Alpharetta (and Roswell), GA vs. Lake Mary (and Oviedo), FL (living, best)

[simken]

Hi there

What area (North Atlanta suburbs and North Orlando suburbs) do you feel has the upper hand in the following areas:

1. Aesthetics (attractiveness of area)
2. Cost of Living
3. Economy
4. Ease of Mobility (Freeway and major highway connectivity)
5. Quality of Schools (Elementary through College)
6. Best Community Feeling
7. Shopping
8. Business Friendliness
9. Weather
10. Where would you live if you had to choose an area?

All of these will have subjective answers. That's ok.

[Columbus1984]

Alpharetta for sure.

[brent6969]

Roswell, Alpharetta, beautiful areas, horse farms, very hilly.

[sim123]

1. Aesthetics (attractiveness of area) - Alpharetta is beautiful, Lake Mary is nice, but has more sketchy areas
2. Cost of Living - A tie. GA (including Alpharetta) will have a lower cost of living than FL overall, even though the Orlando metro is not the most expensive place. Alpharetta is a little more expensive than most other places in GA
3. Economy - A tie
4. Ease of Mobility (Freeway and major highway connectivity) - Lake Mary. The Atlanta metro is congested as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks
5. Quality of Schools (Elementary through College) - Alpharetta has great schools, so does Seminole County. Being closer to ATL, Alpharetta will win at the college level. Alpharetta wins with Lake Mary as a close second
6. Best Community Feeling - Alpharetta. FL in general has lost a lot of the community feeling
7. Shopping - A tie. Orlando has great shopping. Alpharetta has North Point Mall and is close to great shopping in Buckhead
8. Business Friendliness - Alpharetta. ATL is more of a business city than Orlando. Alpharetta also has a good business community.
9. Weather - Depends what you like. If you like a short winter around the holidays, go with Alpharetta. If you like no cold (or very little), go with Lake Mary
10. Where would you live if you had to choose an area? - I would have to go with Alpharetta

Overall they are both great places, but Alpharetta gets my vote.

[atlantagreg30127]

Alpharetta.

Slightly lower taxes than in Florida, reasonably low crime (for metro Atlanta), four distinct seasons without any of them being over the top harsh, and proximity to a large city without being right IN that city. You also have a good retail shopping district in the area, a large outlet mall about 40 minutes North of there as well as access to a couple of smaller artsy touristy North Georgia towns on a directly route (GA400) from there too (Dahlonega, Helen, etc).

The downside of Alpharetta: If you commute into Atlanta daily during normal rush hour(s), the traffic on GA400 will most likely send you to a nut farm.

[OrlFlaUsa]

1. Aesthetics (attractiveness of area) Tie for different reasons.
2. Cost of Living Alpharetta, GA col is slightly better than even Orlando's.
3. Economy Alpharetta, Atl is more of a corporate town even with economy down, it's better.
4. Ease of Mobility (Freeway and major highway connectivity) Lake Mary.
5. Quality of Schools (Elementary through College) Comparable.
6. Best Community Feeling Both are suburbs that could use more community.
7. Shopping With one you have ATL and the other ORL, how can you go wrong?
8. Business Friendliness Lake Mary is HQ for AAA, Ruth's Chris, and has many regional offices.
9. Weather For me it would be Lake Mary since it has Florida weather.
10. Where would you live if you had to choose an area? Lake Mary because it offers a nice lifestyle closer to Orlando than Alpharetta is to Atlanta.