Long Island to Georgia, to many questions! (Atlanta, Marietta: apartments, renter)

[justadam]

im planning a move from long Island NY to Georgia due to a promotion at work. the office will be in Marietta, but i dont mind a drive of about 45 minutes. here are my concerns:
is the cost of living that much better?
i need to rent at first, can i get a 2+ bedroom for under or around $1000?
home rentals or town homes?
home sales, can i get a home for 190-250k in a nice area with 3+ bedrooms?
if homes are 500k, i should just stay here in NY...
im white and my wife Puerto Rican, two mixed children, i dont really want rednecks hastling my kids or wife, is this usual?
any other information would be great! thanks in advance!

[atlantagreg30127]

You should be able to find an apartment under $1000 with 2BR. Ask questions such as if the apartments are brick or wood - do they have firewalls and/or a sprinkler system? For whatever reason, there are just tons of apartment building fires in the Atlanta area - it seems every other day you turn on the TV and see a whole building going up in flames, but they're always the new cheaply built ones that are doing it. Ask around as some of the older and/or nicer buildings have good firewalls and other fire systems which make it much safer - renter's insurance is cheap here, and is your friend. Get it.

Research and check out the areas, as neighborhoods in the Atlanta area can go from good to bad and back to good again in a relatively short distance. Renting a house is more expensive and a "good" house in a good neighborhood will cost more than $1000 a month. There are some apartment / renter locator services in the Atlanta area (google and I'm sure you'll find them) - you may wish to use them as hopefully the reps will be honest and steer you away from any bad complexes or neighborhoods.

Overall cost of living is cheaper here, but payscales are cheaper here, too. Probably averages out about the same when compared to other larger cities. Then again if you're being transferred you probably already know what your salary will be, so they may be generous and you'll be coming out ahead moving to a cheaper market.

Marietta is not a "redneck" area of Atlanta. White, black, and Mexican. A few Asians here and there. That's it. A white/Puerto Rican couple probably won't even get a second glance - you only see some stares with the black man/white woman scenerio, or vice-verca with a white man/black women, etc. Seeing mixed race children is becoming common in that area so the kids shouldn't have any trouble.

If you are what some would call the "rushed, abrupt loud New Yorker" type of person, you'll find more attitude here against that, than mixed kids. If you aren't of the "yo you whattaya talkin' about" type, you'll mix fine.

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by justadam

im planning a move from long Island NY to Georgia due to a promotion at work. the office will be in Marietta, but i dont mind a drive of about 45 minutes. here are my concerns:
is the cost of living that much better?
i need to rent at first, can i get a 2+ bedroom for under or around $1000?
home rentals or town homes?
home sales, can i get a home for 190-250k in a nice area with 3+ bedrooms?
if homes are 500k, i should just stay here in NY...
im white and my wife Puerto Rican, two mixed children, i dont really want rednecks hastling my kids or wife, is this usual?
any other information would be great! thanks in advance!

I always get a kick when New York folks talk about rednecks. We all know that the boro's of NYC are more segregated than any other area in the nation.

If you want a nice home in a good school area you will be looking at 250-300 thousand. Marietta is a nice area too.
Georgia, is not slowing with the housing bubble and with the hordes coming from New York, Michigan, Illinois, California, and now Florida, the housing market is gaining fast in pricing.

The Atlanta metro area is very diverse so don't worry about your wife and kids, don't know where your are in LI, from Happy Hog, to Jones Beach, I think your kids could have less hassle in GA than NY.

Good Luck

[southernguyGA]

Originally Posted by Georgia

I always get a kick when New York folks talk about rednecks. We all know that the boro's of NYC are more segregated than any other area in the nation.

If you want a nice home in a good school area you will be looking at 250-300 thousand. Marietta is a nice area too.
Georgia, is not slowing with the housing bubble and with the hordes coming from New York, Michigan, Illinois, California, and now Florida, the housing market is gaining fast in pricing.

The Atlanta metro area is very diverse so don't worry about your wife and kids, don't know where your are in LI, from Happy Hog, to Jones Beach, I think your kids could have less hassle in GA than NY.

Good Luck

The schools are good in West Cobb, I think a good house can be gotten for 180 to 250K in that area easy! The Rule in Cobb County is the farther east or North the homes cost more in general, It's kinda like this, Acworth smaller homes and cost more like 200 to 300k, east Cobb its more like 220 to a million+ You really should come down for a visit and see for yourself.

[justadam]

Thanks for all the information, looks like the housing market is quickly gaining on NY as you still can get a home for 300+k, just not that much. I guess as long as the taxes are heaper, its still a good area.

As for NY being segregated, I'm not too sure of that anymore. There are certain areas like little Italy and Chinatown, but this is a choice to live with people who have like cultures, not because you want to kill anyone.

