The "other" Decatur... what's the difference? (North Decatur: income, house)

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Charter schools are public schools.

No kidding.

And the lip balm in my purse is not really "ChapStick" brand though I call it "ChapStick". And the "hook and loop fastener" on my kid's tennies should always be referred to as such, since it's not officially "Velcro". Oh, oops.. I just called her shoes "tennies". I mean "athletic shoes", since they really have nothing to do with tennis in any way at all. When she falls and skins her knee I'll be sure to ask her if she wants an "adhesive bandage" since we don't ever actually buy Band-Aid brand.

I would imagine many people (esp. those with kids and those who live in reasonably large cities where charter schools are common) understand what charter schools are (and if not, they can ask, or Google it).. and most also understand that they are publicly funded and are technically "public schools" but is it really necessary to say, in the course of internet 'conversation'; "My kids attend a publicly funded charter school, which is often similar in atmosphere to a private school but is still a PUBLIC school, vs. a mainstream school assigned by zip code/address which is ALSO a public school but differs in focus"? I don't think so.

Thanks for the "helpful" post.

[lastminutemom]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

Thanks all.

If there are good Charter schools we'd utilize that option. I was kind of intrigued by the International Community School.

As for price range... I'm figuring up to 140k? T

ICS only goes through elementary so that wouldn't do you much good. I am also not sure that you can find a home in a decent neighborhood with fairly decent public schools for your price range in a cool, having a vibe neighborhood. While your one income strategy is a good one, I was at a birthday for a young child intown this weekend and every family was two income and living in homes that probably required that.

Others can answer better, but you might want to post this as a separate question. What kind of housing options intown Atlanta will we have below $150K?

I think you said you were in San Antonio. I ran the income comparison thingy and discovered that ATL is 20 percent more expensive than San Antonio. You can actually insert your own data to see for yourself.

Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed

Metro Atlanta is divided into counties which all have their own school systems as well as a couple of city systems like Decatur, Atlanta, etc. DeKalb (with the exception of a public high school that converted to charter status) has no charter high schools and a couple of small, varying widely in quality, middle school charter programs. If you have very bright kids, Avondale High School has a fledging IB programme, but only time will tell if it will be any good.

[atlantamoi]

140k won't go too far in the areas around Decatur. Even a decent townhouse won't be found for that. You might be able to find a very small house in a few miles radius of Decatur, but you aren't going to get that funky vibe (unless you mean the smell of the carpets!).

We live 3 miles from downtown Decatur in a nice subdivision, but all around us is gentrification and I wouldn't think of living in some of these neighborhoods (pre-gent.). I'm not saying you can't find what you are looking for, but you'll definitely have to think small and unglamourous.

We've also thought about ICS one day, but we're a few years away from school and I have no idea what the future holds for ICS (where will it be? what grade will it go up to?).

[cmtiger]

Atlantamoi has it right. In metro Atlanta 140K gets you a very tiny, old condo in need of renovation or a very small house in a very questionable neighborhood intown ... or a reasonable house way out in the metro area.

If you find some miracle in City of Atlanta..... There are a couple of charters in the East Atlanta Area - there is an Imagine Academy and Atlanta Middle School that both go to eighth grade. I don't know of any charter high schools in the area but I don't know of any charter high schools that have decent performance. Some of the regular high schools have magnet programs if your kids qualify. Grady has a communications magnet and North Atlanta has an arts magnet (last I checked).

[stvincent]

I think expecting to find a really nice house in a good neighborhood surrounding Decatur for under 140K is a bit of a stretch. Atlanta's standard of living is lower than the rest of the country but homes in good neighborhoods in proximity to good schools cost more than the average home in the average neighborhood just as it does anywhere else. I hate to break it to you but 140K is not really going to go far at all in the Metro Atlanta area with what you want in a community. You want an older home but those are super expensive, especially since they are so rare because Atlanta bulldozes anything semi-historic. Someone suggested Inman Park, which is a very nice community, in a good school district, with historic homes...and prices start in the 400s and go up into the millions. I think your best bet would be to move somewhere further out, away from the city(to cut down on the ghetto influx in your neighborhood of those being driven out of the city by gentrification). Conyers and Covington might be options. You would be far from Atlanta and Decatur and they are not the most friendly of GLBT places to live BUT the homes you can get for 140K are nice and large, in decent neighborhoods and decent schools. Unfortunately gay friendly communities have become some of the most expensive places to live in the metro area. I can't really think of any affordable ones.

