Tyler, Texas, a small city located midway between Dallas, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana provides a haven for families looking for traditional old fashioned values. Rapidly growing due to three principal reasons, Tyler is she East Texas Region's medical center, retail center, and educational center. Residents from all of East Texas travel to Tyler instead of Dallas for sophisticated medical treatment from one of the three major hospitals, for big city shopping, and for college classes at three colleges and universities. The city's airport is serviced by American Airlines and Continental Airlines regional carriers making travel from Tyler convenient. Culture is pursued vigorously through the Tyler Museum of Art, the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, the University of Texas at Tyler's Cowan Performing Arts Center, the Discovery Science Place, and Tyler Civic Theater. Tyler's Caldwell Zoo, small but wonderful, is the recipient of many awards for depicting natural habitats. The most famous Tyler landmark is the Tyler Rose Garden which showcases fourteen acres of over four hundred rose varieties. The Rose Garden and the Tyler Rose Museum, featuring a spectacular display of memorabilia related to Tyler's rose growing industry and the Texas Rose Festival held every October, lend credence to Tyler's claim as the "Rose Capital of the World.”
The city of Tyler's population is only 95,000, but it is the seat of a burgeoning metropolitan center of over 200,000 residents. Named after President John Tyler, Tyler was incorporated in 1848, so it is a relatively young city. Tyler's lifestyle is considered to be slower, more "laid back" than big city life, and the focus is on the family. Children's sports activities are actively promoted by the city's youth sports programs. Beauty is also an emphasis through the Rose Festival, the spring Azalea Trails Festival, and through landscaping seen on major thoroughfares.

Housing ranges from quaint lofts in the downtown center, to waterfront living on the area's three large lakes, Lake Tyler, Lake Tyler East, and Lake Palestine, to golf course lifestyle living in Hollytree, the Cascades, Emerald Bay, Eagle's Bluff, and Hideaway Lake subdivisions. The charming "Azalea District" developed during the East Texas oil boom of the 1930's, showcases cottage architecture and Georgian style mansions next door to one another. Diversity is key in Tyler's housing.