By: Scott Corbin
This summer, it’ll be four years since we first moved to Cowtown.
2019 was a big year. I stopped working at my job in Nashville, Tennessee, and as I began the job search, my wife and I felt it was time to take our two little kids — with another on the way — and get back to Texas to be closer to family. But where? There’s no way I’d go back to Houston, the place I was raised. Austin, the town where my wife, Jessi, and I first met, was getting too crowded and expensive. And, how do I say this politely? We’re just not… Dallas people.
“What about Fort Worth?” Jessi asked me curiously.
Fort Worth. I’d never thought about Fort Worth before. I had visited here once when I was in high school, but the majority of the time was spent in the Keller suburbs.
Fort Worth made sense. It was between our families (southwest Oklahoma and north Houston, respectively), and it wasn’t far from our friends down in Austin. Living in Fort Worth meant access to DFW Airport, which was a must for my profession.
Fort Worth. It made sense. Frankly, it made more sense than I even realized. Looking back now, I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
The fact that we landed in Hulen Heights can only be chalked up to a kind providence. We had flown into town for a quick 24-hour trip that took us all over every neighborhood in Fort Worth, from Watauga to Burleson. Nothing was lining up. But we started to see that the southern part of Fort Worth, north of Crowley, especially along the beautiful new Chisholm Trail Parkway, held promise.
As I compulsively checked Zillow, I came across a listing in the Hulen Heights neighborhood. This was a neighborhood we had driven through the previous day and we were struck by its walkability, access to multiple parks, a beautiful nature area with a walking trail and Spanish- style clubhouse with a pool that we jokingly said “feels like a resort.” The home came with an office (another “must” for my line of work), multiple bedrooms for our growing family and a quaint backyard that provides privacy for our children to make memories in.
We saw the house the next day, put an offer in three hours later, and moved in the next month.
Listings for houses provide lots of very helpful information. They can help you know about the schools you’re zoned for, your estimated monthly payment and provide some realistic expectations for how your house will appreciate, and much more. What they can’t do is help you understand the quality of the neighbors in your neighborhood. When we moved to Hulen Heights, I knew we’d have top-of-the-line amenities — walkability, the pool — but I had no idea that I would get to experience the joy of a good, local community.
Hulen Heights to me is more than the Zillow estimate on my page profile. It’s names, and faces, and friends, and neighbors. It’s food trucks in the summer, and the hundreds (thousands?) of locals who descend during Halloween, because we’re the neighborhood you go to for trick-or- treating.
It’s the conversations in the front yard, the dogs my kids have gotten to know, and the kids who I have watched grow from baby carriers, to strollers, to bicycles. It’s the Galentines events and gardening club, who you can expect at the pool during certain hours in the summer. It’s the way you can watch families steadily grow on the playground by the pool.
As more and more of our friends have moved to Fort Worth, they will stay with us and often say, “I wish I could live in your neighborhood!” I don’t blame them. Jessi and I will often say how grateful we are to be where we are. And as our family has grown from four, to five, and now to six, I can’t imagine a better place for my kids to grow up.
And so that’s why we call Cowtown our home and have no intention of ever leaving.
Fort Worth? Yes, Fort Worth. Hulen Heights in Fort Worth. This is the place that we call home.
Scott Corbin lives in the Hulen Heights neighborhood with his wife Jessi. They have four children.
Hulen Heights
Total population: 2,786
Female: 47% | Male: 53%
Age
0-9: 13%
10-19: 20%
20-29: 5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 18%
50-59: 14%
60-69: 14%
70-79: 1%
80 and older: 1%
Education
No degree: 16%
High school: 9%
Some college: 20%
Bachelor’s degree: 37%
Race
White: 37% | Asian: 26% | Hispanic: 25% | Black: 11% | Two or more: 0%
Click on the link to view the schools’ Texas Education Agency ratings:
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, by following our guidelines.
