downtown Irving as it would be a really easy drive to Uptown via Irving Blvd (like 10-15 mins with no traffic). You can also sneak into the airport via Valley View.

it's ideal to live in Downtown Irving vs. Las Colinas since you can take Irving Blvd. to get to Uptown in 10-15 minutes (no traffic).

**momboss79**
3y ago
🦉🦉🦉

My parents have lived in the same house in south Irving for 51 years. They have never been mugged, stabbed or shot. I don’t understand this idea that south Irving is unsafe or is riddled with crime. My only issue with south Irving and the reason I didn’t want to raise my family there is 1. The schools and 2. Access to grocery, shopping and the like. A lot of my friends from HS still live in South Irving and have raised their families there. There is crime - yes but there is plenty of the same crimes north of 183 and surrounding areas.

**BPCodeMonkey**
3y ago
🦉🦉🦉

In general all of the suburbs are "safe". I'd put safety lower on my list of needs. It's going depends on your income. Renting / Buying? Condo/Apartment? Kids?

Las Collinas provides a lot of options, heck for a while it was "the" suburb when they were building the big campuses in that area. All around there from 183 north is going to nice suburban living with access to groceries, restaurants and shopping. There will be a good number of apartments available in this area and north through Valley Ranch (was a big deal when the cowboys training center was there).

In general, if I were moving here, 45 minutes in the car would be too long. Bad things can happening and make that 1.5 hours. I would look to the areas north of 183, west of the Dallas North Tollway, and east of 35 W. There are areas around 183 that will be a little older rough around the edges and getting too far west will limit access to things to do in Dallas night life areas if that's your thing.

Narrow it down some with details, happy to give more specific feedback.

Source: Native N. Texan, grew up in Arlington, worked all over with big commutes, now live in Plano and driving 18 miles to Dallas is a big deal :)

**Moving to the Irving area from Chicago. . . . Feeling like I'm moving to another planet.**

I live in Valley Ranch, an area of Irving near 635 and MacArthur. It's a nice area, with plenty of apartments. It's safe, as far as I know - i go on walks late at night on the Valley Ranch Trails and have never encountered any trouble. Rent is reasonable, I think - i pay 1400 a month for a 2 bedroom, gated community, attached garage, huge kitchen, garden bathtubs, and an awesome maintenance crew.

As far as public transportation, it's definitely not as good as Chicago, but I have a friend who has lived here for a year without a car. There are plenty of bus stops in Valley Ranch, although they don't run very late.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me. I've been living in Irving for a little over a year, but I'm familiar with the area -my mom has lived here for 10 years.

Irving, Texas

Crooked I

Looklyloo Score: 85