Advice for family with HS children for East Cobb/Milton/Alph - much appreciated in advance! (Atlanta: HOA)

[JonesFamily]

Hi all,
Appreciate any input and please pardon our preferences if they differ from yours. We are weird

1. Looking at 5 HS communities (I see they are all good schools) - Alpharetta, Milton, Lassiter, Pope, Walton - if I am looking for "Master-Planned-Communities" such that they have lots of homes together, amenities such as pools, tennis courts for the kids, soccer fields- What are the Master Planned Communities or neighborhoods I should consider?

2. Considering the same 5 HS communities above, which areas/neighborhoods are best for my wife getting to things like Grocery Store, Target, Lowes/HD?

3. If you know, or have recently purchased, are there homes that are 400-600 in those communities or is that way off? (For like 3-4b, 2-3bath, 2800-3500 sqft, type thing)?

Thank you again in advance for your advice and opinions!
David

[Citykid3785]

1. Each community has tons of what I would call HOA neighborhoods. They will vary in degree from a modest pool and playground with dues of $50/mo, to $200+/mo with 3 pools and waterslides. Aside from the homes built right off the busy roads, most homes fit the bill here

2. Milton is still too undeveloped to be the best in terms of amenities. Alpharetta and East Cobb shine here. In fact, Alpharetta seemingly has everything these days, with East Cobb, the amenities are much better in the Walton/Pope area, but also not bad in the Lassiter area.

3. Yes, but most will be closer to the $600K end of the spectrum with the recent run up in prices. Many of the homes that are $400K are the one off, on the busy road, etc.

I live in the Pope district of East Cobb, right on the Walton border. East Cobb covers and area of 200K people. The epicenter of retail is at Johnson Ferry and 120 (Roswell Rd). It takes me 6 minutes to get to and has awesome retail (Target, Trader Joes, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Athleta & Lululemon ( I mention because my wife appreciates those!).

The Lassiter district is great, and while not devoid of retail by any means, it's just a bit more removed from many areas of the metro one may want to frequent.

Alpharetta is great. It's a job center in its own right, has a great downtown, Avalon outdoor shopping, etc. It is a bit removed from Atlanta if you like to frequent the city, but it's also closer to the mountains and has access to both via the often congested highway 400. It skus a bit newer and a bit more expensive.


I live in a 1984, 3000 sqft 4/3 house in a modest east cobb neighborhood. We bought in 2018 for $469K, zillow estimate (I know these aren't perfect!) says it's worth $600K. Neighbors recently sold for $634K.

If you do find that cost becomes an issue, the Sprayberry area of East Cobb is a comparative steal. The school is not as highly rated as Walton/Pope/Lassiter, it's still a great school and the homes are cheaper.

[JonesFamily]

Thank you! Very helpful! I'm planning to try and take a trip out very soon to go look so will try and locate the places you mentioned. Thanks again!

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by JonesFamily

Thank you! Very helpful! I'm planning to try and take a trip out very soon to go look so will try and locate the places you mentioned. Thanks again!

Awesome. There really are no bad parts to East Cobb, Milton, and Alpharetta, so it just ends up being more a matter of preference and budget.

Alpharetta is a tech hub, so it attracts a lot of tech talent that really couldn't care less about the city of Atlanta in a sense. They move to Cumming, Milton, Alpharetta, Dawsonville and commute into Alpharetta.


East Cobb is probably a better choice if you want to frequent the city of ATL, depending on where in East Cobb. Is job commute a factor at all?

Also, DM me when you are trip planning if I can help at all on specifics.

[Mattie]

[quote=Citykid3785;61027120]
2. Milton is still too undeveloped to be the best in terms of amenities. Alpharetta and East Cobb shine here. In fact, Alpharetta seemingly has everything these days, with East Cobb, the amenities are much better in the Walton/Pope area, but also not bad in the Lassiter area.

Your post is 98% spot on, but Milton is not undeveloped, far from it at this point. Everything is available either with a Milton address or within a mile of the city line. Besides the active downtown Crabapple, a busy stretch of GA 9 is within the Milton limits, and there is also the Birmingham Crossroads shopping center.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

1. Each community has tons of what I would call HOA neighborhoods. They will vary in degree from a modest pool and playground with dues of $50/mo, to $200+/mo with 3 pools and waterslides. Aside from the homes built right off the busy roads, most homes fit the bill here

2. Milton is still too undeveloped to be the best in terms of amenities. Alpharetta and East Cobb shine here. In fact, Alpharetta seemingly has everything these days, with East Cobb, the amenities are much better in the Walton/Pope area, but also not bad in the Lassiter area.

