Any thoughts about Lawrenceville? (Atlanta, Duluth: transplants, real estate, house)

[homebound]

We are pondering moving to the Brookwood school district in the Lawrenceville area in Gwinnett...Any thoughts or suggestions about this area? We don't know much about it, except that Brookwood is a great school. Any opinions on the elementary and middle schools in that area? ..(or about Brookwood as well?) The real estate I have looked at online seems to be all over the place in terms of price/ value, amentities, etc (we max out at $250,000 for any house we move to)...Any suggestions/comments about Lawrenceville and surrounding area and neighborhoods would be greatly appreciated! I have some statistics, but would love any word of mouth about this area..we can't afford private schools, so we are trying to find a great school system that isn't too far from Atlanta...I am having a hard time getting a feel for what this area is really like. We are looking for a close community that is very kid friendly...we live in an area with many young singles, busy with executive careers...we want off the fast track and are looking for a positive change.

[jeweloflight]

Originally Posted by homebound

We are pondering moving to the Brookwood school district in the Lawrenceville area in Gwinnett...Any thoughts or suggestions about this area? We don't know much about it, except that Brookwood is a great school. Any opinions on the elementary and middle schools in that area? ..(or about Brookwood as well?) The real estate I have looked at online seems to be all over the place in terms of price/ value, amentities, etc (we max out at $250,000 for any house we move to)...Any suggestions/comments about Lawrenceville and surrounding area and neighborhoods would be greatly appreciated! I have some statistics, but would love any word of mouth about this area..we can't afford private schools, so we are trying to find a great school system that isn't too far from Atlanta...I am having a hard time getting a feel for what this area is really like. We are looking for a close community that is very kid friendly...we live in an area with many young singles, busy with executive careers...we want off the fast track and are looking for a positive change.

I used to live in Lawrenceville last year. Nice place to live. Gwinnett County has some of the best schools in the metro area. Don't know about Brookwood specifically. For living though, it's great. You might want to check out other next door neighborhoods like Suwanee, Dacula, Grayson, Duluth and Buford. $250K will easily get you something you'll be satisfied with. Even $200k will get you something new.

To give you a feel for the place, Gwinnett is the most diverse county in the Atlanta area. White, Black, Hispanic, Romanian, Asian, Indian, everything lives up there. Lot of transplants from everywhere, mostly up north. Three major malls within a 20 mile radius. Very family oriented, I don't think you'll have a problem finding a family community. However, because Atlanta is mostly transplants now, that "southern hospitality" is being lost. I don't know how "tight knit" the communities will be. It's seems everyone just stays to themselves for the most part, but I can't make a blanket statement, that's just my experience. You're looking in a good area if you like diversity. It's about a 35 minute drive into Atlanta, depending on how far your house will be from interstate 85. Lots of developing and building going on up there. The traffic I would say is the only down fall. Everybody here knows Gwinnett County traffic is the worst!