Alpharetta to Grayson? (Atlanta, Lawrenceville, Buford: to rent, home, neighborhood)

[weeblywobbly]

Hi there!

So, we're looking to relocate to the Atlanta area. My husband interviewed for a job and it's looking promising. He's going through the background check now and should hear back by early next week.

Now the job is in Alpharetta. We have family in Grayson and being able to see them regularly is important to us. However, based on Google maps, commuting from Grayson to Alpharetta would be rough. So I'm looking for a doable mid-point town to live in. Of course, preference would be an easy commute.

I made another post about a month ago asking about Suwanee. Would that be a good area in terms of commute from Alpharetta and accessibility to Grayson? We were looking at North Lawrenceville as well. I'm not very familiar with north Gwinnett County, so I'm not sure of our options. We'd like to rent first, then buy.

Good schools would be helpful, as we have young kids, though we would try and put them in a Montessori school (another reason why we were looking at Lawrenceville, there are some pretty good ones close by).

Budget would be around 1300-1400 a month, hopefully staying on the lower end of that. 3/2 with a sizeable yard, quiet neighborhood. Would have no problem with an older home, about 1800 sq. Walkability isn't a big deal for us.

Thanks in advance!

[DJDeadParrot]

I couldn't tell you how bad the commute would be south of 85, but I can tell you that the major bottlenecks in going from work in Alpharetta to a home in Gwinnett are the limited crossings over the Chattahoochee; namely, McGinnis Ferry, Abbotts Bridge, and State Bridge/Pleasant Hill. Just going from 400 to the river can take 30-45 minutes. If its raining, double that time [I wish I was exaggerating about that].

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by weeblywobbly

Hi there!

So, we're looking to relocate to the Atlanta area. My husband interviewed for a job and it's looking promising. He's going through the background check now and should hear back by early next week.

Now the job is in Alpharetta. We have family in Grayson and being able to see them regularly is important to us. However, based on Google maps, commuting from Grayson to Alpharetta would be rough. So I'm looking for a doable mid-point town to live in. Of course, preference would be an easy commute.

I made another post about a month ago asking about Suwanee. Would that be a good area in terms of commute from Alpharetta and accessibility to Grayson? We were looking at North Lawrenceville as well. I'm not very familiar with north Gwinnett County, so I'm not sure of our options. We'd like to rent first, then buy.

Good schools would be helpful, as we have young kids, though we would try and put them in a Montessori school (another reason why we were looking at Lawrenceville, there are some pretty good ones close by).

Budget would be around 1300-1400 a month, hopefully staying on the lower end of that. 3/2 with a sizeable yard, quiet neighborhood. Would have no problem with an older home, about 1800 sq. Walkability isn't a big deal for us.

Thanks in advance!

DJDeadParrot makes an excellent point about the rush hour/peak-hour commutes between Alpharetta/North Fulton County and Gwinnett County being made difficult because of the limited crossings over the Chattahoochee River.

In this situation, you and your husband potentially might have to make a choice as to whether you want to be closer to his job in Alpharetta or closer to your family in Grayson.

If the both of you want to be in an area that is roughly equal distance between his job in Alpharetta and your family in Grayson, Suwanee would be an excellent place to look for the high quality of housing, the high quality of the schools and the general overall high quality of life there (parks, festivals, etc).

The North Lawrenceville area (in the Lawrenceville 30043 zip code) is a good area to look as well because of the good schools and the close proximity to the numerous retail and shopping amenities of the Mall of Georgia area in Buford.

Though, the traffic to and from your husband's job in Alpharetta is going to be a challenge from both of those areas particularly in the area of the limited river crossings that DJDeadParrot noted.

But a potential Suwanee-Alpharetta or North Lawrenceville-Alpharetta peak-hour commute would not be as long as a potential Grayson-Alpharetta commute.

[Clayton white guy]

Isn't Suwannee just over the Chattahoochee from Johns Creek/ Alpharetta? If my memory is serving me correctly, Suwannee would be the logical compromise between Alpharetta and Southeast Gwinnett. Good Luck and welcome to Metro Atlanta.

[flyonpa]

Suwannee ZipCode Extends over the River but not the City of Suwannee, (Or Gwinnett County).

I would suggest looking in around Forsyth County, Maybe Northern Forsyth, will be more in your price range. Commute will be OK for him, Drive to Grayson off-peak won't be to bad.

While its nice to be near relatives, How often do you plan to see them?
Unless they are providing child care on a daily basis.

A 30/45 minute or so trip there on a weekend is not bad, vs Daily Gridlocked traffic going to/from work.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

Isn't Suwannee just over the Chattahoochee from Johns Creek/ Alpharetta?

It is, but only by way of only one convenient crossing on McGinnis Ferry [4 lanes]. The next nearest crossings are Abbotts Bridge [2 lanes] is 4 miles downstream or Hwy 20 [new bridge in the works - possibly finished?] 5.5 miles upstream. In a heavy rush hour, McGinnis Ferry backs up almost to 141. I'm not saying that commuting from Gwinnett to Alpharetta should be rules out; if you're going to do it, Suwanee is as good a Gwinnett location as any.

BTW, enter '30024' into a google map search; you'll see how far "Suwanee" extends into Forsyth County and even a piece of Fulton County.