When SMU officially opened in 1915, University Park was an ad hoc community of scattered houses mostly for faculty and staff.  More history...

Today, the police department averages less than 2 minutes response times. The school system (HPISD shared with Highland Park) is exceptional. In terms of college prep (SAT, AP, scholarships) the high school ranked top-10 in US by the WallStreet Journal in '99, and 16th in US by NewsWeek in 2000. SAT score average in 2002 was 1194. University Park Elementary's 2002 third-graders had the highest TAKS test average in Texas.

In May 2000, Robb Report (Page 1   Page 2   Page 3   Page 4) voted  University Park and Highland Park the 8th best affluent communities in the nation where livability and community were considered along with luxury and affluence.

 2938 Lovers Lane

Located on Lovers Lane between Hillcrest and 75 freeway, the convenience of this house's location will get you spoiled. The recently expanded 75 freeway makes driving anywhere a breeze. Commuting south to downtown (4 miles) takes a few minutes. Commuting north is against traffic. The speedy Dallas tollway is 3 miles west on Lovers Lane.

Within 3 miles of this house are the North Park mall and all kinds of shops and businesses, ranging from high-end to thrifty. Within walking distance are parks, eateries, SMU, Snider Plaza, DART, supermarkets, post office, auto repair, Starbucks, Borders, etc. Across the street is a good church daycare I used to take my son to. A fun thing to do with visitors is to take them on the light-rails from Lovers Lane DART to the West End, the Reunion Arena, Dallas Zoo, and other downtown attractions.

For those who have to or like to travel, 4  miles away is the Love Field airport, which has one of the best on-time track records (3 minutes average flight delay compared to 30 minutes at DFW).  Dallas also recently approved plans to expand Love Field's services from the existing 17 gates to 32 gates to make the airport even more useful.

On the other hand, the cost of so much convenience, and the not so good part of this house's location is being on the busy Lovers Lane which is second only to Highland Park's Mockingbird Lane in terms of traffic. We vacillated for months before buying, needing to investigate many concerns. You probably have lots of questions too if you're considering this house. Here's how Lovers Lane turned out for us for the questions you might have:

Is Lovers Lane safe for kids?

You'd be surprised at how many Lovers Lane families there are with young children. The kids don't play in the front yards for you to see them, but if you drive through the alleys, you'll see them playing or their toys in many backyards. We have 3 kids, ranging from 8 years old down to 10 months old, and we feel very comfortable with the street. 

We also had a much easier time than expected teaching our kids to mind the street. The traffic is frequent enough that the kids simply tune out the street as a play area and thus don't get into trouble. Had the traffic been more intermittent, I think we'd have more problems. Our previous next door neighbor had 2 young kids and in 2000 bought a larger house also on Lovers Lane. Our other next door who were renting and had 2 teenagers also bought another Lovers Lane house last year.

Is the traffic annoying?

It can be when you're new to it. It took me several weeks to get used to the street and now I don't mind it at all. With this house's circular drive being 2-car wide, getting in or out hasn't been a problem. The traffic noise hasn't been a problem either. It's less noticeable than the A/C. Visitors are often surprised at how quiet and comfortable living on Lovers Lane can be, especially with this house, where the layout and construction were geared to buffer street noise. Unless you really pay attention and the A/C isn't running, you won't notice the outside noise.

Yet surprisingly, the street is rather nice for the urban vibe it generates. Living on Lovers Lane reminds me we live in an urban location, right in the middle of the hubbubs. This house's front living room with windows on three sides is my favorite hideout. It's a good place for reading a newspaper while soaking up some of that urban vibe. A lived-in nanny we had initially asked why we lived on such a busy street, but after a while we found her opening her bedroom window to enjoy Lovers Lane's sound as well as sight. I knew we could get used to the traffic but to actually enjoy it was a surprise. It's no wonder people are rediscovering downtown living.

What about resale?

Not so good here if the price isn't low enough. Buyers shop the quieter streets before they consider Lovers Lane. Lovers Lane houses consequently sell for ~200K less than University Park's average. It's a buyers market on Lovers Lane until more people realize how livable the street can be; which could be soon when more people see and experience the urban living in downtown Dallas that is catching on. Until then, there is a big discount for those willing the take the road less traveled.

This is our fifth house and it's the first one we strayed from the conventional wisdom of favoring the quieter streets. We did it mainly to keep our budget but have been more than pleasantly surprised by how livable this semi-urban location is. I can truly say that this house has been far more enjoyable than I expected. A lot of it is due to how nice this house turned out, but the seemingly negative auto and pedestrian traffic have been refreshing for the urban atmosphere they provide.

A good example is the Mockingbird Station (next to Mockingbird DART). Its developer saw the location's potential and bought it in '96 for dirt cheap. The sellers thought being next door to DART will be a detriment. On contrary, Mockingbird Station is now a big hit causing city officials and other property owners to scramble to reappraise next-to-DART real estate to match the escalating demand. Lovers Lane is a different type of location but could well be seen in a similar light thanks to its unique combination of a stimulating urban atmosphere to go along with the safety, the school system and the community of University Park. It's a perfect location for urbanites with family. Especially while the street is still overlooked.