3. Yes, but most will be closer to the $600K end of the spectrum with the recent run up in prices. Many of the homes that are $400K are the one off, on the busy road, etc.

I live in the Pope district of East Cobb, right on the Walton border. East Cobb covers and area of 200K people. The epicenter of retail is at Johnson Ferry and 120 (Roswell Rd). It takes me 6 minutes to get to and has awesome retail (Target, Trader Joes, Sprouts, Whole Foods, Athleta & Lululemon ( I mention because my wife appreciates those!).

The Lassiter district is great, and while not devoid of retail by any means, it's just a bit more removed from many areas of the metro one may want to frequent.

Alpharetta is great. It's a job center in its own right, has a great downtown, Avalon outdoor shopping, etc. It is a bit removed from Atlanta if you like to frequent the city, but it's also closer to the mountains and has access to both via the often congested highway 400. It skus a bit newer and a bit more expensive.


I live in a 1984, 3000 sqft 4/3 house in a modest east cobb neighborhood. We bought in 2018 for $469K, zillow estimate (I know these aren't perfect!) says it's worth $600K. Neighbors recently sold for $634K.

If you do find that cost becomes an issue, the Sprayberry area of East Cobb is a comparative steal. The school is not as highly rated as Walton/Pope/Lassiter, it's still a great school and the homes are cheaper.

Your comments about East Cobb retail amenities, and in particular about the retail amenities of the Lassiter school district raise some important points, including:

> That even though the GA-120 Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road intersection (in the Walton school district) is clearly the main hub of retail activity in East Cobb; the Sandy Plains Road/Shallowford Road intersection is also a notable hub of retail activity, with Publix, Kroger, Greenwise, Target and Home Depot stores being located at and/or near that major intersection...

> And that East Cobb actually has 2 Target stores (the aforementioned Target store at Sandy Plains and Shallowford roads in the Lassiter HS cluster, and at Johnson Ferry and GA-120 Roswell roads in the Walton HS cluster).

There is also a 3rd notable hub of retail activity in East Cobb in the Pope High School cluster at and near the Johnson Ferry Road and Shallowford Road intersection where there is a Walmart Supercenter, a Kroger and a Publix.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Mattie

Your post is 98% spot on, but Milton is not undeveloped, far from it at this point. Everything is available either with a Milton address or within a mile of the city line. Besides the active downtown Crabapple, a busy stretch of GA 9 is within the Milton limits, and there is also the Birmingham Crossroads shopping center.

Mattie raises an important point, which is that even though much of Milton may have a reputation for being relatively sparsely developed, there is actually a notable cluster of retail development in and along the southeast corner of the city at and near the intersection of Windward Parkway and Georgia State Route 9, west of the Georgia State Route 400 superhighway.

The retail cluster at and around Windward Parkway and GA-9 includes a Walmart Supercenter, a Kroger grocery store, a Costco Wholesale, an Aldi grocery store, a Super Target, a Kohl’s, a Home Depot and a Lowe’s. There is also a Publix grocery store located up GA-9 near the Bethany Bend intersection.

A small part of the retail cluster (including the Kroger and the Lowe’s) is located within the city limits of Alpharetta proper as the corporate boundary between Alpharetta proper and Milton proper kind of wanders through the area.

But most of the Windward Parkway/GA-9 retail cluster is located within the corporate limits of the City of Milton.

[Go Blue 99]

I would expect closer to the $500k-$600k range in those zones, which are all highly regarded. The other issue is the lack of inventory- it may be fruitless to focus on certain neighborhoods because homes may simply be unavailable for purchase.

Where do you live now? Are you able to take drives through the areas to see what kind of feel you prefer? Is job commute a factor?

Also, how important is diversity to you? Per the March '21 state figures, those HS vary a decent amount in diversity level:

Alpharetta- 40% white
Milton- 60% white
Walton- 64% white
Lassiter- 69% white
Pope- 75% white