Work in Sandy Springs, where to live? (Atlanta, Roswell: houses, safe area)

[dean320]

Hello,

I may be relocating to Atlanta from Ohio and will be working in Sandy Springs less than 1/2 mile off of 400. My wife and I have an 8 month old and would love to live in the country, but I currently travel to Atlanta occasionally so I know a bit about the traffic and know that might not be an option.

We are looking for a safe area, reasonably priced houses with good schools within a 30-40 minute commute. My idea of reasonably priced regarding houses is below $200K, but less would better if possible. We saw an article that said Kennesaw was good for families, but am sure there are more areas to consider.

Any ideas?

[GF72]

The areas around Sandy Springs are all safe, good for families, and have the best schools in the state. Finding a house under $200,000 unfortunately is extremely hard in these areas, but there are a few that exist.

EDIT: Well I had given you a link to find houses, but for whatever reason that's not allowed apparently, so you'll have to find your own houses. But this is what I found using that website for under 200k, sorted by school district/city.

Walton, East Cobb - 3 houses
Pope, East Cobb - 21 houses
Lassiter, East Cobb - 50 houses
Roswell, Roswell - 46 houses
Centennial, Roswell - 48 houses
Chattahoochee, Johns Creek - 47 houses
Northview, Johns Creek - 2 houses
Milton, Milton - 12 houses

These are the best school districts in the state, but by no means the only good school districts in the state. Walton and Northview are the two best high schools in the state, but since you won't have to worry about high school for a while it doesn't really matter. As far as elementary and middle schools go, pretty much all of them that fall under these high schools are excellent.

The commute to Sandy Springs is between 10-30 minutes for all of these areas, except the Milton area which is farther away, and also much more rural/country. The shortest commute to Sandy Springs is from the Walton area of East Cobb which would put you at a 10-15 minute commute normally and 25 minutes under the absolute worst conditions, and would also give you the best schools in the state. You won't have much choice as far as houses go, mostly above a million here but there's always a couple of houses under 200k. Roswell and Pope areas also offer short commutes and you'll find MUCH more choice in that price range.

Other good areas to consider are Cherokee County and Forsyth County. Both of these counties have great schools (not quite as good as the ones I listed though) and have a lot of countryside areas. Commute would be at least an hour for Cherokee county and around or a little below an hour for Forsyth, depending on how north you went.

[blondandfun]

Kennesaw is too far from sandy springsin my personal opinion, plus you will be in bad shape going up and down I-75 with the worst traffic. For a job in Sandy Springs, I highly recommend Smyrna. I work in East Cobb on the border to sandy springs and its only 25 min. from where I live. Smyrna is probably more expensive than Kennesaw, but it is considered to be younger professionals who don't want to live too far from they city (its only 15-20 min. away from downtown.)

[GF72]

Smyrna has a good location but there are parts of Smyrna that aren't so safe and the schools are terrible. Also, it's really as far away from country living as you can get. Cherokee, Forsyth, and Milton can all offer country living, and while East Cobb, Roswell, and Johns Creek are not country at all, they are overall much nicer areas with the natural surroundings more intact than Smyrna. Smyrna certainly has a much wider offering in that price range, but if you can I would stay in those other areas.

Dunwoody is also an extremely short commute to Sandy Springs and is a very nice area, but the main reason I didn't recommend it is because the schools there aren't quite as good. But there are some houses less than 200k in the Dunwoody High area, but they are rare. Same for the Alpharetta High area. Both of these high schools are pretty good (far better than the schools in Smyrna) but not as good as the ones I listed.

I agree that Kennesaw is just too far. Cherokee County is also too far really. But both Kennesaw and Cherokee offer good schools and parts of them can really offer that country living (same for Forsyth County, but the commute is less because it's a straight drive down 400).

[dean320]

Well, I am learning that that 200K range might limit us quite a bit, so I am flexible there to a certain extent. I need to do some more research on payment ranges to get a better idea of what we are comfortable with.

Many said Kennesaw was to far, how long is the commute from there to Sandy Springs?

Is the traffic generally worse on 75 or 400? How far does traffic get backed up going north outside the 285 loop? Whenever I am in Atlanta, my only travels are really between the airport and Sandy Springs so I have no idea where to avoid north of Sandy Springs.

There sure seem to be an almost endless number of options. We will most likely come down to take a better look around.

Thanks for all of the help.

[GF72]

Traffic is bad on both 400 and 75, but I think 75 takes the cake because it's almost twice as wide in places (I think there's a whopping 16 lanes past Windy Hill Road) and still horrible traffic during rush hour.

During rush hour, 75, 85, and 400 are all bad north of 285, and 285 itself is also fairly bad in the northern segments, but for the most part it moves. Occasionally near the major highway intersections 285 slows to a crawl.

75 from 285 up to around Kennesaw (the 75/575 split) is pretty much a parking lot during rush hour. This is why a commute from Kennesaw to Sandy Springs would be a nightmare... you'd have to go down 75 which would take forever, east on 285 and back up 400 north. You don't want to deal with 75 AND 400 in the same commute. I usually get so frustrated with the 75 traffic north of 285 (i don't have to make that commute thankfully) whenever I encounter it that I usually just get off the highway and take regular roads. Either way, from Kennesaw to Sandy Springs would be at least an hour I would say in rush hour.

400 is also pretty bad during rush hour from Alpharetta all the way down to where it merges with 85 in Buckhead. Through Sandy Springs (around Perimeter Center) is probably the worst part though.

85-north is also pretty bad, and there's a lot of construction going on and some massive new interchanges being built along the 85 corridor, and the population growth is high in the area. 85 is only going to get worse (it's already pretty bad). Traffic backs up a lot during rush hour from every direction approaching the 85/285 intersection (the spaghetti junction).

As you can see though, there's really no avoiding the northside traffic and there's no place to avoid north of Sandy Springs really. You just have to make sure you pick something within 15 miles or so to make sure you don't go crazy dealing with traffic.