Relocation To Atlanta - Need Recommendations on Best School and Areas to Live (North Atlanta: for sale, crime)

[KeithE]

My family considering moving to Atlanta and have a couple of questions that I am hoping someone on the forum can help with. My wife and I are looking for some feedback and recommendations on the following:

1) What are the best public school systems to consider?
2) What areas can I look at to minimize commute times to downtown? (around 1hr or less and would not mind taking MARTA)
3) Which areas have solid resale home values?
4) Which highways would you try to avoid?
5) What are the rough rush hour times (morning and evening)?

We also do not want to spend more than $900K on a house.

Thanks,
-Keith

[plessthanpointohfive]

If you're working outside the home, where will you and your spouse be working? Commutes can be the biggest thing that lower quality of life here so it's best to make that the center of your search, in my opinion.

But here's to answer your questions without knowing your central location. Oh, and you can get just about anything you want with your budget...

1) What are the best public school systems to consider?

Depends...if you're talking in the city then Fernbank ES (DeKalb County), Morningside ES and Mary Lin ES (Atlanta Public Schools) all feed into good middle and high schools. And there's Decatur City schools. I know there are a few others up along Briarcliff south of I-85 but perhaps one of the other regulars can expand this list.

If you're talking outside the city, I can't much help you...

2) What areas can I look at to minimize commute times to downtown? (around 1hr or less and would not mind taking MARTA)

OK, this answers my question....you'll be working downtown. Then I would advise you live in the following areas: Midtown, Morningside/Lenox Park, Virginia-Highland, Druid Hills, Inman-Park, Poncey-Highland, Candler Park, Lake Claire, and downtown Decatur.

Here's a map I made so you can see where most of these are:

Google Maps

Inman Park, Candler Park, Lake Claire, Decatur, and Midtown are all on MARTA rail. Inman, Candler, and Claire are all within 4 miles of downtown. Midtown is even closer. Decatur isn't much farther...


3) Which areas have solid resale home values?

All of the above. There are others, such as Buckhead, but they're not as familiy oriented.

4) Which highways would you try to avoid?

All of them. Seriously. Stay on the surface streets, if possible.


5) What are the rough rush hour times (morning and evening)?

Rush hours. Morning is from 7-10. Evening is from 3-7. At least on I-85 on the northeast side of town. I used ot live out there...

We also do not want to spend more than $900K on a house.

Not a problem.


Plenty of people will come on here to give you their perspective. Here's mine above. I am 33, a professional married to a professor - we had about half of your budget for a home at the time we bought. We have a first grader. We live in Candler Park (homes range from 350K to 900K) and our son goes to Mary Lin. We are very, very, very happy living here and with our son in that school.

Recently I posted a short one block walking tour of the neighborhood on this forum. Most of the homes in this tour are in the 400K range...

http://www.city-data.com/forum/atlan...er-park-3.html

We lived almost 4 years with commuting 36 miles one way, taking more than an hour each way. Now, I live 3.5 miles from work and often walk or bike. My husband has a reverse commute to his university and it takes 30 minutes on a bad day.

Good luck finding a home.

[Morriah]

Hi Keith, you have your choice of neighborhoods with your price point. I guess it comes down to what you want your quality of life to be in choosing an area. I agree with plessthanpointohfive, regarding the areas she mentioned. I lived in Inman Park for six years and loved it. However, if schools are your top priority then the three top elementary schools in the City of Atlanta are located in Buckhead with Morningside Elem. following them. You can view the school ratings for City of Atlanta as well as the surrounding counites at: Atlanta Public Schools Directory - Atlanta School Reports, Atlanta School Rankings, Atlanta Public Schools, Atlanta Private Schools

Buckhead is considered the "upscale" part of town with many high end homes, shopping and restaurants with more to come. See Peachtree Corridor Partnership - Home for information on new developments. Buckhead i a little more spread out and isn't really conducive to walking but I have clients that live in the Buckhead Forest neighborhood and they love it. It is very family oriented with Halloween parades for the kids etc.

If you want more of a hip, walking neighborhood then look in Morningside, Virginia Highland, Inman Park, Candler Park, Lake Clair or Decatur. They are more laid back with lots of parks, restaurants and shops within walking distance. However, I think there is a little more crime, as these areas are more urban. I know Inman Park hires police officers to regularly patrol the neighborhood for added security. For crime stats visit. www. atlantapd.org

Oh, another area that I forgot to mention is Ansley Park, they are also in the Morningside school district and are located a little closer to Buckhead and Midtown. They also have the neighborhood patroled by police regularly. You will not have as many homes to choose from in this neighborhood though because it surrounds a private golf club and the homes are very expensive.

As for homes outside the perimeter, Dunwoody has excellent schools and is accessable by MARTA to travel downtown. Clients/friends of mine live near Dunwoody village and they enjoy walking to the bagel shop every Saturday, walking to a nearby park and Austin Elem. is also walking distance. I think Vanderlyn is the other highly rated school district in Dunwoody. Check them out on the link above.

Happy hunting!

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by KeithE

1) What are the best public school systems to consider?
2) What areas can I look at to minimize commute times to downtown? (around 1hr or less and would not mind taking MARTA)
3) Which areas have solid resale home values?
4) Which highways would you try to avoid?
5) What are the rough rush hour times (morning and evening)?

