Getting Relocated (Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Roswell: houses, best schools, subdivisions)

[michgal]

I've recently discovered this website and have read many postings - my family and I are being relocated to Atlanta from Michigan. Everyone tells us to move to Alpharetta. We have never been to the state of Georgia and know absolutely nothing. Heard rumors about the traffic ..... Most important priorities are good elementary schools and nursery schools as well as commute time . Read a little about John's creek through these postings - but have never heard of it. We'll be getting sent down for a tour and to find a house in October .... HELP!! I have no idea where to start and am petrified about this move.

[rackensack]

You're going to hear the same things from pretty much everyone:

• Tell us where you/your spouse will be working.
  
• What's your price range?
  
• What sort of lifestyle are you looking for? (urban, suburban, rural?) (hip, square, rounded edges?) (SUV city or walk everywhere?)
  
• Do you have kids? Do you expect to put them in private or public schools?
  
• Are there any other particular concerns that might affect where you should live? (access to particular religious or cultural institutions, activity venues, etc.)
  
• What sort of place do you live in now? Do you like it or not? Why or why not?

Information along those lines will generally help others offer advice that's useful to you. Your work location(s) is first on that list for a reason -- the best schools and area in the world can be miserable if you have to drive two hours each way in Atlanta traffic getting to work and back. The Atlanta metro area is huge, and almost anywhere you'll be working there are areas that are nearby that offer a decent quality of life. Alpharetta/Johns Creek/Milton/Roswell (North Fulton generally) is one of those, if you're working the North Central part of the metro area. Living close to where you work will go a long way toward making everything else work for you in Atlanta (not to mention that it helps the rest of us out as well ).

Johns Creek is a recently (December 2006) incorporated city formed from what used to be part of unincorporated Fulton County, between Alpharetta, Roswell, and the Fulton/Gwinnett county line. It's an upscale area of mostly suburban subdivisions with large, newer houses, and a variety of office and retail properties (almost no industrial/manufacturing that I know of). Much of Johns Creek still has an Alpharetta mailing address as the USPS hasn't recognized Johns Creek yet (partly because its zip codes are so intermingled with others already). There's been a trend in the last few years of formerly unincorporated areas incorporating into new cities (Sandy Springs, Milton, and Johns Creek have all been created in the last 3 years) as an attempt to put more aspects of local government back closer to where people live -- Fulton is a huge county, including most of the city of Atlanta and extending to areas west and south of the airport, and there's been a perception that property tax dollars were being collected primarily from the affluent areas in the north and spent primarily on the more populous but less affluent areas in the south. Creating new municipalities is intended to result in some of those tax dollars remaining closer to home, and in the allocation of those funds being made more in line with the desires of those paying them.