Baton Rouge or Athens GA? (New Orleans: rent, house, to buy)

[ctr88]

I'm a 39 year old single guy and I'm looking to relocate from Oct-May to a cool town in the South. I live in San Diego CA now and I'm looking for lower home prices but mild winter weather. I like FL winter weather, but to me most of Florida has no character. I like the outdoors, golf, college basketball, cafe's, live music. I have an Internet based job so I won't have to rely on local employment. I would like to buy a craftsman style house in a older part of town where I can walk to stores or cafe's.

Towns I'm thinking about are Fayetteville AR, Asheville NC, Charlotteville VA, Athens GA, Talahassee FL, Baton Rouge LA. These are all college towns where I can go to college hoops games and also college towns generally have more of a vibrant, progressive feel. If you've lived or visted any of these aforementioned towns love to hear your input and comparison/contrast.

Thanks!!!

[Prytania]

Athens. I live in New Orleans and have lived in Athens for 8 years. (and go to BR several times a month).

Baton Rouge just doesn't have the hip vibe Athens has IMHO. That's what New Orleans is for

And I'm not trying to bad mouth BR...its just not what the city "feels" like to me.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by ctr88

I'm a 39 year old single guy and I'm looking to relocate from Oct-May to a cool town in the South. I live in San Diego CA now and I'm looking for lower home prices but mild winter weather. I like FL winter weather, but to me most of Florida has no character. I like the outdoors, golf, college basketball, cafe's, live music. I have an Internet based job so I won't have to rely on local employment. I would like to buy a craftsman style house in a older part of town where I can walk to stores or cafe's.

Towns I'm thinking about are Fayetteville AR, Asheville NC, Charlotteville VA, Athens GA, Talahassee FL, Baton Rouge LA. These are all college towns where I can go to college hoops games and also college towns generally have more of a vibrant, progressive feel. If you've lived or visted any of these aforementioned towns love to hear your input and comparison/contrast.

Thanks!!!

I've been to Tallahassee and it's a nice place (hilly, good traffic pattern, lots of 4/6 lane roads). The college is more of the town's daily life than LSU is here in BR. Having said that, give BR a try - it's not in the middle of nowhere like Tallahassee is.

[ctr88]

Thanks for the input. One nice thing about Tally is it's pretty close to some nice beaches on the FL Panhandle. But it is isolated.

[Loralcb]

Can't really give you much input but would like to wish you good luck wherever you end up. Live close to B.R. but haven't visited the other areas you mentioned. Great that you have an internet based job and you have that flexibility.

[darylwi]

Athens is small compared to Baton Rouge, but Athens definitely has more of a college vibe to it. Baton Rouge is a big city. And of course, with BTR you get NOLA and with Athens you get ATL. So in that respects they are similar in terms to what you have around you.
Not sure how home prices and/or rent in NE GA compare to south LA though.
Asheville is nice and I've heard Fayetteville is nice, but they are smaller and not as much progressive. I did not like Tallahassee because of that 'town in the middle of the woods' feel. It just seems strange having a capital city where that one is. If I were going to live there, I'd just move to the coast anyway.
Never been to Charlottesville.
There's Austin, TX too. Not sure what your take on it is, but based on your criteria it would seem to be worth consideration as well. And it's the live music capital of the world, rightfully so. It's huge though, but fairly progressive, and an outdoor lover's dream.

[ctr88]

Thanks for the insight. I did live in Austin for 2 mos in 2006. I really love the town and highly recommend it.

One issue I had with Austin is it is not close to "world class" type outdoors beauty. The hill country and lakes and rivers are not bad, but I think you really have to get in a plane to get to really nice stuff. The TX coast is also not that pretty from what I've heard. Asheville and Athens are close to the Appalachian Mountain range which I think is much, much prettier than the TX hill country. Also, to cooler places to live in Austin are really pricey. Sure you can live in a cookie cutter tract home 20 miles out of town for cheap. But the cool crafstman and older homes surrounding downtown Austin are increadibly expensive, almost on par with the California Coast!

I do like Austin's winter climate better than Athens, Asheville, Fayetteville, Charlottesville and Lexington. It stays in the 60's on average during the days in dead of winter. June, July and August are brutal heat though! But I would probably been in Portland or Seattle those months anyway.

[Rosinante]

I've been to all of these; Charlottesville or Asheville would be my two top picks, personally, but they're also the two that would have the highest costs. Of the other four, I don't think there's one that's much better than the other.

Originally Posted by ctr88

I'm a 39 year old single guy and I'm looking to relocate from Oct-May to a cool town in the South. I live in San Diego CA now and I'm looking for lower home prices but mild winter weather. I like FL winter weather, but to me most of Florida has no character. I like the outdoors, golf, college basketball, cafe's, live music. I have an Internet based job so I won't have to rely on local employment. I would like to buy a craftsman style house in a older part of town where I can walk to stores or cafe's.

Towns I'm thinking about are Fayetteville AR, Asheville NC, Charlotteville VA, Athens GA, Talahassee FL, Baton Rouge LA. These are all college towns where I can go to college hoops games and also college towns generally have more of a vibrant, progressive feel. If you've lived or visted any of these aforementioned towns love to hear your input and comparison/contrast.

Thanks!!!

[staywarm2]

Charlottesville & Asheville
Charlottesville's prices have risen a LOT since they were named #1 city a few years back. Check this out first. Asheville has also higher prices and more retirees than they used to. It's hilly and has a cold winter. I hear there are old hippies there!

I was in Downtown Athens, adjacent to UGA, in Jan. of last year during semester break. It was DEAD! I expected a much bigger downtown. It was only about 5-6 blocks. There are wonderful historical homes near downtown. I don't know about the pricing though. Check out www.Realtor.com to see some prices in all the cities. Then you can use live search or zillow or google to get photos of the street. www.city-data.com has lots of demogragraphic info, too. Check out the chamber of commerce sites for the various cities. They usually list the cool places to eat or hang out.