Would love some info on Atlanta! (Marietta, Dunwoody: insurance, condo, townhouse)

[LHBR702]

Hello! My husband and I are looking to relocate from NJ and one of the places we are considering is Atlanta. I've been doing some research on the area, but it is so large that it's hard to know where to start. One of the reasons we want to leave the North is because housing costs here have become so inflated. What are housing costs like? Ideally it would be nice to be able to purchase a nice home for $150 or under, which has become impossible up here, even for a 1 bedroom condo! We are a young couple (late 20s/early 30s), we don't have children yet but we definitely plan to. We've begun to outgrow the "party" scene, but we'd still like to have lots of things to do and a good nightlife scene (sidewalk cafes, good shopping & restaurants, live music, dancing, etc., the occasional night out at a club) and we need a good job market. How about auto insurance and property taxes? Is traffic horrendous if you're commuting to the downtown area for work? Are their public transportation options? How's the weather? Also, what neighborhoods are a good choice? We are an interracial couple. I'm black, my husband is white. Is there any reason to think we'd feel out of place or uncomfortable walking down the street hand-in-hand in Atlanta? We don't want to live in a "black" neighborhood or a "white" neighborhood. We'd like to live in a safe, fairly quiet, child-friendly neighborhood with easy access to the "city", where there is a nice mixture of people of different races. Any info you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Would love to hear opinions on the pros/cons of living in ATL. Thanks!!

[jxu66]

Atlanta is a city divided into desirable neighbor and not too desirable neighbor.

Atlanta is pretty expensive city if you want to live in a desirable community. Most desirable places are north part of city (Midtown, Buckhead, Dunwoody/Sandy Spring, Marietta, Alpharatta, Duluth and Western side of Norcross) and PeachTree City in the south. Not suprisingly, besides Midtown and Buckhead, all of them have better school districts. Also, lately, Lithonia is increasingly become popular for African american high incomers.

I think that it is going to difficult to get a house under $200,000 in a nice community, much less $150. I think that even 3 bedrooms townhouse is costing more than that.

Maybe somebody else can give another point of view.

[atlantagreg30127]

$150,000? You MIGHT get a 1BR condo at around 650 square feet in the city for that (maybe). You won't find a home for that price within the city limits - if you do, it's a home in a much-needed state of repair where you go to sleep at night listening to gunshots (in other words, very bad neighborhood). The average "intown" price of a 2BR 2BA home is around $225,000 minimum, going up to an average of around $275,000 to $325,000 for something decent. Once you get about 22 miles or so outside the city, you start seeing a very few subdivisions that start in the $150-$175,000 range, but again, some of them may not be the pick of the crop as far as your neighbors go, so research first.

Traffic - we're not called the "L.A. of the East" for nuthin. 11th largest city, with I think the last time they ranked it the 4th or 5th worst traffic congestion. The average commute time is 35 minutes each way in good traffic (note, "good" is not that often). The REAL average is probably closer to 45 minutes each way, and if there are a lot of accidents, bad weather, etc., raise that to anywhere from 1-2 hours.

MARTA is the metro transit agency in Atlanta. They have a limited area subway system (mostly just within Atlanta), and a bus system. Cobb County (NW) and Gwinnett (NE) have very small bus systems. There are a couple of other smaller ones around but Atlanta isn't like a New York or Chicago - again, remember, "L.A. of the East"... people here use their cars to go to their mailboxes.

Crime: Based on 2004 stats, see the URL below. You'll probably have to copy/paste it without the bracket code things as it doesn't seem to work right on here. These are for within the city limits of Atlanta compared to NYC - the suburbs vary widely regarding crime.

Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed

It's been discussed in other threads about the racial tension in Atlanta (strong sometimes, but in other parts of the city, not bad). A black man with a white woman gets stronger stares than a black women with a white man (don't know why... just the way it happens). Gwinnett County has the most culturally diverse areas but is also the most crowded.

The conclusion: Atlanta is a large city with a traffic, crime, and sprawl problem. It's the L.A. of the East, with just a touch of Detroit and none of New York. If you look you can find plenty of things to do and it's not ALL bad, but if you think you're moving to an oversized Mayberry, USA, then no, this aint it.

