Moving to Atlanta: job in Sandy Springs (Roswell, Alpharetta: house, live in)

[backtoga]

Hello everyone,

I'm moving my family to Atlanta and as you can see by the title of this post, the job I'm taking is in Sandy Springs. We're looking for a place with 1+ acres without a crazy commute--by that I mean it would average 30-40 minutes. A few weeks ago I was in Atlanta and I drove from the Hickory Flats area to the junction of 285 (575-75-285) at 6:30 am and it took 1 hour. Yikes!

I've researched heavily over the internet and I've seen lots of places in my price range (<425K) in areas like Cumming, Ball Ground, Canton, & Woodstock.

Any ideas about a good location to search? I really appreciate the help & guidance!

[tdatl]

Originally Posted by backtoga

We're looking for a place with 1+ acres without a crazy commute--by that I mean it would average 30-40 minutes.

They are widening GA-400, which would be your commute from Cumming. That certainly will help. But even so, the morning drive times from exit 14 (GA-20) to I-285 can hit 90 minutes if you pick the wrong time to leave. From Woodstock or Ball Ground, 30-40 minutes to Sandy Springs just isn't possible.

From Woodstock, you'd hit GA-92 to 400. I live off 92 in Roswell, and I work on the Roswell/Alpharetta border. My commute is 6.5 miles. It's 30 minutes each way, and getting home can stretch to 45 minutes on Fridays. I work with several people who live in Woodstock and Acworth, and their commute dictates lifestyle too much for my taste. One of them is in the office before my alarm goes off in the morning. He does that to keep his total daily commute under 2 hours.

[stvincent]

You are not going to find what you are looking for within 30-40 minutes of Sandy Springs. Cumming might be within 40 minutes of Sandy Springs but not during traffic hour. Woodstock and Canton are no where near Sandy Springs and the traffic going from I-575 to Sandy Springs would be terrible. If having an acre of land is important to you and you only have $425,000 to spend you will have to get used to the fact that you will be sitting in traffic quite a bit. And as the northside continues to develop that traffic will only get worse. Unfortunately, all of the areas within close proximity to Sandy Springs are very affluent. I can understand you wanting alot of land but as Cherokee and Forsyth continue to delvelop, the traffic going from up there towards the city will be hell. As a testament to how fast Atlanta grows, you should ask how underdeveloped Alpharetta was ten to fifteen years ago. Soon, your cozy rural paridise will become just another overly-developed suburb. Thats why the current trend has people that were tired of facing one hour to an hour an a half commute(the latter will be what you will be facing coming from Canton) now moving closer towards and into the city.

[backtoga]

Thank you for the excellent feedback. I called around a good bit this weekend and found a "friend of a friend" who was able to give me very similar advice and point me to a few areas.

Using a realtor search engine, I was able to find ~10 homes within a commuting distance to Sandy Springs (I looked mainly in Roswell) that had an acre--2 or 3 had around 2 acres. Fortunately, I only had to adjust my price up to about $450K, which I can manage.

We have similar problems in Jacksonville: areas that are 15-20 miles away are advertised as a "20 min" drive because they are exactly that: on Sunday morning at 4:00 am. In rush hour, it approaches an hour!

Again, I appreciate the great feedback. Now I can at least go into it with eyes wide open.

[AtlantaCruiser]

I do the commute from Woodstock to Sandy Springs. It is about 30 minutes getting into work and about 45 minutes to get home. BUT my home is East of down-town Woodstock so I can by-pass Hwy 92 (Horrible). ALSO, I am on the road by 6:15am and leave work around 4PM.
It is worth it in my opinion. I have over an acre in a good size house for much less than your budget.