Atlanta vs South East Florida (Decatur, Douglas: appointed, real estate, insurance)

[Newyorker2]

Hi all,

My husband and I are torn between moving to a lower cost of living place like Atlanta or enjoying the lifestyle of south Florida. We have 2 children a preteen and one in the 1st grade.

I am in human resources / office administration and he owns an automotive business. We have tried weighing the pros and cons but are still torn.

Pros for Atlanta:
Lower cost of living,MUCH more house for your money,4 seasons (which i really love), looks more like the north ( we are currently living in westchester county, ny), larger black educated population, more job prospects for me, A closer drive if my family wants to visit, Lower cost of living would make it possible for my family to join me if they wanted to move.

Cons of Atlanta
no family there, just a few friends, Not so great schools depending on where you live, TRAFFIC ( my husbands business puts him on the road 100% of the time, and i would also have to work inside the perimeter as well), Less opportunity for my husbands business ( this is in comparison to FL, in FL he can service businesses in Palm beach, Broward and Dade county, in ATL theres just ..ATL), Weather ( Atl has a lot of smog and was named the asthma capital of the world... I have asthma), Crime - of course that is everywhere. Not much character, seems like a lot of large homes but nothing else. The BLING factor.... housewives of ATL.. need I say more??? LANDLOCKED ( a big issue for us as we love the beach)

Pros of FL:
We have an increasing number of family that lives there, lifestyle ( the beaches, the parks, the attractions, cruises, boating fishing year round. Traveling up to Disney for the weekend or down to Miami for a girls night out. traveling inside of Fl), No state income tax, more business for my husband, winter weather. More physically active lifestyle. tropical fruits year round.

Cons of FL
Lack of job opportunities for me,house prices: taxes and insurance premiums off the roof, If there is another hurricane there is no saying how high insurance prices may go, also that might affect family joining me if they want to join us, constant heat, hurricanes, sucky schools, alligators, I hear that most everyone who lives in FL owns a gun ( MY BIGGEST CONCERN), bad/rude drivers, I hear the complaint about rude people but havent expereienced it, transient state, also the snowbirds during the winter months which makes the place more crowded, NO BASEMENTS. You can drive 6hrs and STILL be in FL. and if you are paying less than 500K, you can only afford an ugly home with zero lot size.

Ok so to wrap this up, we would look into moving to the Palm Beach Gardens/Jupiter area but I am concerned about not being able to afford the home that i want or enjoy the lifestyle for financial reasons. We invested in real estate in NY and now everything has taken a dive and we just want to stop the stress and go somewhere where we can be happy. i would HATE to have to move again...I LOVE ATL homes but i have expereienced nothing but boredom in ATL, if we picked ATL we would initially live in Rockdale county where our only friends are.

So the question is for those who have experienced both, or just live now in either place, please give us an idea of what to expect and which city would fit best into what we want. Let me know what you do for fun, and the life that you have expereienced in both places both good and bad. Fell free to point out some additional pros and cons.

If you have read this looong thread in its entirety... I THANK YOU.

[TakeAhike]

It sounds like you want to move to So FL.

My friends in this area wish they could move back to GA for all the reasons you listed. They are tired of the heat, hurricanes and taxes, etc.

'The Gold Coast' has its own style of 'Bling'/Houswives of Atlanta cannot compare, imo.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by TakeAhike

It sounds like you want to move to So FL.

My friends in this area wish they could move back to GA for all the reasons you listed. They are tired of the heat, hurricanes and taxes, etc.

'The Gold Coast' has its own style of 'Bling'/Houswives of Atlanta cannot compare, imo.

TakeAHike is correct...to seriously believe that TRHOA represent Atlanta womanhood is pretty laughable.
I lived in south FL (Lighthouse Point) for many years.
Atlanta, hands down. Not even close.

[south-to-west]

Originally Posted by Newyorker2

Hi all,

Not much character, seems like a lot of large homes but nothing else.

You must have seen only the suburbs and none of the neighborhoods inside the city.

[DeaconJ]

You'll be disappointed if you think you can get a lot more house in Atlanta for much less money than in Florida. If you want to live in a semi-popular area of town that isn't in a far exurb, you'll probably end up paying more than you think.

Also, and I can't say this for sure not knowing what kind of business your husband is in, but Atlanta isn't "just Atlanta" so there are just as many or more opportunities as there are in South Florida. If Miami is Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade then Atlanta is Fulton, Dekalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Douglas, Fayette, Henry, Paulding, and a few others.

Crime and traffic - not enough difference between Atlanta and Miami to be deciding factors in your decision. Both cities are around 5,000,000 people so crime and traffic are very similar.

Quality of schools varies between each individual school, so that really isn't a big deal because there are great schools and not-so-great schools in both cities.

I guess character is in the eye of the beholder...having lived in both Miami and Atlanta I see WAY more character in Atlanta...it's an older city with a more extensive history than Miami. If you only have seen suburban neighborhoods built within the last decade then I can see why you think Atlanta has no character, but that isn't representative of Atlanta. And if you have mostly stayed in Rockdale or other suburbs, then I can understand why you were bored. It sounds like you know a lot more about South Florida, so if you truly want to make an informed decision you should explore Atlanta a little and find out what it has to offer.

