Suwanee vs surrounding areas (Atlanta, Alpharetta: apartments, low crime, house)

[Lizzypz]

My family is making a move from Hawaii to the Atlanta area for a job. I know that these same questions have been posted multiple times, but many of the posts are several years old so I am hoping for fresh perspective. My husband will be working from home the majority of the time, occasionally needing to fly out of ATL. Our only requirement is that we live within an hour of the airport. I'm a nurse, so I will work on employment once we get there. I'm trying to do as much research as I can. We aren't able to fly out first before our move to check out the area. We have two school aged children and are looking for the basics: great schools, low crime, safe neighborhoods and close to amenities (oh how we have missed amenities living in Hawaii!). We have been given conflicting advice....live in Peachtree city and then the very next person will tell us not to live there.... Alpharetta is a great place for families and then the next person who is a teacher said she wouldn't send her kids to schools there. We keep coming back to Suwannee. It seems like the only negative that keeps coming up is the traffic. Is that traffic commuting into Atlanta or just traffics in general driving around town? We have been looking at Alpharetta and Buford as well. Thoughts on these areas in comparison to Suwanee? Any advice or recommendations would be so greatly appreciated! We are excited for this move, but overwhelmed!

[coolieandre]

For great suburban living, I would say anything North of the city. Suwanee is great! I was raised there, and great schools. Anything in the Collins Hill Cluster, Ptree Ridge Cluster, North Gwinett or even the new Lanier cluster which is technically in Buford will do you well. Only thing that will suck is traffic. Northern Gwinnett is about 35min north of the city so when you add traffic, or the airport, you're looking at about 1.5hr-2 in traffic. We do have the Peach Pass here which can help a bit. Our closest train station is Doraville, and from there you can hop onto Marta and get into the city center and even take it directly to the airport. Besides the schools, you have great shopping, (Sugarloaf Mills, Mall of GA, and numerous strip malls in the area). Majority of the neighborhoods in the area are swim/tennis so you have all thoe amenities. Lots of parks and recreation (Suwanee Town Center, George Pierce, Collins Hill Park, Ptree Ridge Park, the list goes on). Gwinnett is also very diverse. This is the diverse county in the metro area with huge % of AA, White, Asian/Indian who all do well. Crime is low and there is a good sense of community. Definetly a great place to raise a family.

[Lizzypz]

Thank you so much! This is great info. Before HI we lived outside of DC. So we are used to the traffic. We certainly don't look forward to a long commute again, but for the once a month trip to the airport I think we can deal with it . The diversity sounds great as well.

[deuk1219]

Suwanee is a great community! Very family friendly and a good balance of diversity. I would recommend North Gwinnett's school cluster over the other Suwanee school districts.

[cwkimbro]

Here is the basic rundown on Atlanta area and Peacthree city....

Atlanta has mostly grown north. Almost all the nice areas are to the north. All of the major suburban business districts are to the north.... and they are large (ie. Cumberland, Perimeter Center, Peachtree Corners).

Over half the population of Atlanta lives outside our perimeter freeway and to the north alone. There is much more going on, much more amenities..... and much more traffic, apartments, and some bad schools nearby some of the nicest schools in town.

So this is where Peacthree City comes in.... It is the diamond in the rough on the southside. Many airport area workers live there. It is a planned community and has golf cart paths connecting all of the neighborhoods. It has great schools, which can't be debated, and a decent array of shopping amenities. It is really a high quality area perfect for families. ..... But... it is only a city of 34,000 in a county of about 100,000. For some its an excellent place to raise a family and some for some it might be too far from the city or all of the stuff going on in Atlanta's northside. That is something you will need to figure out for yourself. Some people love it, some people would rather be where there are more people and businesses.

In fact locals use to often call it "the bubble."


Now Suwanee is one of many excellent communities on the northside. It is fairly new. They have some nice greenway trails, it is close to the mall of Georgia, and they built an excellent new town center. There is a good bit of growth and traffic in the area. It also borders on many areas that are a little bit cheaper, but still nice for families. Gwinnett Co. is a county of about 800,000 people. It has its old has-been areas many people with enough money won't move to anymore and it has its really nice upscale areas. It has a ton of shopping. The school system has recently won the Broad Prize twice. You just want to stay away from high school districts that have a high amount of apartments in them.

The drive to the airport will be an hour -without- traffic. If you do a rush-hour commute to the airport you have to leave yourself more time.

You, as a nurse, will find more potential places for employment on the northside.


Alpharetta is a great community. It was built mostly in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. GA400 is really the spine in the middle of the nicest areas of town. Alpharetta is just a touch older than Suwanee and Johns Creek and has a few more apartments near the freeway. However, in my honest opinion... there aren't that many. I think any high school districts in N. Fulton are good. I might be a touch picky about elementary schools if one has a high amount of apartments

Look up the websites for the school districts. They all publish boundary maps, if not more information about the schools. Cross-reference the boundaries with that you see in Google maps/aerial photos. Gwinnett actually has reports on all their schools published every year. It gives all sorts of demographic and test results information for comparison. Apartments are frequently clustered near freeways.

Traffic expectations on the northside are simply this.... I-85, I-75, and GA 400 outside I-285 are horrible. At I-285 the traffic splits between I-285 and going towards Midtown/Downtown. Traffic will be lighter until you get into the city, where we 'brilliantly' decided to merge 3 freeways to travel through town)

Additionally, many commuters are headed to Perimeter Center (it rivals downtown in the number of white collar jobs). It is at GA400 and I-285. This means I-285 between I-75 and I-85 on the northside is well... horrible.

Realistically from Suwannee you will have heavy traffic during rush hours on I-85 until you get to I-285, then you would head south on the eastern part of I-285. The drive should be pretty easy from there. Sometimes there are moderate amounts of traffic near I-20, US78 and Memorial Dr. The part on I-285 to the airport will reliably be 40-45 minutes.

You can drive through the city in off-peak hours, but I usually check the traffic conditions on my iPhone. Atlanta has many convention events and traffic can randomly get really bad in the city at any hour of the day. That section where I-85, I-75, and GA400 merge (often called 'the connector' or 'the downtown connector') is what to check conditions for.

[Lizzypz]

Thanks again for info! Are there any neighborhoods that are notorious to stay away from, or ones that are a desirable place to live? We will be looking for a house in the 350-400k.

[geog-fanatic]

Originally Posted by Lizzypz

Thanks again for info! Are there any neighborhoods that are notorious to stay away from, or ones that are a desirable place to live? We will be looking for a house in the 350-400k.

I cannot think of anywhere in Suwanee that is a must to avoid, but I'd recommend areas in the North Gwinnett school district. With your housing budget, you should check out the neighborhoods that branch off Moore Road in Suwanee.