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Hello,
We are a family of 3, our daughter is in preschool now. We don't want to keep paying the high taxes for one. Also, we want a good mix of diversity, great schools and a nice place to raise our child. Are there many transplants from the NYC metro area? I know schools are very good. We don't know a lot about the area but we love what we've seen so far. Any info you think might help is welcome. We plan on coming by this summer to visit the area and make a more informed decision.
Thank you !
Hello,
We are a family of 3, our daughter is in preschool now. We don't want to keep paying the high taxes for one. Also, we want a good mix of diversity, great schools and a nice place to raise our child. Are there many transplants from the NYC metro area? I know schools are very good. We don't know a lot about the area but we love what we've seen so far. Any info you think might help is welcome. We plan on coming by this summer to visit the area and make a more informed decision.
Thank you !
Yes there are many, many, MANY transplants from New York and much of the urban Northeast living in the Atlanta area.
Large amounts of migration from New York and the Northeast south to Georgia has been one of the major reasons for the continued robust growth of the Atlanta metro area from a much smaller provincial mid-sized metro area to a very large major metro area of international significance.
Johns Creek is a really good area to look at, though good areas can be found all over much of the Atlanta metro area.
What most likely will be the wisest course of action for you and your families may be to first find out where in the Atlanta metro area you and your partner will be commuting to and from for work before making a final decision on where to rent or buy a place to live.
Where the working members of a family and/or household commute to and from for work often plays a dominant role in determining where newcomers look for and commit to housing in an Atlanta metro area where traffic congestion can often be a major concern.
So the best course of action for you will be to wait and first find out where in the Atlanta area the working members of your family/household will be commuting to and from for work before getting attached to one particular location that potentially may not be a good option after you and your partner find out where you will be commuting to and from for work on a daily basis.
I am debating between Armonk/CT area vs. Atlanta Burbs area as well. I am in Bellevue, WA. Interested in your thoughts/drive to move to Johns Creek area
Hello,
We are a family of 3, our daughter is in preschool now. We don't want to keep paying the high taxes for one. Also, we want a good mix of diversity, great schools and a nice place to raise our child. Are there many transplants from the NYC metro area? I know schools are very good. We don't know a lot about the area but we love what we've seen so far. Any info you think might help is welcome. We plan on coming by this summer to visit the area and make a more informed decision.
Thank you !
I always snort a little when NYC transplants want to hang with all the other transplants -- and yet, hello? -- how did NYC get the way it is unless it was by the NYC citizens? So people come to Atlanta, and then complain that it's not "diverse" as NYC, and want to know where all the other NYC people are. Heheh. Most of the NYC transplants I know love it. Occasionally one will throw up their hands in dismay and go running back to "civilization". I've lived and worked in NYC, although I wasn't born and raised there. However, for our family, Atlanta had it all over NYC (and Miami, the other place we lived.)
What does "diverse" mean to you? I find that most cultural groups have their own biases -- Asians tend to want to hang with other Asians, Indians tend to want to hang with other Indians, Mexicans like to hang with other Mexicans, and the ones from Spain and South America turn their nose up at the other Spanish-speakers. Do the diverse groups get along? Pretty much yes. Are you talking about religious diversity? You can worship - or not -- in just about any way you want, nobody cares, as long as you aren't sacrificing chickens on your front lawn. As a real estate agent, I can't tell a prospective buyer that "XYZ neighborhood is 90% Asian" or that "this school is about 90% African-American." Use your eyes when you tour. Look at the neighborhood markets -- you'll get a feel for the neighborhood by the specialty markets, by the posters in the window at the nail salon, and by getting a tour of the schools you are interested in. (If you could tour a few schools before school lets out around Memorial Day, you'd also get a good feel for the diversity of any given school. Also, check the Georgia Board of Education website -- it has TONS of statistics for each school, including race, test scores, subsidized lunches, etc.)
The Johns Creek/Alpharetta/Suwanee/Roswell area is popular for families with children because of the quality of the schools, the swim/tennis clubs that are pretty ubiquitous throughout the neighborhoods, and the affordability of the housing compared to closer-in Sandy Springs/Dunwoody/Brookhaven/Buckhead, etc. makes the area attractive, too. The commute can be a bee-atch if one of the adults works downtown, but the nice thing about the Johns Creek/Alpharetta area is that it is becoming a tech center (as the businesses realize that they don't want to pay downtown Atlanta rentals, either, and their workforce is out in the suburbs.) You will need a car, unlike NYC.
Thank you very much for your answers. It's great to hear that. Me and my husband have a home business, so there won't be any commuting involved. We are looking for a very safe, affluent and diverse community, hard to find in CT all 3 together. Any other areas that you recommend, we're also looking into Alpharetta, Milton. We saw that John Creeks has a lot of shopping maybe more than the other places? All I can say is that we are so excited about moving. The taxes up here are just ridiculous, our budget was originally btn 800k and 1.2M, but we really want to stay with the lower end and find 800K gives us so much more house for our money. Also, CT is a sanctuary state that means that it's almost sure that taxes will go up. One house we looked at in Ridgefield, CT had taxes of $24,000. Which means that we're looking at forking $30,000 in the years to come if we stay here. That is just too much. So, very excited about this new life and again thank you so much for your answers.