I loved living in Miami, but to me it always felt more like a vacation...or a mall...or a theme park, than a home. Atlanta feels more like a city to me. Oh - newsflash - the median annual income in Miami is $29,000 and $47,000 in all of Florida...95% of people make nowhere near the $500,000 you were thinking is needed to live in Miami. For comparison purposes, median annual income in Atlanta is $47,000 and in all of Georgia is $49,000.

[gumboula]

I grew up in South Florida (Palm Beach County) and am now raising my kids in Atlanta. I don't see one as being superior to the other. The one thing that the other posters have not hit on is the difference between the sprawl you find in South Florida versus that in Atlanta. South Florida is a megalopolis all along the east coast. So from Jupiter you wouldn't have to drive all the way to Miami for a great girls night out. You would find nodes of high quality nightlife in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton. Ditto for other ammenities like the beach, activities for children (zoo, museums), etc. While in Atlanta everything is spreads out from the city-proper. So while you can find many nice places to live in the further suburbs, true city ammenities are in the city itself (of course there are some exceptions with the the Cobb Energy Center, etc.). So while Jupiter (for example) is about the same distance from Miami as Rockdale County is from Atlanta hotspots (midtown, downtown, Buckhead), the difference between Rockdale and Atlanta in terms of cultural ammenities is far larger than the difference between Jupiter and Miami. This also accounts for the other posters' points about cost of living. Cost of living calculators online can REALLY be deceptive for Atlanta. The COL of the metropolitan area is quite low, but that is because the diversity of communities in the metropolitan area is so great. You will have very high COL places closer to the city, and very low COL places in the distant suburban counties. Versus South Florida, where the counties that comprise the various metropolitan areas are far more similar socioeconomically. Look for an online COL calculator that compares counties versus metropolitan areas and compare Fulton or Dekalb counties to Broward and Palm Beach counties and you will see what I am talking about.

To close a overly long post, I wouldn't move from Atlanta to South Florida BUT if I was living in South Florida I wouldn't move to Atlanta. IMO they are equivalent, but different, places. But I did want to give you some information so you were making fair comparisons.

[Newyorker2]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

TakeAHike is correct...to seriously believe that TRHOA represent Atlanta womanhood is pretty laughable.
I lived in south FL (Lighthouse Point) for many years.
Atlanta, hands down. Not even close.

Thanks for the reply, can you tell me WHY ATL vs Sofl? Thats the question that i really have the pros and cons. contrary to the replies i have NOT made up my mind. Ultimately I think in the end it will be whats best for the kids.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Newyorker2

Thanks for the reply, can you tell me WHY ATL vs Sofl? Thats the question that i really have the pros and cons. contrary to the replies i have NOT made up my mind. Ultimately I think in the end it will be whats best for the kids.

Atlanta is a prettier city IMO, and far and away a friendlier one. South FL was a place that I found oppressively aggressive and rude.

[Newyorker2]

Originally Posted by gumboula

I grew up in South Florida (Palm Beach County) and am now raising my kids in Atlanta. I don't see one as being superior to the other. The one thing that the other posters have not hit on is the difference between the sprawl you find in South Florida versus that in Atlanta. South Florida is a megalopolis all along the east coast. So from Jupiter you wouldn't have to drive all the way to Miami for a great girls night out. You would find nodes of high quality nightlife in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton. Ditto for other ammenities like the beach, activities for children (zoo, museums), etc. While in Atlanta everything is spreads out from the city-proper. So while you can find many nice places to live in the further suburbs, true city ammenities are in the city itself (of course there are some exceptions with the the Cobb Energy Center, etc.). So while Jupiter (for example) is about the same distance from Miami as Rockdale County is from Atlanta hotspots (midtown, downtown, Buckhead), the difference between Rockdale and Atlanta in terms of cultural ammenities is far larger than the difference between Jupiter and Miami. This also accounts for the other posters' points about cost of living. Cost of living calculators online can REALLY be deceptive for Atlanta. The COL of the metropolitan area is quite low, but that is because the diversity of communities in the metropolitan area is so great. You will have very high COL places closer to the city, and very low COL places in the distant suburban counties. Versus South Florida, where the counties that comprise the various metropolitan areas are far more similar socioeconomically. Look for an online COL calculator that compares counties versus metropolitan areas and compare Fulton or Dekalb counties to Broward and Palm Beach counties and you will see what I am talking about.

To close a overly long post, I wouldn't move from Atlanta to South Florida BUT if I was living in South Florida I wouldn't move to Atlanta. IMO they are equivalent, but different, places. But I did want to give you some information so you were making fair comparisons.

Thanks very much as this helps greatly. This was my exact point about everything being IN ATL. I currently live in Westchester county but i dont have to go to the city for its ammenities. I can work, live and play right here in westchester, shoot over to LI or Jersey or go up to CT, where i work, for some restaurants etc.. . That was my point re: ATL. Though I admit i do not know MUCH about it. BUt the 4 times that I visited, the info that i got from my friends was that you have to go into ATL or "inside the perimeter" for most nightlife or fun overall and for the better restaurants. This might be a wrong indication, which was the reason for my post.

[Newyorker2]

Originally Posted by south-to-west

You must have seen only the suburbs and none of the neighborhoods inside the city.

THat is exactly right. Can you give me a bit of info on what to expect if living inside of the city?