Mrs. Holcomb Goes to East Cobb (I Think) (Atlanta, Vinings: apartment complex, how much)

[sofjwp]

Someone should tell all those people how cheap Dekalb County is. For 50k, a 3 bedroom 3 bath can be yours. All you have to do is drive an hour to your job, pay for private school, and shop and eat an hour away.

Kind of like a suburb, but only minutes from town! Folks must be lining up to come to Atlanta, the creative class mecca.

[GRS86]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Haven't a number of Gwinnett schools rather abruptly gone downhill? Again, I'm not trying to be negative, just pointing out that schools are pretty ephemeral.

arjay,

While some Gwinnett clusters obviously have better reputations than others do, the two that have by far the worst reputations are the Meadowcreek and Berkmar Clusters. Both clusters have a lot of apartments, condos, and other rental properties, lending themselves to a more highly transient population. Both clusters also have a relative high number of residents where English is a second language. That also tends to depress school test scores.

The Shiloh, Central Gwinnett, and South Gwinnett Clusters have also dropped off some, but not a lot in recent years.

Outside of those five clusters, most of Gwinnett's clusters are still solid.

[10 feet tall]

Originally Posted by sofjwp

Someone should tell all those people how cheap Dekalb County is. For 50k, a 3 bedroom 3 bath can be yours. All you have to do is drive an hour to your job, pay for private school, and shop and eat an hour away.

Kind of like a suburb, but only minutes from town! Folks must be lining up to come to Atlanta, the creative class mecca.

Haha. Now that made me laugh.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by GRS86

arjay,

While some Gwinnett clusters obviously have better reputations than others do, the two that have by far the worst reputations are the Meadowcreek and Berkmar Clusters. Both clusters have a lot of apartments, condos, and other rental properties, lending themselves to a more highly transient population. Both clusters also have a relative high number of residents where English is a second language. That also tends to depress school test scores.

The Shiloh, Central Gwinnett, and South Gwinnett Clusters have also dropped off some, but not a lot in recent years.

Outside of those five clusters, most of Gwinnett's clusters are still solid.

This.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by GRS86

Outside of those five clusters, most of Gwinnett's clusters are still solid.

Well, maybe we should take this to a different thread, but 5 clusters out of 20 is not negligible.

As I recall, what happened in DeKalb was similar. There were some weak spots, but a good portion of the county was holding up pretty well and most people thought the system was strong enough to hang on. But at some point the dominoes begin to tumble.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Well, maybe we should take this to a different thread, but 5 clusters out of 20 is not negligible.

As I recall, what happened in DeKalb was similar. There were some weak spots, but a good portion of the county was holding up pretty well and most people thought the system was strong enough to hang on. But at some point the dominoes begin to tumble.

Arjay--

You are missing what people are saying about apartments, renters, transient populations, etc.

Not to mention, the lack of an M-to-M program to destabilize schools and accelerate white flight.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Well, maybe we should take this to a different thread, but 5 clusters out of 20 is not negligible.

As I recall, what happened in DeKalb was similar. There were some weak spots, but a good portion of the county was holding up pretty well and most people thought the system was strong enough to hang on. But at some point the dominoes begin to tumble.

but arjay... I have to say it is about the basis of my original argument

4 of these 5 schools are in the top 6 school districts in terms of apartments and townhomes in the county. Meadowcreek and Berkmar are likely the top two. Central Gwinnett has a large number of aging apartment communities and Shiloh has a moderate amount of apartments stretching across the US 78 corridor.

The other two schools with a large amount of apartments are Norcross and Duluth, however those districts are located along the Chattahoochee and bordering with N. Fulton and have a high level of access to a) The Gwinnett job corridor: I-85/Peachtree Corners and b) N. Fulton Jobs: Alpharetta/Mcginnis Ferry/North point. Therefore you have alot of high-value premium properties making the districts bi-polar. Meadowcreek and Berkmar doesn't quite have that.

While I think S. Gwinnett has gone down hill the most over my time growing up in Gwinnett, followed by Shiloh, Meadowcreek has had a negative stigma for decades. Berkmar a little bit, but less so.

The other variable is job access. The south and east part of the county do not have great access to Gwinnett's job base or N. Fulton's. This prevents many people from locating there.

It is interesting mapping property values in the county. Right after they made Ronald Reagan Pkwy going through the Brookwood district to Snelleville neighborhoods with above average values for the area were constructed and sold rather quickly.

The reason this worked out was instantly there was quicker/easier access to Gwinnett jobs. (For those that don't know Gwinnett is a bit of an oddball with jobs. It has less than average middle of the road jobs, but has more high-end and more low-end jobs than avg. for the area)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Arjay--

You are missing what people are saying about apartments, renters, transient populations, etc.

I'm not missing that, aries. I know that's had an effect on Berkmar, but is that also true at the other clusters?

[GRS86]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Arjay--

You are missing what people are saying about apartments, renters, transient populations, etc.

Not to mention, the lack of an M-to-M program to destabilize schools and accelerate white flight.

All of this, plus you don't have nearly the North DeKalb/South DeKalb socioeconomic, cultural split in Gwinnett. You don't have half the county that's prosperous, the other half basically a nanny state.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

but arjay... I have to say it is about the basis of my original argument

Thanks, cw, I appreciate the data that you and aries and GRS86 are providing.

I still must ask, however, isn't this very similar to what happened in DeKalb?