How long have you lived here? (Atlanta: buying, moving to, metro)

[deathcabber]

Born in Chicago and lived here on and off until I was 6 in 1987 when I moved here permanently...lived here ever since (except for 2000 I lived in Topeka Kansas). Im a wanderer..yeah Im a wanderer!

My husband has me beat....born and raised almost 27 years!

[mg83]

Going on 11 months and I can't WAIT to leave.

[stvincent]

I am a native Atantan and with the exception of college and law school, haven't lived anywhere else. I hate some things about Atlanta, no place is perfect, but there are too many things I love about this place, which is what made me move back after law school instead of moving somewhere else. It is a decision I will never regret.

[deathcabber]

Originally Posted by mg83

Going on 11 months and I can't WAIT to leave.

Yikes, sorry its been so bad so fast....I cant wait to leave either!

[mg83]

Originally Posted by deathcabber

Yikes, sorry its been so bad so fast....I cant wait to leave either!

No ocean. Really... no water. Cold winters (to a Florida girl). Too big. Too spread out. Too much traffic (and confusing traffic). Snotty buckhead/midtown young people. Stressful. Expensive. Right now, gas prices in Atlanta are equivalent to gas prices in Seattle. What the...

I hate this place so very much Words do not do my hatred even a fraction of justice.

But thank you for your regards.

[deathcabber]

Originally Posted by mg83

No ocean. Really... no water. Cold winters (to a Florida girl). Too big. Too spread out. Too much traffic (and confusing traffic). Snotty buckhead/midtown young people. Stressful. Expensive. Right now, gas prices in Atlanta are equivalent to gas prices in Seattle. What the...

I hate this place so very much Words do not do my hatred even a fraction of justice.

But thank you for your regards.

Understood...well get out while you can b/c I dont think any of those things will improve very soon. Best of luck!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by mg83

No ocean. Really... no water.

I miss that too (though as a native Minnesotan I like to see little puddles of clear fresh water, not those huge salty ocean-y things where sharks, jellyfish, and hurricanes live).

Cold winters (to a Florida girl).

Heh. Don't ever move further north.

I wear shorts all year round down here, but to me it ain't cold until I can see frost, and even then it's just brisk. I don't consider it cold until the sound starts changing and becoming more "crisp", and that doesn't happen until around -15F or so. Then I get frost in my beard, and I'm happy!

Too big. Too spread out. Too much traffic (and confusing traffic). Snotty buckhead/midtown young people. Stressful. Expensive.

Pricewise the Atlanta area isn't too bad, but the rest of the above seems perfectly true to me. We've managed to avoid the worst of it, tho, which greatly reduces the stress. The size makes it more fun to explore, too, at least to my wife and I. Driving around and looking at new areas is sort of a hobby of ours.

Right now, gas prices in Atlanta are equivalent to gas prices in Seattle. What the...

Not really, at least according to gasbuddy.com: USA National Gas Temperature Map

I hate this place so very much Words do not do my hatred even a fraction of justice.

Sad to hear, but I know that different folks can like and dislike VERY different things. I know I wasn't sure what to expect moving 1200 miles south, but for the most part we're happy down here in the Atlanta metro. Unlike you, tho, I tend to miss the cold down here. There's no snow on Christmas.

[ATLienGirl]

This is why it is SO important to VISIT OFTEN a place that you are moving to. There are so many people on this forum who claim to be moving here and have never visited here, I'm not talking about, once, twice, MULTIPLE times at different times of the day, different times of the year, etc. Maybe I am just particular like that, but, before I would decide to move ANYWHERE, I would spend at least a YEAR visiting it. It sounds like a lot, but, it is worth it in the long run.

True enough, some people get job offers and Atlanta seems to good to be true and they jump on it. But, again, I guess that's why people have the capability of moving somewhere else, right.

[AtlantaCruiser]

Going on about 14 months here....it's getting better. Hope to move back out to CO some day though.

[mg83]

Like anyplace else, it all depends on where you're initially coming from.

If you're coming from places like Chicago or NYC, etc... you'll probably think Atlanta is laid back and warm... and has awful public transportation. If you're coming from smaller towns... it'll be a different story.

What I've found (with people from Florida in my age group at least) is this: graduate college and need to find a good job... well, the good jobs are in the bigger cities... okay, so where's a bigger city that still has the qualities of "the South" and that's NOT Miami? A lot of my friends came to Atlanta because it's still a stones throw from Gainesville, and it still has the elements of the places they grew up (warmer weather, and so on).

The thing is... when we got here, it was not that. We found a HUGE spread out city that is difficult to navigate, a shockingly chilly winter (YES i GET that 90% of the country would think an Atlanta winter is child's play, but when you grow up with NO winter whatsoever, its a shock). Some pretty snotty people as well... I've found it hard to make friends outside of the people I know up here from college, especially with girls.

The thing I didn't even realize was how much I missed the beach and the beautiful springs of Florida. My family's house is 12-15 minutes from the beach. In high school during half days, we'd head straight for the beach. Moving to Gainesville (which we all thought was just SOOO landlocked), you could still get to a beach in 50 minutes. It's nothing. In Atlanta, you have to take time off from work just to get to any beach. Maybe we were all spoiled in a certain lifestyle, I don't know.

I can see how the metro Atlanta area would be a good place if you're looking for a house. The house prices in the N.E. and the PacNW are ridiculous and you can still find a great house in Atlanta for less than 350k, although the commute sucks.

ATLien girl, I agree with you, but coming right out of college, nobody really thinks of that.