[LHBR702]

Thanks for your reply. I did a property search after my first post and came up with loads of homes right around $150K that are beautiful. (many of them look to be new construction). I'm assuming these houses are part of the "greater atlanta area" which is well outside of the actual city.

[atlantagreg30127]

Yeah, the "Atlanta area" is stretched out quite far. I've seen homes advertised as part of metro Atlanta that are 55 miles outside of the city, so it's best to googlemap it to see where it is specifically.

Try to do some research on some of those "beautiful" homes, too. There's kind of a cookie-cutter look to most of them anymore around here (brick fronts, siding sides and back, etc), but some of them are built better than others. The company I work for supplies certain decorative materials for new homes, and I can tell you that some of these $150k ranged homes will NOT be standing in 30 years, or need a lot of repairs. In other words, "they don't build 'em like they used to".

There are some good contractors still around making less expensive homes, but there are others who are just slapping these things up in sheer numbers to make a buck, and the quality isn't always great. I've been in brand new subdivisions to take photos of new homes and have seen creeky stairs and hairline cracks in the walls, so whatever you do, ask around and use a home inspector before buying.

Once again, "like L.A.", Atlanta spreads out in all directions as there isn't an ocean or large mountain range to stop us, so, metro-area could be anywhere.

[mshare]

I moved here 10 years ago from the New York area (Long Island); so I have a really good understanding of how things compare to the Northeast. The truth is that Atlanta is an AWESOME place to live. Housing prices are extremely affordable relative to other major cities with comparable job markets and income potential. The weather is nice (hot; but not really any hotter than NY/NJ in the summer - in fact this week it's cooler here; go figure). We get almost no snow in the winter and the flowers start coming up in Feb. Atlanta is like a "city in the making". When I first moved here, there wasn't much of a downtown (especially residentially). It was more of a suburban sprawl and everyone was in love with their cars. Over the past 10 years, there has been an unbelievable renewed interest in the downtown neighborhoods and alot of historic homes and commercial districts have begun being restored to their former beauty. Traffic is bad to those that have lived here all of their lives and have nothing to compare it to; but I felt that the traffic in the NY area was much worse. Here, the bottlenecks are predictable. It is only stop and go during rush hour. In NY, I remember running into huge delays at 2AM on a Sunday. That doesn't happen as much here. Also, after you've lived here a while, you'll learn the network of back roads to avoid the busy intersections. I really think there's something for everyone here and it's a great place to live.

[moderator CUT]

Matthew Share

[figueroa26]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Yeah, the "Atlanta area" is stretched out quite far. I've seen homes advertised as part of metro Atlanta that are 55 miles outside of the city, so it's best to googlemap it to see where it is specifically.

Try to do some research on some of those "beautiful" homes, too. There's kind of a cookie-cutter look to most of them anymore around here (brick fronts, siding sides and back, etc), but some of them are built better than others. The company I work for supplies certain decorative materials for new homes, and I can tell you that some of these $150k ranged homes will NOT be standing in 30 years, or need a lot of repairs. In other words, "they don't build 'em like they used to".

There are some good contractors still around making less expensive homes, but there are others who are just slapping these things up in sheer numbers to make a buck, and the quality isn't always great. I've been in brand new subdivisions to take photos of new homes and have seen creeky stairs and hairline cracks in the walls, so whatever you do, ask around and use a home inspector before buying.

Once again, "like L.A.", Atlanta spreads out in all directions as there isn't an ocean or large mountain range to stop us, so, metro-area could be anywhere.

There have been talk that some of the new construction homes are poor in quality -- it looks great on the outside but as you so well put it 'the quality isn't so great.' I just bought a house in Douglasville and the builder is Legacy community -- do you know anything about them??

[figueroa26]

hey there former new yorker-- it feels good to read your post. my husband and I are from new york and just planning to move down to atlanta. After reading some of the previous posts i felt like i made the biggest mistake but after reading your post i feel better --thanks.