1) See this thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/atlan...-one-keep.html

2) Brookhaven (has MARTA station - good homes)
3) Again, Brookhaven
4) Um - "all of them" if possible. They're equally as bad during rush hours - maybe Ga. 400 is worse as well as I-285. If you lived in Brookhaven and worked downtown you wouldn't need either, really.
5) 6am-9am, 11:30am-1:30pm, and 3:30pm-6pm (roughly - depends on variables).

[plessthanpointohfive]

I don't know if that's true that Morningside serves Buckhead. Ansley Park and parts of Midtown yes.

Also, Morningside and Mary Lin are comparable schools as far as APS schools go. People do not transfer out of the Mary Lin district. Both go to Inman Middle and Grady High.

Ansley Park might be out of his price range....

[George Chong]

Here's another website that my clients have used in the past to compare school districts: GreatSchools.net

Atlanta traffic can be a bear - so like others have recommended - live close to where you plan to work.

I would also suggest the City of Decatur as they have their own school system within DeKalb County. Check out their website at City of Decatur, GA

Good luck and welcome!

[klsulli]

Greatschools.net would be your first stop. For less traffic come to the southside. We took that advise coming from California 10 years ago and are ever so glad we did! Coweta and Fayette counties are 40 minutes to an hour commute time. Search my web southernstage.com for all homes for sale in Georgia. You can search by zip, subdivision, school, etc. But like I said in the beginning start with greatschools.net, then you'll know where to start your search. Happy hunting and welcome to Georgia.

[MovintoJax]

I'll share what I know (I'm not an expert on all of Atlanta, just parts!)

Not sure what grade level you are looking for, but when we lived in Atlanta our primary focus was on solid elementary schools, so we moved to Buckhead for the Morris Brandon School District (people are CRAZY enthusiastic about it). Sarah Smith is also one of the top Buckhead schools.

We lived in the Springlake section of Buckhead and LOVED it (totally family-oriented with a strong neighborhood association, Halloween parade, lots of public playgrounds, monthly get-togethers for the adults...) Wildwood in Buckhead also has these things.

My husband had a 10-minute commute to downtown. I think Buckhead would be great for you, and you could afford it with your price range. Also agree that Brookhaven would be nice because you could use MARTA, and closer in, Virginia-Highland and Morningside (we always loved Virginia Highland because of the shops and restaurants there).

I agree with everyone else -- avoid the highways if at all possible, traffic is pretty bad on them. Although, my husband was on 75 south for about 2 exits, if you are only on the highway for a short distance it's ok.

[cmtiger]

We live in Decatur. Decatur is a pretty groovy area - lots of professors, lots of artists, but also lots of doctors and lawyers. So... long as you are within the city limits, you are in the City of Decatur school system. We are very happy with it. They are a little different than other neighboring systems in that their schools are either Expeditionary Learning schools or are International Baccalaureate schools (or on their way to being certified as IB schools). Kids learn more through in depth projects that incorporate all subjects than in more traditional schools. Decatur schools are diverse (about 25% FRL and 40% minority) and their scores are very good all the way through high school. In Decatur the elementaries are Oakhurst, Clairemont, Winnona Park and Glennwood Academy. The middle is Renfroe Middle and the high is Decatur High.

One thing I really like is that the schools are small in Decatur and my kids all walk to school.

On the Atlanta side, Mary Lin and Morningside are very good as is Inman Middle and Grady High so long as your kid is in the upper track. In Buckhead, many of the elementaries are very good and Sutton Middle is supposed to be very good, but I think North Atlanta High needs some work.

Let's see... in Dunwoody, Vanderlyn and Austin Elementaries are very high score schools but they have reps as being test prep factories so make sure to look at Chesnut and Kingsley also and see which appeals to you more. The latter two's scores aren't as high and they are more diverse, but they offer a more well-rounded education from what I hear. Peachtree Middle is supposed to be very good as is Dunwoody High. If you look in Dunwoody make sure you have a realtor who knows what's going on b/c all the elementary school district lines in the Peachtree Middle cluster will change as of fall 2009.

900K will get you what you need and then some in any of these areas. Dunwoody is a little further from downtown and traffic can be a pain - but there are worse commutes. I would guess commuting from Dunwoody to downtown would take 30-45 minutes in rush hour... much more if there is a wreck or sth. Decatur is about 15 minutes from dowtown Atlanta in rush hour. Lake Claire and Candler Park are a bit closer to Atlanta (districted to Mary Lin) and Inman Park (also Mary Lin) is even closer than that. Inman is probably 5 minutes or less to downtown. Virginia Highland and Morningside are probably 15-20 min from downtown and are districted to Morningside Elementary.

Good luck. I would also suggest that you check out greatschools.net than go visit the schools that seem to meet your needs.

[KeithE]

Thanks for the quick responses! I will look into each of the areas mentioned above. Both of our kids are under 6. My wife and I would definitely base most of our location decision on education. If I understand correctly, the general tone is that we should move inside the 1-285 perimeter to min our commute.

Thanks
-Keith