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Oh I see. So it's not a good school bc some kids attend who do poorly on the standardized tests. Yes, I can see how that prevents a school from being a good school (being facetious). Lol.
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Originally Posted by jsvh
It is probably based on the standardized test scores which it is mediocre at since there is a diverse student body and low-income families tend to correlate to low test scores than anything else. I personally think that diversity is a plus and the exposure to all sorts of different people and walks of life is what makes this area great. And I have no hesitation about sending my kids there once I am to that point.
By brainwashed I simply meant that people get pursudaed that it's better to be further. Like when I lived in DC, it seemed that agents and other peoples recommendations would be to go out to areas like haymarket Va, or south riding Va... " new homes, lots of square footage, wonderful schools, lots of neighbors, close to shopping blah blah blah"
You do realize there is a world of difference within the realms of brainwashed suburbia don't you? You do realize that areas of East Cobb and Roswell are not an hour and a half to Atlanta? You do realize that Alpharetta is quite the employment center itself? It's not like people on here are only telling you to live in Cherokee or Forsyth.... What I would consider the Atlanta equivalent to South Riding or Haymarket. If anyone bought a house solely on a real estate agent's recommendation and did not take into account the time they would spend on a commute, that person did not have much brain to wash in the first place.
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Originally Posted by magnetar
For some reason, people who like the suburbs seem to need a lot of external validation for their life choices, so anyone who comes around this forum specifically looking for a place in town has to scroll through a lot of explanations for why the suburbs are a better option. Sorry about that, it annoys us too.
I haven't seen anyone seeking validation on their choices tho I have seen a rather demeaning phrase being used on the entire population of certain suburban cities of why a person would choose to live in said city. Haven't seen it in reverse. I have seen people being realistic with budget and school and safety issues. It isn't a validation seeking thing to point out that budget, safety, schools and commute times are not proportionate. You must sacrifice somewhere on this list unless of course the budget is unlimited. The OP has pointed out it is not.
Putting up with ITP pretentiousness on here is annoying as well.
I don't need any external validation for our choices. I am not opposed to kids sharing rooms, I think it can be great. In our personal situation I did not think it would be appropriate. I personally also have a kid with special needs and there is no question that East Cobb schools meet his needs better than APS could. I have plenty of friends who live ITP. When their kids get to middle school they either switch to private or move. Given the OP's budget and the fact that school age children are involved, it makes sense to consider areas of Roswell and East Cobb that do not meet the "brain washed suburbia" defintion above.
I haven't seen anyone seeking validation on their choices tho I have seen a rather demeaning phrase being used on the entire population of certain suburban cities of why a person would choose to live in said city. Haven't seen it in reverse.
What I've seen is every time someone posts on this forum and says they're interested in living in town, there's a handful of people who feel the need to correct them on their opinion of the suburbs. Haven't seen it in reverse.
It is probably based on the standardized test scores which it is mediocre at since there is a diverse student body and low-income families tend to correlate to low test scores than anything else. I personally think that diversity is a plus and the exposure to all sorts of different people and walks of life is what makes this area great. And I have no hesitation about sending my kids there once I am to that point.
While there are all sorts of ways to measure diversity, it is probably a stretch to describe Jackson as "diverse."
What I've seen is every time someone posts on this forum and says they're interested in living in town, there's a handful of people who feel the need to correct them on their opinion of the suburbs. Haven't seen it in reverse.
As this site is here to give information on a particular area, correcting false portrayals of the suburbs is useful. The OP is not the only one reading these posts. No one is correcting the OP's desire to live in the city. People are wisely offering up the reality that the list provided by the OP will be difficult to find in full ITP, so alternative suggestions have been given. Take it or leave it. Be annoyed by it. But don't be upset when false portrayals of certain areas are challenged.
We really liked marietta but hated Alpharetta. We haven't ruled out marietta but we also like Decatur, but I feel like we are missing something.
If you liked Marietta and want to be closer, then check out Smyrna, Mableton, and the aforementioned intown areas like Kirkwood, Candler Park, West End, NW (Berkeley Park, Knight's Park, etc) along with Sandy Springs, Doraville.
Metro Atlanta isn't DC or Charlotte, you'll need to look around and get a feel. I recommend first determining where you're going to work then renting your first 6 months, and really making an effort to learn the whole inner metro (anything out to as far as Marietta) and making a decision on what to buy at that point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by magnetar
What I've seen is every time someone posts on this forum and says they're interested in living in town, there's a handful of people who feel the need to correct them on their opinion of the suburbs. Haven't seen it in reverse.
We really need a sticky describing each community in metro Atlanta so that people aren't stuck with misconceptions. I can cover a few.
What I've seen is every time someone posts on this forum and says they're interested in living in town, there's a handful of people who feel the need to correct them on their opinion of the suburbs. Haven't seen it in reverse.
I'm replying to your post, but this is specifically for the OP to read and based on everything I've read up until this post.
At this point in time There aren't many places that score very high on -all- criteria the OP listed.
There is nothing wrong with -all- of the suggestions people have offered from Kirkwood to Roswell and East Cobb.
What is different is each places rates moderately weaker on different criteria the OP mentioned.
Kirkwood fits the bill for an intown single family home neighborhood with a few small walkable neighborhood centers, but the schools are still transitioning. The crime is still high, but rapidly getting better. The Atlanta Public school system rates much weaker than several larger suburban systems, but many schools... especially elementary schools are diamonds in the rough... often with direct correlation to the cost of homes in the neighborhoods and the quantity of apartments in the district.
This is a neighborhood in transition, if it wasn't prices would be much higher.
There are many other excellent intown neighborhoods that are simply over the OP's budget.
