Confused About Dunwoody & Sandy Springs, Safety? (Atlanta, Roswell: apartment complex, for rent)

[Thailleagle]

I'm planning on getting an apartment in either Dunwoody or Sandy Springs and am looking for something in the 2 bedroom $700-$800 range.

From what I've gathered, Sandy Springs & Dunwoody are supposed to be very safe areas.

What confuses me is that every apartment I seem to do research has a bad review and crime is always the worst parts of it. I read that in 2 months the North Hill Apartments had nearly 30 break-ins. That's pretty high for a "Safe" neighborhood, lol, and that's just 1 complex.

How can Dunwoody or Sandy Springs be nice when they have so much crime?

[TakeAhike]

People have said sometimes 'disgruntled previous tenants' make negative posts--I don't know.

Have you looked at apartments on Ashford Dunwoody Rd? There are several that look nice near Blackburn Tennis Center>>>
Atlanta City Guide - Recommendations and Reviews by Citysearch

You might look around Brookhaven--lots of new development there and I know Post has some properties in the area. They are likely to be more than you would want to spend. There are a lot of apartments in this area and many are gated communities. If you are local or planning a visit I would physically walk the property and see what I thought.

I always tried to avoid apartments located on the back of a building on the ground floor.

If you want to consider another area--Sheridan Rd/between Briarcliff and Cheshire Bridge has a lot of new apartments. Very safe area.

TakeAhike

[lastminutemom]

Frankly, your price range puts you in some of the less nice apartments in those communities. North Hill is actually in Chamblee and is not a nice community.

Be careful of Pitts Road in Sandy Springs as well.

[Zel Ya]

Originally Posted by Thailleagle

I'm planning on getting an apartment in either Dunwoody or Sandy Springs and am looking for something in the 2 bedroom $700-$800 range.

From what I've gathered, Sandy Springs & Dunwoody are supposed to be very safe areas.

What confuses me is that every apartment I seem to do research has a bad review and crime is always the worst parts of it. I read that in 2 months the North Hill Apartments had nearly 30 break-ins. That's pretty high for a "Safe" neighborhood, lol, and that's just 1 complex.

How can Dunwoody or Sandy Springs be nice when they have so much crime?

I really don't know how accurate crime statistics are? I really don't?

Government agencies have to earn our trust, and so far I don't think they've earned too much of our trust. Believing what government officials say is going on, and what is reality, may be poles apart.

You'll probably sleep better at night if you interpret the 30 break-ins as "random" break-ins. On the other hand, if you view the 30 break-ins as "regular" break-ins, then you might have to take a sleeping pill to get a good night's rest.

Perception and reality may be two separate things. Sandy Springs is somewhat of a mixed bag. I think Dunwoody is a little more uniform.

[blackrabbit]

Originally Posted by Thailleagle

I'm planning on getting an apartment in either Dunwoody or Sandy Springs and am looking for something in the 2 bedroom $700-$800 range.

From what I've gathered, Sandy Springs & Dunwoody are supposed to be very safe areas.

What confuses me is that every apartment I seem to do research has a bad review and crime is always the worst parts of it. I read that in 2 months the North Hill Apartments had nearly 30 break-ins. That's pretty high for a "Safe" neighborhood, lol, and that's just 1 complex.

How can Dunwoody or Sandy Springs be nice when they have so much crime?

Sorry but you are not going to get anything nice in either area in that price range.

[TakeAhike]

Here's the results from Google on Apartments/Ashford Dunwoody Rd>>>
apartments ashford dunwoody atlanta - Google Search

I cannot think of the name of the complex that is across from Blackburn Park but it is a nice one and older. There might be some sort of 'Special' for which you would qualify/or not.

I don't know how much they are renting for now --but there are several complexes on Clairmont Rd that would be safe--as far as I know. One used to be a Post Property--and the apartments are a good size and it is gated. You should, if at all possible drive the area and see what you can find.

The older complexes have bigger apartments, FYI--if they have been well maintained that would be my choice. Having lived in a number of apartments--you do not need the amenities, really --nice to have a pool and communal gathering area but the rest of it was not really a benefit to me.

If you want to really stay in your price range I would look at 'The Park'--older, maybe 70's style apartments --really large and this is located on Briarcliff Rd near Emory's main campus. Highly accessible to many things. Even if you are working north of Sandy Springs there are still routes/surface roads and parts of 400 that would get you there without a terrible commute.

These apartments are subsidized in some way, but managed by Gables, a large property management company in Atlanta. A one bedroom starts around $650, IIRC. No washer/dryers in apartments but they have facilities on the property. Many CDC and Emory people live there, if only temporarily. Nice area--Executive Park/Loehman's Plaza--Starbucks, Panera Bread and a Target across the street. Toco Hill shopping center is about 1 1/2 miles away. You can walk or take MARTA--buses run pretty regularly and go to Lindbergh and Brookhaven stations. From there you can take the north line and go to Dunwoody and points north. Something to consider?

From Google--a list of many apts in the Briarcliff/Emory area, including 'The Park' which got a bad rating on one site--but what I saw --I'd give it a try>>>
Emory Vicinity/Briarcliff Atlanta, GA Apartments - Find Atlanta, GA Apartments

[DreamKeeper]

Some of those apartment complexes will advertise that they are in Sandy Springs or Dunwoody but they are actually located in another town (like lastminutemom pointed out to you about North Hill). I ran into that problem when I first moved here. I would run any apartments that you're looking at through Google Maps or something similar and make sure that the apartment is actually in the city it's advertising that it's in.

With that said, there are parts of both Sandy Springs and Dunwoody that can be considered a little shady. During the housing boom some of those apartment complexes had trouble renting out their properties since everyone was buying a home and they ended up lowering their standards so they could rent them out. I know a few apartment complexes around Sandy Springs kind of got taken over by illegal aliens and they have pretty much turned them into little barrios. Since Sandy Springs became a city it has been trying to clean some of those areas up but its going to take time before they are completely cleaned up.

What I did when I first moved to Sandy Springs was rent a condo from an owner who moved out of the condo but had trouble selling it so he decided to rent it out. It was a really nice 1 bedroom condo with an office in a great part of Sandy Springs and I got it for $725 a month. That was about 4 years ago and back then that was a good price for a condo like that so I don't know what it would go for now. But, you might want to look into finding a condo to rent. They tend to be much nicer than apartment complexes and in my experience they can be cheaper. I found my condo on a realtor's website that listed homes and condos for rent but I don't remember which site it was.

[spacelord75]

Dreamkeeper is right on with his suggestion of seeking out a condo or townhome owner desperate to get some cash flow to offset their mortgage. With how incredibly bad the housing market is now, anyone who has double mortgages (me for about a year) is really feeling the pinch and probably panicking about financial stability....condos especially are hard to move, so you could probably work out a really good deal.

[Zel Ya]

Yeah, there are some apartments along Roswell Road, in Sandy Springs, that have had some problems. I've read about one apartment complex on a rating Web site.

The only apartments I can think of in Dunwoody that would be somewhat marginal ( I think??) are on the eastern fringes of the city bordering Doraville. I'm not sure how far the city of Dunwoody extends east of Peachtree Industrial Blvd. If it does a bit, it's certainly not all the way over to Buford Highway, because that stretch of Buford Highway would be in Doraville.

This guy's apartment price points do sound on the low side but this economy is really sinking.

Who knows what's going to happen? The Russian war is just the latest bad news. The Great Depression wiped out millions of people, and we may see things in the future we've never witnessed before.

[rlrl]

My brother lived in the Post Ashford apts on 3734 Ashford Dunwoody Rd and he had no problems