Relocating from Milwaukee to GA (Atlanta, Roswell: real estate, for rent, how much)

[lht777]

My husband and I are TIRED of the Wisconsin winters and are looking to relocate potentially to suburbs of Atlanta. We are considering Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta, Decatur and south (Peachtree City). We love to be outdoors. Husband loves to golf. We love walkability to unique restaurants, shops, coffee, etc. I don't want to drive too far to get to our daily stops like the grocery store, Target, post office, etc. Schools are our top priority due to kids being elementary age. We love to hike, garden, bike, play sports. Are there any recommendations for fun locations/neighborhoods that would be a good fit? We are in the real estate and lending market and our jobs can be anywhere. We plan to potentially rent for a year in a location we want to be in and get kids settled while we locate our jobs. Any tips, suggestions, advice are welcome! We are aware of the traffic commuting back and forth to downtown and we don't have any desire to have jobs there. We would be great working in the community where we end up. THANKS!

[ATLTJL]

You'll get a ton of different answers because really, all of the areas you've mentioned really do fit the criteria you've outlined.

Just a few things might help you narrow things down:

1) How much money do you have? There is golf down in Peachtree City, but you'll find a ton of golf courses up in Alpharetta/Johns Creek. They are more prestigious, but most of them are also private and require a lot of money to play on (and maybe knowing a member.)

2) Every area is going to have access to the retail you mentioned. Decatur probably has the most unique shops, Peachtree City probably the least. Alpharetta is probably the least walkable. Roswell has a nice downtown, but you'll pay more to live near it. Decatur is known for its downtown. You'll pay a small fortune to live near it.

There's really not much more to tell you since you seem to have it nailed. Definitely renting for a year is an awesome idea as you spend time figuring out where is best for you. I'd recommend visiting and checking out Peachtree City, Decatur and Alpharetta. That's the easiest place to start. If you don't like Peachtree City or Decatur, just scratch them off your list. Alpharetta neighbors Roswell, Marietta, Johns Creek, Milton, so once you're up there, it's easier to whittle down. The biggest choice to make first is whether you want to live south of town, intown or north of town. You have selections in all 3 places.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

You'll get a ton of different answers because really, all of the areas you've mentioned really do fit the criteria you've outlined.

Just a few things might help you narrow things down:

1) How much money do you have? There is golf down in Peachtree City, but you'll find a ton of golf courses up in Alpharetta/Johns Creek. They are more prestigious, but most of them are also private and require a lot of money to play on (and maybe knowing a member.)

2) Every area is going to have access to the retail you mentioned. Decatur probably has the most unique shops, Peachtree City probably the least. Alpharetta is probably the least walkable. Roswell has a nice downtown, but you'll pay more to live near it. Decatur is known for its downtown. You'll pay a small fortune to live near it.

There's really not much more to tell you since you seem to have it nailed. Definitely renting for a year is an awesome idea as you spend time figuring out where is best for you. I'd recommend visiting and checking out Peachtree City, Decatur and Alpharetta. That's the easiest place to start. If you don't like Peachtree City or Decatur, just scratch them off your list. Alpharetta neighbors Roswell, Marietta, Johns Creek, Milton, so once you're up there, it's easier to whittle down. The biggest choice to make first is whether you want to live south of town, intown or north of town. You have selections in all 3 places.

ATLJTL nails it with these comments.

I might go one step farther and recommend that you focus your search on Peachtree City if you want to be a reasonable distance from daily errands and retail amenities.

P'tree City is not really considered walkable in the widely regarded sense, but P'tree City is a fairly compact community built around golfing and a unique system of golf cart trails.

Traffic (while not non-existent) is fairly light in P'tree City relative to the hyper-developed and hyper-congested Northside suburbs, and (with the exception of trips to shop at the retail cluster in Newnan in Coweta County along Georgia Highway 34) your errand trips will be relatively short and less-congested than errand trips on the Northside.

Roswell/Alpharetta, Decatur and Marietta are all great options themselves, but they (especially Roswell/Alpharetta and Marietta) are part of Atlanta's ultra amenity-rich but ultra-spread out Northside where you will be doing much driving to daily stops and errands on roads that will often be severely-congested with extremely heavy traffic.

[arjay57]

Sounds like Avalon might be a good fit for you.

[lorilove]

What is your housing budget for rent or purchase?

