Winter home in Peachtree City? (Atlanta, Boston: appointed, for sale by owner, rentals)

[RichCapeCod]

My wife and I live on Cape Cod. From May through the end of October it’s quite beautiful, but the winters are damp, with short and chilly days. Not terrible, but, when I retire in around three years, we’d prefer being someplace with daytime temperatures at least in the mid-50s.

We own a lot on the Cape, and had planned on selling it (keeping our current home) to finance our southern winter home, probably in South Carolina (Aiken looked like a lovely place and we liked the area very much). Well, nothing is moving these days so we’re considering another option. Your thoughts:

My wife and I passed though Peachtree City a few years ago. Thought the area looked nice and really liked the golf cart paths. A neat way to get around. The area is convenient to Atlanta Airport, which is an easy to find non-stop flight from Boston. At any rate, do you folks think some section of Peachtree City would serve our purpose? I’ve noted that house prices have gone down and the unsold house inventory is up. We could afford to put down a substantial cash down payment and perhaps take out a $150K mortgage. That would put us in the $300K range.

We’d like a home in the 2,200 sq ft to 2,700 sq ft range. Locating the home on a golf course would be a plus, or, better yet, a place close to a nice lake or body of water. We’d value some reasonable privacy. I’ve noted that many of the homes for sale in the Peachtree area are quite large. Indeed, our problem might well be in finding a well made home, in the size we’re interested in and a good neighborhood. Lots of people seem to have gone for the Mac-mansion style of living. We just don’t need the space, or the expenses associated with maintaining an overly large home.

If you think this a wise option, where would a person stay while getting a feel for the area and checking out the various neighborhoods?

Thanks all,


Rich

[go falcons]

Come on down !
Currently there are several homes for sale in your price range. I have to admit I'm not a fan of the newer homes in that price range because of construction issues but many of the older ones are well constructed . By older homes I mean built in the 70's and 80's ( Peachtree City is not that old a community established in the 1960's ). Many of these older homes are located on or near golf courses.My favorites are located off of Flat Creek trail on Golf View Drive which runs adjacent Flat Creek golf course. There are several homes for sale in that area with various realtors or for sale by owner ( I would check with our local paper which is available on line called The Citizen - they also have some good listing for rentals in case you should choose to go that route)
Although most people are year round residents here we do have several retirees who are " snow birds " .
Two great places to stay to come check things out are the Holiday Inn or the Aberdean Conference Center .
Hope this helps.

[RichCapeCod]

GoFalcons:

Thank you for your input. I'm going to copy your info into MS Word for future reference.


Rich

[OhioNative]

Just realize that Georgia is colder than you think during the winter. This isn't Florida, and a lot of people who retire down here are disappointed at how cold it can get in the winter.

[RichCapeCod]

Originally Posted by OhioNative

Just realize that Georgia is colder than you think during the winter. This isn't Florida, and a lot of people who retire down here are disappointed at how cold it can get in the winter.

OhioNative:

Yes, I understand that. One of the ways I evaluate locations for our winter "hideaway" is by going into the Weather Channel on the web and copying the "Averages" section. Then I compare the monthly weather of the possible winter home area (high/low temps, etc.) with the weather where I live. So, for example, the January daytime average in Peachtree City is 52 degrees. That's the same as mid-April where I live on Cape Cod. Feb in Peachtree averages a day temp of 58. In my town those temperatures would be reached in early May.

My wife and I prefer cooler weather, just no (or very little) snow. And, I am aware of the occassional ice storm that hits the Atlanta area. Don't plan on driving when that happens!

Rich