NY to ATL (Alpharetta, Forsyth: to rent, house, neighborhoods)

[njean]

hi everyone, can someone tell me about the school district in Henry county and is it a good area to live in or what is considered the best top county for school and housing, still doing research on Georgia. Looking to be 30 t0 40mins from ATL price range 300,000 to 200,000. STRESS OUT!!! with New york prices is to high and living from pay check to pay check as a nurse and my husband works in a nursing home we are ready to sell our home and go. Ready to make the move. please looking for advice and direction on where to go

[BobKovacs]

Well, 200-300k isn't going to get you much (if anything) in the "best school districts"- it'll buy you alot of house in Henry County, where some of the schools are OK, but not in Cobb, Gwinett or Forsyth.

[gahomes247]

Do your own reserch about coming to Gerogia and schools. I came from California and the schools are much better here then what we were used to.
a nice website is The Governor's Office of Student Achievement . Georgia is nice despite what a lot of people has to say and I will say that in Gwinnett 250k to 300k is going to get you a pretty nice home . good luck

Make It a Great Day!!

[Jaycee0421]

NJean,
I too am relocating to the Ga area next July-2008 coming from NYC and I am also looking for good schools for my girls. The only difference is I am not looking to buy at this time, because I want to make sure that Ga is the place for us. So I am going to rent for the first year and a half or so. Good luck with your research and just so that you know, a good web site to check out schools is Schoolmatters.com/org

[Sportdeck]

Use the internet, check the standard achievement and SAT scores for the schools that your kids would attend, and check the schools that they might be redistricted to if the attendance zones get changed. Make sure that both are acceptable to you.

My daughter's HS is 16 years old, and 4 new HS have been built since then that have taken students out of her school. Each time this happens, there is always a big fight about which neighborhoods stay or go around the edges of the new zones.

PS I live in Alpharetta, and $200k-$300K will buy you a very nice house in most of metro ATL and a mansion out in rural areas comapred to NY prices. If you want to, you can spend a million or more in Alpharetta, but you certainly don't have to, to get the benifits of the good schools etc... When we moved here in 1997 from NY, I left a 2100' split ranch worth $180K with close to 7K in taxes, and I bought a $180K 3000' 2 story with a full basement with only 3K in taxes. The house in NY is now worth $540K according to Zillow.com and my house is worth about $300K based on comps in the neighborhood. I can't afford to buy my old house back, and fortunately I wouldn't want to go back.

Good Luck and welcome to the south!