Relocating to Alpharetta, GA (Atlanta, Roswell: job, housing, low crime)

[tanstaafl]

I am in the process of relocating to Alpharetta, GA because of my job. I would be working on the northeast side of Alpharetta, right around the Golf Club of Georgia and Lake Windward areas. I have a couple of questions that I am sure have been beat to death but I hope you won't mind answering some of them again.

1) Is Alpharetta a good place to raise a family?
2) What is the area like? How would you describe Alpharetta?
3) Does Alpharetta have a low crime rate and is it fairly safe?
4) What is the cost of living for Alpharetta in terms of housing?
5) What are the schools like in Alpharetta and how do they rank locally and nationally?
6) How does Georgia rank nationally for education?
7) Overall, would you recommend Alpharetta as a city to live in?
8) What other surrounding areas would you recommend to look into?

Thanks so much!

[jxu66]

You can search the forum. There are a lot of answers already on the web.

In general, Alpharatta is family oriented neighborhood. John's Creeks (used to be unincorporated of Alpharatta) has best schools. A lot of shopping options but kind of dull if you are single or without kid. A lot of traffic problems. Generally very safe. It is not very diversity. Most of population are either White or Asian white collar professionals.

Schools are ranked among best in Georgia but Georgia education system as a whole is ranked very poor for its education (mainly for its inner city and rural Georgia). It is difficult to compare Alpharatta schools with other state's school. The only way is compare the SAT scores (not endorse SAT in any way). NorthView and Chattohochee have average SAT of 1130.

[starzfalldown]

I am a Massachusetts native that returned to Mass after 7 years in the Alpharetta area. In addition to Alpharetta I lived in Roswell, Marietta, Suwanee, and Cumming. All very close.

Alpharetta is a great community. It opened my eyes to many things that are wrong with our society in southern New England. But dont fall into "the grass is always greener."
It is true, its beautiful and the weather is great. The people of Georgia are friendly and seemingly happy. But I believe that will be short lived. The state needs thousands of miles of roads to even come close to the road infrastructure of Mass/RI. They rely on highways to get them places, there are literally hundreds of thousands too many cars on the roadways... GA 400 in particular- the highway you will be most convenient to. When someone tells you Alpharetta is 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta it is a complete lie. Maybe on a Sunday holiday at 2 AM. Everyone that has ever lived there will tell you, you will languish in your car, wrecks, stalls, and debris, regularly add massive amounts of time to the commutes. Its a soup of drivers from all over USA with differeing driving styles ranging from Atlanta Motor Speedway, to its Sunday all the time. Hope you bought a comfortable vehicle.
If you're a blue stater get ready to be faced with major world view differences. Get ready to have no one but displaced Yankees agree with you.
Get ready to miss your hometown... no matter how expensive, dirty, old, rude it was.
Just remember... you get what you pay for.

[grover]

I couldn't agree with you more. I am even farther north, Cumming area off of exit 17 on GA 400. The traffic is really bad here, and they are doing nothing to improve the roads. They are building new schools, but they say they can't keep up. By the time a new one opens, it is already time to start thinking about building a new one.
We moved from the PA, NY, NJ area about 2 years ago, and are starting the process of selling, so that we can go back. Don't let the cheaper taxes fool you if you are from the North. My kid played high school soccer last year, and we had to shell out almost $300 for that. Then there is no transportation for after school activities here, so we had to pick him up every night after practice. That was a real scheduling nightmare, not to mention the cost of gas. Now we live about 15 minutes from the school, but of course practice ended right in the middle of rush hour, so it was over an hour round trip. Don't forget about the cost of pest control, termites and spraying costs me around $600 a year. Most houses have sod here, so you should get a lawn service for fertilization and weed control. Garbage pick up is a seperate fee. In the end, I would rather pay a little higher taxes, and have better schools with more services. My taxes went up last year about $900 per year. Someone has to pay for all of the new schools. Also, most developments have community dues, which can range from a couple of hundred a year, to over $1000 per year.
I really can't figure out why they don't slow down on the building here. Developments are still going up all over the place. Most build houses very close together, so they can squeeze as many in as possible. Just ride down a back road, and chances are you will see large new developments starting. I guess a lot of people are making money on land and home sales, so it won't stop anytime soon.
Just remember, the grass isn't always greener on the other side, sometimes it is just nasty red clay.

[Forsyth-Online]

This question always cracks me up "Where does GA rank nationally in education." To try and group all schools in one state and determine how a particular school is is impossible. You have to remember that there is only one big city in GA and most of the schools are in very rural small town areas. We moved here from Dallas in supposedly a "great" school district and I have been so impressed with my children's education here. And, going to a good school does not guarantee that your child will do good and going to an average school does not mean your child will turn out average. We've had both situations and being involved is the utmost important thing!

Windward is a great area and the schools there are excellent. The growth there has settled down as most has moved up north. You will pay Fulton County taxes which are higher than across the street in Forsyth County.