Moving to Georgia From NYC Area

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by Jennynbc

New poster, but also recently moved to Atlanta from NY. We lived in small suburb/village about 35 min north of Manhattan NY. Beautiful homes, mostly older but many renovated and until very recently there weren’t many tear downs. Of course, location and good schools, etc made this very 1% and impractical - 1mm dollars didn’t buy much house.

At any rate, we are renting now in Morningside and while we like homes, landscape & school, I’m not comfortable w fast drivers on side streets, traffic. Maybe it’s just streets I live around (wildwood, Berkshire)? I want my kids to be able to ride bikes, know our neighbors etc. Kids are 8th, 5th & 2nd and 8th grader is already at Woodward which works Bc husband’s job near college park. Prob do private school next year for 5th grader, but ideally public for 2nd grader. However, we’re pretty open.

I admit most of my searching has been online and driving around, but I’m finding things to be either pretty sterile or a little too eclectic. Was hoping Decatur would be a fit, but I just don’t know. Our budget is 1-1.2mm. Although some options will make commute miserable, dh will commute from anywhere and be can work from home a lot. Any suggestions? Am I missing things or not considering certain aspects of some areas? sorry for such a long post.

With that budget, I would check Brookwood Hills, Ansley Park and up in Buckhead.

[ATLUTD]

At $650k, I would be purchasing in Summerhill, Grant Park, Edgewood, Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown, Candler Park, Lake Claire, and maybe Kirkwood (starting to push commutes longer), but that's just me. If you get an ebike, your commutes to Georgia Tech would be about 20 minutes both ways stress free from all those neighborhoods (maybe less from Summerhill/Grant Park/Cabbagetown). If you drive, still should be about 20 minutes in the morning and 30-40 minutes in the afternoon. Very safe neighborhoods with no gang members or drug dealers, so no real worry about homicides happening on your block. Just the rare car smashed window at night, which you can really even fix by just leaving your car unlocked when parked in front of your house. I've said time and time again on here that I don't really buy into the school rankings determine your child's SAT scores thing, but if that matters to you, these neighborhoods are getting increasingly wealthy and thus their school rankings/outcomes are going up.

My values stray from the average city-data.com forum users and couldn't get too much of a feel for your values and interests, but there's my perspective. For the record, I value walkability/alternative transportation, diversity, nightlife, sports, etc...those 7 neighborhoods I listed off nail pretty much all those points. I'm living in Peoplestown for the foreseeable future (probably until the O4W crowd continues their southward migration from Buckhead to Virginia-Highland to now Old 4th Ward and reaches here...Grant Park is next) but would love to buy in any of those neighborhoods once I build up some more assets. Atlanta also may look very different by the time that happens.

[AtlJan]

To the poster with the College Park commute, are you happy with Woodward? If so, I have a plan for you! Move to Serenbe and live my dream life.

You could also do Peachtree City. It is more bland suburban, less farm-to-table paradise than Serenbe, but it has all the extra-curricular stuff for kids (that Serenbe doesn't have) and none of the crazy traffic of Atlanta plus amazing bike/golf cart paths AND truly excellent public schools, rivaling the East Cobb schools, and personally I think the lifestyle is better for kids in Peachtree City, it's just quieter. And actually, Peachtree City is probs my first choice for you guys, then do date nights and Saturdays in Serenbe for some culture. Peachtree City also works if you want to do Woodward. I think Woodward may even have a bus.

You could also look at Pinewood Forest in Fayetteville, a beautiful brand-new planned community and schools are similar to Peachtree City quality, or you could still do Woodward. There is a thread about it on here.

I live in Buckhead and kids go to the big Buckhead private schools--in fact, they've been to several of them :-)! You will really have to search to find a quiet (and flat!) street/neighborood to ride bikes. The schools are ridiculously amazing, but it is a lifestyle trade-off and I would live in Serenbe or Peachtree City in a heart beat. The kids just have more freedom to explore their passions, you can do more in a day than you can here--living in Morningside, you probably know what I mean.