Real estate in Lawrenceville - Why so cheap? (Atlanta, Roswell: crime, houses)

[Lena84]

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the Alpharetta area. We are not from the area, so I am looking for honest and helpful input from people who live in the area.

While we would love to be close to Alpharetta (where my husband would commute to), we are considering the surrounding towns, like Cumming, Buford, Duluth and Lawrenceville and even the Canton/Holly Springs area.

There seems to be a trend of A LOT of really affordable and nice houses in Lawrenceville, which is very tempting. I can't help to think that there is a good reason why the area is so cheap/so many people are selling their houses. A lot of these houses are located in the Collins school district which I thought is a good cluster to be in?

We have a daughter and are planning on more kids in the future and we are looking to make a good decision for our family.

Can anyone help? Thank you.

[lorilove]

Location, commute and proximity to jobs.

Commuting from Lawrenceville to Alpharetta would be a nightmare. Google maps says 23 miles and 37 minutes but I can't imagine that is correct. I drove one Sunday afternoon from Alpharetta to Lawrenceville and it was no less than 45 minutes and basically no one on the road - tons of traffic lights.

[Atl Reb]

I make the commute from Grayson/Lawrenceville to Roswell every day. In the summer, it is right at 50 mins in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. It gets worse after the summer ends. I would think from the Collins Hill area it would be about 10-25% shorter. I used to work in Alpharetta (east of 400) and my commute as 15 mins better than Roswell.

My opinion on the lower than normal ATL suburb housing prices is the changing demographics of the Lawrenceville area. I just dont see many young white families desiring to move to the area (except for Brookwood school district, but even, then not a huge influx). In fact, most that I know are moving away (either to Forsyth or up to the Braselton area), waiting for prices to increase enough to move away, or they are from that area originally and dont want to move. I know it isnt PC these days to talk like this, but my experience is that where that demographic wants to be is where housing demand (aka prices) rise the fastest.

I want to move also to be closer to work, but due to the recession, my neighborhood demographic has completely changed and therefore, killed the home prices (below what the home originally sold for in the late 90's). The only shining light for our area is the Snellville Scenic Hwy retail corridor. I think you would be hard pressed to find so many retail options in such a central and easily accessible locale in metro Atlanta. With the retail development continuing non-stop, I have to believe that this will help balance out the demographic changes in the area.

[Lena84]

Thank you for your feedback. That's too bad. Some of the area looks really nice. We like the big, charming brick houses there. I heard really bad things about parts of Lawrenceville regarding crime and traffic, but I wanted to check here before making a decision.

Is there a specific area that you would recommend instead? We are a young family, in our 30's, our daughter is 2 years old. We are looking for a single family home, with at least 3 bedrooms and a nice yard with a 275k budget.

I appreciate your help.

[Saintmarks]

Even though Canton/Holly Springs area looks far away, it is a pretty easy commute to Alpharetta, especially if you find something close to GA 140. A good bang for the buck out there.

[10 feet tall]

Agree with Saintmarks. At a budget of 275k and commuting to Alpharetta, Canton/Holly Springs is a good fit. Also consider Cumming.

[sedimenjerry]

Crossing the Chattahoochee is such a hassle. Limited road options plus crossing the busy roads of Peachtree Industrial and Peachtree Pkwy.

[flamadiddle]

You want to live West of I-85. Drop Lawrenceville from your list.

[Atl Reb]

The traffic on the weekends is one of the reasons I like living in the Lawrenceville area. I lived in Alpharetta in the mid-2000's and I hated the weekend afternoon traffic. It rivals rush hour traffic. More than once I was flipped off by a soccer mom in a mini-van. Around here, you can get around pretty easily on weekends which is nice when you commute 2.5 hours a day during the week.

Regarding the crime, yes there are pockets of areas that have some crime in them, but others are pretty crime free. There are some older neighborhoods with small houses that have drawn in a lesser desired demographic that brings along with it certain types of crime. However, there are some fabulous neighborhoods that make you feel like you are living in the middle of Alpharetta over here. You really have to do your homework on the area in Lawrenceville.

The real problem with Gwinnett county is that the county isnt doing enough to create an environment where Class A business building developers want to build in the county. With ever rising traffic and gas prices, people are much more commute time sensitive than they used to be. This increase in commute times is making many white collar professionals take most of Gwinnett county off their target list for home purchasing. Overall, Gwinnett county is one of the best managed counties in the Southeast, but this is one glaring hole in their strategy. In the face of changing needs of the populace, Gwinnett cannot continue to prosper as a residential county only.

[aries4118]

For areas with a Lawrenceville address, the best areas to look are:

The Brookwood High Cluster
The Mountain View High Cluster
The Collins Hill High Cluster
The Peachtree Ridge High Cluster
The Grayson High Cluster
The Archer High Cluster



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