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Old 07-24-2014, 07:26 PM
 
109 posts, read 150,666 times
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Hi. I'm thinking of moving to Atlanta. I would be working in Midtown and would like a short commute. Therefore, I've ruled out places like Alpharetta and Duluth.

I'd like a newish house in the $500 to $650,000 range. I was initially looking online at Marietta but noted that Smyrna and Mableton are closer and also have beautiful homes. However, as thee towns are cheaper than Marietta, I was wondering if they have some shoddy areas. Do they? Also, how are the public schools?

Thanks
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Old 07-24-2014, 08:21 PM
 
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Both have very high end neighborhoods. I'm sure that others can speak specifically about the public schools. Even if they are not what you are looking for - if you are looking to spend well over a half million on a house, then the private schools nearby would be in your price range.
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Old 07-24-2014, 09:23 PM
 
109 posts, read 150,666 times
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Thanks.

In reading some posts about Mableton, I've concluded that it's less desirable. Can anyone offer opinions about Smyrna?

Thnx
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Old 07-24-2014, 10:39 PM
 
559 posts, read 827,684 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EarlofCardigan View Post
Thanks.

In reading some posts about Mableton, I've concluded that it's less desirable. Can anyone offer opinions about Smyrna?

Thnx
Smyrna resident for 20 years and we love it here. It's a great place to be if you're raising a family and you can get a high end house and a great neighborhood for your price range.

Public schools are a challenge, particularly for middle and high. Most of our friends/neighbors go private.
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Old 07-24-2014, 10:47 PM
 
Location: Atlanta
5,617 posts, read 5,878,001 times
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I would go Smyrna. Short drive to midtown. Especially in the morning. I would stay away from Mableton.
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Old 07-24-2014, 11:08 PM
 
Location: West Cobb (formerly Vinings)
3,615 posts, read 7,741,339 times
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By "Marietta" you must mean East Cobb - which is unincorporated Marietta - and not Marietta city proper. East Cobb borders Roswell and Alpharetta and has pretty much the same commute as Roswell. Smyrna is more expensive per square foot than Marietta proper and West Cobb. However, East Cobb is slightly more expensive because East Cobb has pretty much the best schools in the state, very large custom new homes, and larger lots on average. So you do get slightly less house for the money in East Cobb, ignoring lot size, but it's not as far apart as you'd think. Furthermore, Smyrna is actually more expensive per square foot than either Roswell or Alpharetta. Sandy Springs, on the other hand, is more expensive per square foot than Smyrna.

However, Smyrna is no slouch school-wise (it's still Cobb too) and a better commute. There's also some advantages that Smyrna has over East Cobb besides commute such as walking/biking trails and the famous Silver Comet Trail. It also has a sense of place, market village, close access to Ivy Walk and West Village. It also has the beautiful Taylor Brawner Park.

I'm a Smyrna resident and don't have to be with my six-figure income. However, I love it. Living here has also been a good investment for me since my home has gone up a lot in value since I bought it in '07. That's even with the economic crash. Smyrna is on fire.

My daughter goes to Nickajack in Smyrna, and it's great academically and has good staff, even though it's a very large school in terms of number of students. King Springs is even better in terms of test grades, partially because it's a smaller more intimate school but mostly because it has less disadvantage students. Note that most of Nickajack are wealthy students, but there are still around 30% of students on lunch programs, down a lot from about a decade ago. Yet, still enough to skew test grades. I want to give a disclaimer that not every student on lunch programs does poorly, and some have very dedicated parents and do very well. I have been yelled at for insinuating that before. I'm talking in terms of statistics.

According to test grades, the best elementary school is King Springs, followed by Teasley, then Nickajack, then Smyrna Elementary (which doesn't have stats yet, but it'll be the same as Brown was pretty much). Lindley in Mableton would be right after that. However, test grades don't really tell the whole picture. In reality, even with its higher test grades, Teasley actually has more students per teacher than Nickajack. So your kids may do better at Nickajack than Teasley if they have a need for any special attention. In terms of curriculum, they are all pretty much the same and the main differences are demographics. For that matter, Smyrna's schools are pretty much the same as the aforementioned East Cobb's in curriculum. For all the schools in Smyrna that I mentioned, the demographics are getting wealthier fast as there is a chain-reaction of more and more wealthy parents sending their kids to public schools.

Campbell Middle for Smyrna/Vinings is a good magnet school and has an IB program which is rare for middle schools. Teasley, Smyrna Elementary and Nickajack feed it. It has been improving rapidly in terms of test scores. Unfortunately, for middle, many Smyrna/Vinings parents can afford to send their kids to private school, so the demographics of Campbell is not as good as Smyrna is as a whole and that effects test grades. However, it has been improving demographically, and that will continue due to the high-end development.

Griffin Middle is fed by King Springs Elementary and is pretty comparable to Campbell Middle with slightly higher test grades but no IB program.

All Smyrna and Vinings students go to Campbell High, which does have an IB program. Campbell High does really well in terms of test grades considering some of the richest people in Smyrna and Vinings send their kids to Vinings and Buckhead private high schools. It used to be ranked in the top 700 for US News high school rankings until charter schools throughout the country knocked most conventional high schools out of the top 300 spots. However, I'd still say it's probably in the top 1,000 in the country.

To put it in perspective, my high school in Connecticut was only slightly better than Campbell statistically, in a pretty rich town in THE BEST state in the country for school.

Last edited by netdragon; 07-25-2014 at 12:12 AM..
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Old 07-24-2014, 11:27 PM
 
Location: West Cobb (formerly Vinings)
3,615 posts, read 7,741,339 times
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My advice in Smyrna if you are comfortable with the idea, and have the vision for seeing what something can become and/or the help of a good architect and the stomach for it: Then hire a small company investor/developer with a proven track record in Smyrna to build your own custom home on a tear-down lot where there currently a 40s home for sale. 40s homes are usually priced below the land value because of the cost of tearing them down. Therefore, you are essentially getting land at a reduced price and if you can find someone to bulldoze and haul away cheap, you have the equivalent of an empty lot, which are hard to come by in Smyrna. You'll probably get more house for the money if you custom build it, and have exactly what you want if you pick the correct lot.

If you are interested in doing a tear-down, let us know and we can give you some ideas on good places in Smyrna to do it. From a high-level perspective, I recommend choosing either Forest Hills if you want to be near Market Village, or otherwise something along the Silver Comet Trail and reasonably close to West Village and the new Sprouts Organic Grocer coming to the East-West Connector in Spring 2015.

-IF- you are not comfortable doing your own custom home, then there are plenty for sale all over Smyrna. $600k should get you at least a spacious open-floor 5br/4ba 4500sqft home in Smyrna. This isn't the top of the market but definitely in the top 1/5 of the market for Smyrna. I'd also look at swim/tennis HOA communities for the advantage of having pool/tennis and clubhouse without having to maintain them yourself, for typically around $500/year for a detached home.

Last edited by netdragon; 07-25-2014 at 12:16 AM..
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Old 07-25-2014, 08:03 AM
 
445 posts, read 512,382 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by netdragon View Post
Note that most of Nickajack are wealthy students, but there are still around 30% of students on lunch programs, down a lot from about a decade ago.
It's closer to 40% free and reduced lunch, according to the latest 2013 numbers (39.74%). A decade ago, in 2004, it was 46%. It went up a little in the meantime but seems to be on a downward trend.
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