Its true in long island, there’s a white mall, and a mall the white people use to go to, but is that not the case everywhere? No one wants to get mugged trying to get a pair of jeans. There’s no reason your radio needs to be stolen because you parked in the wrong mall, but it happens.

Finally, why are there so many home schooled kids in Georgia? Are the schools that bad?

PS I will be visiting shortly, everyone keeps telling me that I will not understand till I go, so off I will be.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by justadam

Its true in long island, there’s a white mall, and a mall the white people use to go to, but is that not the case everywhere?

Finally, why are there so many home schooled kids in Georgia? Are the schools that bad?

PS I will be visiting shortly, everyone keeps telling me that I will not understand till I go, so off I will be.

---------

First, we have the "white mall/black mall" thing here, too. Go to Northpoint Mall (Alpharetta) or the Mall of Georgia (Buford) and you'll see a predominately white growd. Go to Southlake south of Atlanta and you'll be hard pressed to find even one white person. Some here call it "self segregation", meaning a certain percentage of whites AND blacks WANT to not mix with others, so you're more likely here to see white-only areas or businesses, and black-only areas or businesses than you'll find in some other parts of the country.

Schools: Georgia ranks as having the second lowest test scores in the U.S. (South Carolina is the lowest). The public school system in urban Atlanta is known for being horrible - in the suburbs it's hit and miss between some very good ones and some that aren't so good. You'll need to just ask around on which are which. Everyone I've ever known who lived close-in to Atlanta had to use private schools to get a good one. One couple I knew in the burbs of Gwinnett loved that public school, but they've since moved out of state and all I know is that it was pretty far up in Gwinnett (which is now known for overcrowded classrooms).

Visiting: It's always best to visit an area to see what it's about before you make final plans to move. Try to make arrangements with anyone locally who can act like a tour guide and come down for a week and check the area out. Funny - people previsit schools their kids are going to go to, but don't usually bother to investigate cities before a cross-country move. So yeah, a visit is a good idea.

[southernguyGA]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

---------

First, we have the "white mall/black mall" thing here, too. Go to Northpoint Mall (Alpharetta) or the Mall of Georgia (Buford) and you'll see a predominately white growd. Go to Southlake south of Atlanta and you'll be hard pressed to find even one white person. Some here call it "self segregation", meaning a certain percentage of whites AND blacks WANT to not mix with others, so you're more likely here to see white-only areas or businesses, and black-only areas or businesses than you'll find in some other parts of the country.

Schools: Georgia ranks as having the second lowest test scores in the U.S. (South Carolina is the lowest). The public school system in urban Atlanta is known for being horrible - in the suburbs it's hit and miss between some very good ones and some that aren't so good. You'll need to just ask around on which are which. Everyone I've ever known who lived close-in to Atlanta had to use private schools to get a good one. One couple I knew in the burbs of Gwinnett loved that public school, but they've since moved out of state and all I know is that it was pretty far up in Gwinnett (which is now known for overcrowded classrooms).

Visiting: It's always best to visit an area to see what it's about before you make final plans to move. Try to make arrangements with anyone locally who can act like a tour guide and come down for a week and check the area out. Funny - people previsit schools their kids are going to go to, but don't usually bother to investigate cities before a cross-country move. So yeah, a visit is a good idea.

While I agree with most of what you posted I dissagree too, I felt that the schools were fine in Georgia, it may be other factors that make the tests low? My kids have done worse since they left. They miss the Georgia enviroment I think and we are moving back in 07 when I come back for Medschool clinicals.

I have a chance to live anywhere else in the USA and I want to come back to GA. I think that says a lot! Home prices are much lower than NY in fact they are among the lowest in the nation for major Urban areas. I really do not know where you can find a 1900 sqft 3 bedroom home on 1/2 acre in and around NY city for less than 500k to 1 million? My wife is there now and a brownstone in Forest Hills is a Million! Homes in the Atlanta Area in general range from 80k to 1 million + depends on where and you!

Good Luck

[Sharon R.]

It's really the schools outside of metro Atlanta that bring down the test scores. But it's kind of a shame that the whole state has such a bad reputation.

When I moved down here from the DC area, I took a small cut in pay, but my paycheck was not much smaller due to taxes. As a single woman, I was not able to buy more than a condo in Virginia, but I was able to buy a 3BR/2BA with 2 car garage and 2/3 acre yard in Cartersville, which is about 45 minutes NW of Atlanta in Bartow County. Cartersville also has a top high school.

I don't think anybody is going to look twice at you. I've found the whole area to be pretty tolerant. We do have a pretty large immigrant population, primarily Hispanic.

[jennydowd]

Simply go 20 minutes north of Marietta into Cartersville or Canton and you can get a nice two bedroom apartment for 650-800.

You can also get a new construction 3-4 bedrooms in a swim/tennis neighborhood for well under $300k.

[justadam]

thanks for the info, how is Cartersville or Canton? crime? schools? shopping?

i will be done at the end of this month scoutting, anywhere else to look?