Moving to Atlanta Area - Not Sure Where? HELP (Sandy Springs: foreclosure, houses)

[Natbucket16]

Contemplating moving to Atlanta for a career. My husband’s employer will be UPS. I will be looking for a career in the legal assistant field. We will commute to and from work. I am mainly concerned with being in a close location to UPS for him with little traffic.

We need suggestions on a family oriented neighborhood. Our budget is about 100-130 range. We are looking for a house. We have children (3 yr old & 1yr old) that when the time comes will be attending public, so a excellent school system is a huge.

We prefer suburban lifestyle over the urban lifestyle. Easy access to major highways is a plus.
Neighborhoods with young professionals with family would be ideal.
Thanks for any input.

[ATLTJL]

Where is UPS?

[johnatl]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Where is UPS?

The Global HQ's building is in Sandy Springs, near Abernathy & 400. They do have many other facilities around the metro, though.

[Natbucket16]

It would be at the Global HQ's in Sandy Springs.

[ATLTJL]

I think your chances of being reasonably close to Sandy Springs in an excellent school district in a house that costs $100 - $130k are slim to none.

You're going to have to decide whether to:

1) Rent
2) Commute a long way
3) Raise your housing budget
4) Let your kids go to crappy schools

[Natbucket16]

When you say commute a long way. How long are you thinking? If we go with the commute a longer way and raise the budget. Where are you thinking? What would be a resonable budget? Sorry. We are coming from Ohio where 100-130 gets you a good amount of house. Just not sure what to expect for Atlanta. Thanks for your assistance. I was looking at the Suwanne Area, thoughts?

[ATLTJL]

The commute to Sandy Springs from Suwanee (assuming typical business hours) will be more than an hour each way.

Even in Suwanee, though, $130k probably isn't going to get you a good house. It *MIGHT* get you some kind of foreclosure that would need significant work.

If you're looking for excellent schools, you are talking about Johns Creek, Alpharetta, East Cobb, Suwanee, etc. Alpharetta and Roswell would be your best bets for convenience to Sandy Springs, but I really don't think you're going to find anything in your range in those areas.

Maybe someone here could offer alternatives. I'm not trying to sound harsh, but the reality is, you aren't even in the ballpark. Sandy Springs is one of the wealthiest areas of town and it is surrounded by other areas that are either:

1) Also very wealthy, meaning you won't get a decent house for anything even close to what you are talking about

- OR -

2) Do not have good schools

Hopefully someone here will be able to guide you a bit more than this, but it's not going to be easy. The only thing I can really think of is Chamblee, where you may be able to find something close to your range and the commute would not be terrible. Chamblee is not known for good schools, but I understand they have some kind of charter school there that is good, so maybe someone here could advise on whether getting into that school is an option.

Most people come here and marvel at how inexpensive housing is. I guess it's the opposite coming from Ohio, you must have ultra cheap housing there!

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If you're looking for excellent schools, you are talking about Johns Creek, Alpharetta, East Cobb, Suwanee, etc. Alpharetta and Roswell would be your best bets for convenience to Sandy Springs, but I really don't think you're going to find anything in your range in those areas.

You can get some decent houses for that price in those areas, you just have to look at bit harder. I know the north Johns Creek area will have some, though that will obviously be a longer commute. Also I'm not sure how the schools in the Duluth area are but that will have some in that range also.

[ATLTJL]

I live in Duluth, so I wouldn't say a negative thing about it that wasn't true.

I would say Duluth High school is very good, but not excellent. The main thing is the commute to Sandy Springs during business hours would be pretty long and brutal.

[kaday]

You can find homes in East Cobb in your range or just above. I'd do a search and look for homes in Pope and Lassiter HS district. I know there are some listings in a neighborhood called Post Oak (Pope HS) that is very nice. I have several friends who live there. It has a great swim tennnis club and the schools are excellent. You just need to do an in depth search and jump on something that pops up.