One house we looked at in Ridgefield, CT had taxes of $24,000. Which means that we're looking at forking $30,000 in the years to come if we stay here. That is just too much. So, very excited about this new life and again thank you so much for your answers.
Ha, I hear you! We lived in Ridgefield right after we got married, 35 years ago, and even then, it was ridiculous! (Then we moved to Darien, and now do you want to talk ridiculous? 35 years ago, a little Cape Cod house two blocks from Peartree Point in Darien was over $200,000 -- and it had a converted coal-burning furnace and basically two bedrooms! Now houses in that neighborhood like that are going for $750K.) Taxes on a home in the $450-$550K range in the North Atlanta suburbs are between $5-6,000 a year.
PM me if you want more detailed information on the housing market around Johns Creek/Alpharetta/Milton. $800K will buy you a lovely home in a top school district with space for two home offices -- in fact, you can probably count on spending less than that. It's also easy to spend $1M and or more -- just depends on what you're looking for!
Thank you very much for your answers. It's great to hear that. Me and my husband have a home business, so there won't be any commuting involved. We are looking for a very safe, affluent and diverse community, hard to find in CT all 3 together. Any other areas that you recommend, we're also looking into Alpharetta, Milton. We saw that John Creeks has a lot of shopping maybe more than the other places? All I can say is that we are so excited about moving. The taxes up here are just ridiculous, our budget was originally btn 800k and 1.2M, but we really want to stay with the lower end and find 800K gives us so much more house for our money. Also, CT is a sanctuary state that means that it's almost sure that taxes will go up. One house we looked at in Ridgefield, CT had taxes of $24,000. Which means that we're looking at forking $30,000 in the years to come if we stay here. That is just too much. So, very excited about this new life and again thank you so much for your answers.
Well, with your budget of up to between $800k and $1.2M and a home-based business that requires no commuting, Johns Creek (which is an extremely affluent area which may likely seem like a bargain when compared to the cost of real estate in a state like Connecticut) would be an excellent option for you and your family.
The schools are very highly-regarded and of extremely high quality, there are lots of amenities (including lots of shopping and retail amenities) and the community is safe and extremely diverse in Johns Creek.
Johns Creek pretty much seems to have everything that you seem to be looking for.
Thank you very much for your answers. It's great to hear that. Me and my husband have a home business, so there won't be any commuting involved. We are looking for a very safe, affluent and diverse community, hard to find in CT all 3 together. Any other areas that you recommend, we're also looking into Alpharetta, Milton. We saw that John Creeks has a lot of shopping maybe more than the other places? All I can say is that we are so excited about moving. The taxes up here are just ridiculous, our budget was originally btn 800k and 1.2M, but we really want to stay with the lower end and find 800K gives us so much more house for our money. Also, CT is a sanctuary state that means that it's almost sure that taxes will go up. One house we looked at in Ridgefield, CT had taxes of $24,000. Which means that we're looking at forking $30,000 in the years to come if we stay here. That is just too much. So, very excited about this new life and again thank you so much for your answers.
Other areas that might meet your criteria are East Cobb (Walton, Pope, & Lassister school districts). Also the Harrison and Hillgrove areas of Cobb are highly rated too. Lambert and South Forsyth High schools in Forsyth County might be good options as well. On the east side of ATL, Decatur, North Gwinnett, & Brookwood are highly rated. Lastly, on the south side, Peachtree City is an affluent suburb that is truly unique with over 100 miles of golf cart paths, great schools, and very low crime. In PTC, kids can drive their golf carts to the local high schools (McIntosh/Starr's Mill). Almost every family has a golf cart (11,000 registered) because you can go every in PTC via golf cart. There are also a lot of transplants here too.
kamct - I live in the Johns Creek area. Gotta say that it is a terrific place to raise a family. Excellent schools, terrific amenities, wonderful neighborhoods. We are actually in south Forsyth County in the St Marlo neighborhood (it borders the Johns Creek city and Fulton County border). Property taxes in south Forsyth are much more affordable than in neighboring Fulton county. Our neighborhood is very diverse - Koreans, Indians, Caucasians, African Americans... you name it. The schools here are terrific - some of the best in the state. Good shopping, good restaurants (and, no, despite what some of the intown folks will say, its not all Chilli's and Bennigan's!), lovely parks and trails, etc. Many of the neighborhoods have organized summer swim for the kiddos, good tennis teams and facilities and the like. I moved here from Midtown Atlanta about 4 or 5 years ago and have been really happy living in the burbs. As long as you don't have to commute into the city each day, it's a pretty darn nice place to live!
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