[ipkl07]

Rust belt cities have been dying for decades I'm surprised anybody is still there, since they can't seem to figure it out. All those suburbs you mentioned seemed fine. My personal favorite is Roswell, but open up your pocket book! Peachtree City might be a better option with the rapid development of Atlanta's northern suburbs. Get use to sitting in traffic if you choose the northern suburbs, as you'll be doing plenty of it! Even when I tried to do my driving time off non rush hours I sat plenty of hours in traffic, it's unavoidable from what I have seen unless you're not in a car.

[citidata18]

The only problem with Peachtree City is that I'm not aware of any places close by to hike. With exception to parts of Coweta County / South Fulton, the southern suburbs are fairly flat compared to the northern suburbs.

That said, I would also recommend looking into Cumming. In addition to meeting most of your requirements, you're also near Lake Lanier if you like going to the beach often or water-related activities. Sawnee Mountain in Cumming (elevation of roughly 2,000 ft) also has a very popular hiking trail. The only thing is that Cumming's not very walkable.

[PTC Dad]

The cities you mention are all great choices. The Northside will offer more shopping and dinning options, and Decatur is a truly unique in-town community with great schools, shopping, and dinning. However, Peachtree City will give you a resort like feel and less traffic and congestion than the northern burbs. Peachtree City also checks a lot of your boxes.

-Great schools (all schools ranked in the top 10% of the state)
-Golf (4 great golf clubs in Peachtree City for about $100 a month) Flat Creek | Whitewater | Planterra | Braelinn. You can also drive your personal golf course to every course.
-Walkability (the 100 mile golf cart path system is for walking and biking too) everything in the Peachtree City is connected by the paths and kids as young as 12 can drive a golf cart with parental supervision.

Also, adjacent Coweta County is one of the fastest growing counties in the country, which keeps those in real estate business very busy.

Peachtree City is one of the few masterplanned cities in Georgia (based somewhat on Hilton Head, but obviously w/o the beach). It doesn't have a town center by design. It's built in 5 villages; each has it's own shopping and dinning. The city is also built around 3 lakes, 4 golf courses, an amphitheater, BMX track, nature preserve, boardwalk, and tons of other pocket parks and ponds. This is all linked by the 100 mile multi-use path system. There are over 12,000 registered golf carts in the city, and families truly leave their cars behind most evenings and weekends. There are also mandatory tree buffers that keep most development hidden. It's a great place to raise a family.

[kgpremed13]

With all the people relocating form up north to down south, especially to cities like Atlanta and Houston intown real estate is gonna push 1 million dollars in a few years. Atlanta real estate will mirror New York, sucks for us looking to buy in about the next 5-10 years.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by citidata18

The only problem with Peachtree City is that I'm not aware of any places close by to hike. With exception to parts of Coweta County / South Fulton, the southern suburbs are fairly flat compared to the northern suburbs.

That said, I would also recommend looking into Cumming. In addition to meeting most of your requirements, you're also near Lake Lanier if you like going to the beach often or water-related activities. Sawnee Mountain in Cumming (elevation of roughly 2,000 ft) also has a very popular hiking trail. The only thing is that Cumming's not very walkable.

That is a really good point that (while it may not experience nearly as much congestion as the other Atlanta suburbs that the OP is considering) Peachtree City does not seem to provide good access to quality hiking opportunities.

Of all of the communities that the OP is considering, Marietta appears to provide the best access to very high-quality hiking opportunities at popular and beloved sites like the Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area, the Sope Creek Paper Mill Ruins Nature Preserve/Hiking Area, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, and Red Top Mountain State Park at Lake Allatoona.

Marietta also provides good access (by way of Interstate 575/Georgia State Route 515) to some of the best hiking opportunities on the entire North American continent in the federally-protected forested areas of the Blue Ridge and Southern Appalachian mountain ranges of North Georgia, Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.

If one really likes very high-quality hiking opportunities, a North Atlanta suburb like Marietta and its great nearly-direct highway access to the federally-protected forest lands of the Blue Ridge/Southern Appalachian mountain ranges north of Atlanta in North GA, Western NC and Eastern TN is an excellent option to consider.

(...The federally-protected forest lands north of Atlanta in North Georgia, Western North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee include the Chattahoochee National Forest, the Nantahala National Forest, and the extremely popular Great Smoky Mountains National Park.)