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by stvincent

I think expecting to find a really nice house in a good neighborhood surrounding Decatur for under 140K is a bit of a stretch. Atlanta's standard of living is lower than the rest of the country but homes in good neighborhoods in proximity to good schools cost more than the average home in the average neighborhood just as it does anywhere else. I hate to break it to you but 140K is not really going to go far at all in the Metro Atlanta area with what you want in a community. You want an older home but those are super expensive, especially since they are so rare because Atlanta bulldozes anything semi-historic. Someone suggested Inman Park, which is a very nice community, in a good school district, with historic homes...and prices start in the 400s and go up into the millions. I think your best bet would be to move somewhere further out, away from the city(to cut down on the ghetto influx in your neighborhood of those being driven out of the city by gentrification). Conyers and Covington might be options. You would be far from Atlanta and Decatur and they are not the most friendly of GLBT places to live BUT the homes you can get for 140K are nice and large, in decent neighborhoods and decent schools. Unfortunately gay friendly communities have become some of the most expensive places to live in the metro area. I can't really think of any affordable ones.

Gosh, sounds a lot like here in SA except we don't really have any "gayborhoods". Okay, there is one, full of old homes, recently given historic designation and even something falling apart there is 130k on up. Wish I'd had the money to buy there a few years ago when everything was dirt cheap! Could have had a 2 story, 2500 sf Victorian in solid shape for 75k. Argh. Isn't it always that way???

Where we live we don't necessarily have a GLBT friendly area but it's not hostile either. We're just a little freakish in our 'hood but not harassed or anything. Would love to live more closely to families like ours is all.

Hmmmm.

I did a realtor.com search for old houses under 120k, just to see, and just used Atlanta (not Decatur) and found a ton that were cheap, but I have NO idea bout the neighborhoods they're in. Many of them LOOKED like they were in really decent shape too, but that's always the thing with looking online, isn't it? Besides you never can trust the online sources to have the neighborhood right, as I learned when searching for this house we're in now.

Maybe I'll have to drop the old house idea until the kids are older.

As for Charter Schools and ICS specifically, their website says they go up to 5th or 6th and are possibly going to add grades in the future. I know a lot of charter schools here do that.. add a grade per year.. so who knows.
I am so used to SA having a ton of charter school options!

What about areas that are not necessarily GLBT oriented or GLBT friendly but are just plain ole diverse, liberal, accepting? Anything like that?

If anyone has a bit of spare time on their hands and wants to help me out.. go to realtor.com and do a search for Atlanta, 2 bedroom minimum, do the advanced search and look for homes 50 years old and older only (it helps to add hardwood floors as a search criteria), price up to 130k and tell me, please, about the neighborhoods I'm seeing cute 1920's/30s homes in.

[irvm]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

No kidding.

Thanks for the "helpful" post.

And that make yours -- what?

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by irvm

And that make yours -- what?

A response to an unhelpful post on a thread *I* started? Really, I don't know why people feel compelled to just go around posting when they have nothing to contribute an aren't trying to answer the questions within the thread. Seems to be a popular pastime though!

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

A response to an unhelpful post on a thread *I* started? Really, I don't know why people feel compelled to just go around posting when they have nothing to contribute an aren't trying to answer the questions within the thread. Seems to be a popular pastime though!

I was trying to be helpful, miss. That's all.

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by aries4118

I was trying to be helpful, miss. That's all.

Perhaps we are having a misunderstanding but it didn't seem like that to me. Seemed like nitpicking over semantics, because I would think it's pretty obvious that someone whose children have been in charter schools for years would understand that they are "public schools"...? So the comment, to me, seemed snarky.

But if you maintain you were simply being helpful then who am I to argue. If that was truly your intent, then my apologies to you.