Finding just the right place to live in North Texas depends on a lot of factors. What many people want is a quiet, friendly community far away from the busy city, but that usually comes with a long commute to work. The cities in south Denton County and Northern Tarrant County, including Flower Mound, Argyle, Lantana, and Double Oak, are gaining a lot of attention for their high quality of life.

Photo courtesy of The Town of Flower Mound

Flower Mound recently topped SmartAsset’s ranking of best cities to live in the United States. Flower Mound benefits from the low unemployment rate and the relative low cost of living when compared with Dallas and Fort Worth. In the SmartAsset list of cities, Flower Mound has a 3.1 percent unemployment rate and a low 4.7 percent of residents below the poverty line.

The housing stock in Flower Mound is affordable compared to its cost of living as well. The SmartAsset list states that the average home in Flower Mound is only 2.62 times the median household income. Although it’s about 30 miles north of both Downtown Fort Worth and Downtown Dallas, it has a central location between the two, which makes it ideal for commuting to either one. 

What Flower Mound and all the surrounding cities have in common is a high quality of life. As previously reported, Flower Mound took honors as one of the safest communities in the country. With easy access to Grapevine Lake and Lake Lewisville, it’s also a natural choice for people who enjoy outdoor recreation. That’s a rare find in North Texas. 

Flower Mound is zoned to three different school districts, all of which are highly rated. The districts serving Flower Mound students are Lewisville, Northwest, and Argyle. With a healthy 90 percent rate of houses occupied by their owners, and lots of amenities, Flower Mound and the nearby communities consistently win awards as great places to settle down. 

A Rural Escape Outside the City  

One of the first things you’ll notice when you head north toward Flower Mound and Lantana is that the population density seems to thin out. Broad prairies, grazing cattle, and mature trees surround the residential and commercial areas. In fact, it was once called “long prairie” before it was Flower Mound. It seems a lot more like a small, rural town than the suburban area on the outskirts of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Flower Mound was first incorporated in 1961. Back then, the area was truly remote from the city: the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport wasn’t even built until 13 years later. The town was only accessible via back roads. At that time, less than 2,000 people lived there.

But the population really exploded after the DFW Airport was constructed. The population more than tripled between 1980 and 1990 and more than tripled again between 1990 and 2000. Today, the US Census Bureau estimates that more than 73,000 people live there. 

Flower Mound has a reputation as a desirable place to live with lots of room to roam. Growth is carefully controlled by the city planners. In fact, the town has an intentional “Smart Growth” plan designed to keep the town in balance. The Smart Growth plan aims to ensure availability of utility services, the creation of parks and walking trails, and preservation of natural resources. Even as the town grows, builders still have to maintain grassland around development.

As Flower Mound has grown to more than 73,000 people, those seeking truly rural places to live have spread out beyond the town limits. Lantana is a new master-planned community with golf courses, lakes, and luxury homes. Argyle is a rural area to the west of Flower Mound and Lantana, and is the site of an additional master-planned community. 

Although the areas of Denton County including Flower Mound and Argyle feel like an escape from the fast-paced city, more jobs are creeping closer to the area. The growth in the Westlake area includes thousands of jobs coming to the Solana Office Park. Major employers moving to Westlake and bringing thousands of jobs include Sabre, Charles Schwab, Pfizer, and Travelocity. 

The new developments in the Alliance Airport area are also bringing new amenities closer to the Flower Mound and Argyle area.

As North Texas continues to grow, few truly rural areas remain. The areas around Flower Mound and Argyle are developing rapidly as well. Soon, they may be as busy as once-rural towns a bit farther to the south, like Keller and Grapevine.