The problem with ITP Atlanta is there simply isn't much housing stock. Only 750,000 people live within I-285 and this isn't to mention how many aren't in traditional single family homes. If all of ITP was the lot-sizes of Virginia-Highland that numbers would be well over 1,250,000... but many neighborhoods aren't any denser than OTP areas. Market supply for demand would be different if it were uniformly denser. Personally, I wish Atlanta has many more Virginia-Highland like neighborhoods than we have.
If a neighborhood is truly nice for a family, ITP, and walkable to old style shops, then demand is sky high and things are very pricey. The best bet is to find an up and coming neighborhood that has some rough edges to it, but will give long-term gains. For many with school-age kids this is harder to do. For many just starting that don't have kids yet or their kids aren't old enough for school it is a good investment opportunity where they can choose to move later of things aren't to their liking by the time their kid is in school.
Inversely Roswell and East Cobb will have larger homes and be less walkable in many places, but will rate highly on every other criteria. It is also worth noting there are plenty of walkable areas OTP that include Marietta (which was interesting mentioned by the OP. Marietta City is extremely walkable, but has weak schools.), Roswell, Norcross, and many of the older town centers. The key is you have to choose to look for a property in the old part of town and not in a neighborhoods outside of the town center. One can still choose to live near Canton St in Roswell. You'll pay a premium for it while living in a smaller home, but it is a small walkable area.
To me I feel like so far this post... I'm mostly saying everyone is right, but everyone here all around just has the rose-colored glasses on ignoring the very real fact that every community has weak points and many communities have different weak points. It is up to the OP to choose of his list of criteria, which criteria rate very highly, moderately high, medium, or poorly. What I will say is from his list no area rates very high, hits all his criteria perfectly and stays below $400,000. Something has to give a little bit and it is his choice to valuate his desires.
That aside there are two extremely Naive things, specific to Atlanta I have seen. One is this continuing concept we need to stay close to the center of town or you are setting yourselves up for long drives and causing problems as a general concept for everyone. I'll give the OP a pass on this, but some of the Atlanta people I'm a bit ashamed let that idea keep getting repeated. The OP needs to start from where their job is. This notion that everyone... or even most people are working intown is incorrect.
In the early 90s when Atlanta was rapidly growing and getting high with EPA regulations triggered by poor air quality Atlanta was forced to make many changes. The region doubled down on encouraging job growth outside the city... and no this doesn't just mean Perimeter center where there are highrises. The Atlanta suburban landscape, especially to the northside of town, are dotted with smaller Class A office buildings. All of them represent high paying jobs. All of the buildings are smaller than a highrise, but there are so many more buildings. There is a huge amount of office space in the Northern suburbs. The resident to job balance is actually very good. A majority of Metro Atlanta's Fortune 500 companies are actually in the northern suburbs and not intown. Since the early 90s the average commute distance of Metro Atlantans has been dropping, despite large outward growth and large population growth. Our traffic is still pretty bad, but peer cities seem to be outpacing us on how bad their traffic is.
So in short, many people do not need to live intown to be near their job. Some people choose to anyways to stay closer to the character of the neighborhoods. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is a conscious choice.
The other thing that is extremely naive was a few comments on ethnic and cultural diversity intown. I'm sorry, but the older suburbs OTP have intown areas beat by a wide margin. Many minority populations are building churches, businesses, and putting down roots where their small sub-population can have upper class, middle class, and lower class areas to live in close by. They often can't create cultural centers intown in areas that are too dependent on socio-economic status to adaquetly live in. This has made the northern suburbs ripe for various ethnic cultural centers.
For example the BAPs Hindu Temple in Lilburn, as of the time it was built, was the largest Hindu Temple in the world outside India. It is located in an area where Hindus can easily live nearby of any socioeconomic status and still live a good quality of life and have access to unique cultural amenities. This is tougher for them to do intown with high costs.
JSVH, you will be hard pressed to find many areas intown that will surpass the diversity indexes for large portions of Gwinnett County.
I am wondering how Marietta and Alpharetta are "brainwashed" communities. With a statement like that, it is really difficult to suggest areas. How do large cities over 50k get brainwashed? Who brainwashed an entire city? And what are these whole cities being brainwashed into?
At any rate, sounds like you should stick to areas within 285, otherwise known as ITP (Inside The Perimeter). Since you have high school age children would choose a high school district that is well regarded. The rule of thumb is that the feeder schools into the better high schools are generally well regarded. Some of the neighborhoods that have been suggested have good elementary but things can get dodgy for middle and high school.
In the city of Atlanta, would pretty much limit it to the Grady cluster or North Atlanta cluster but $400k might not take you far. Same can be said for the city of Decatur, but I think you might find Decatur to be just what you are looking for. With your budget, perhaps the Lakeside HS cluster in central DeKalb, or Druid Hills HS (though not in Druid Hills itself) or Chamblee HS. As Netdragon has suggested, you might also look at suburbs that border 285, the inner ring burbs.... Specifically Smyrna, Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.
Best set of suggestions I have seen so far. Someone else mentioned the elementaries. If you are in one of the better elementary school zones, the prices can be a lot higher than in neighboring zones. But since you have HS age kids, elementary is not relevant to you so you can buy in an adjacent, lower price area.
But walkability other than Decatur and midtown (and safety is a bigger issue in midtown) is pretty limited. Most of the area described above has large lots and a pretty typical suburban development pattern with cul de sacs and clearly defined residential and commercial areas.
If your open to townhomes you can find places for sure in your budget, even in the hot city of Decatur with top schools (which is also very walkable). If location is important it can definitely be done. If SFH and the latest and biggest is the priority its a different story.
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