Anyone with info on Barrow County and the Winder area? (Atlanta: sales, how much)

[ElMar]

Relocating in late spring, wonder if anyone has any comments good, bad or indifferent on that area. Curious to learn as much as I can.

Thanks,
ELMAR

[outdoorman]

I live in Gwinnett county which borders barrow on the south and west.
I've been to Winder a few times while going to visit Fort Yargo State Park (good fishing and camping) which is located just off the Hwy 316 going by winder.
It seems to be a small sized town but has supermarkets, walwart, every fast food, and car dealerships. It is small but not too small. It's neighborhoods fit all price ranges and has two high schools if I remember correctly.
From Winder you have quick access to Hwy 316 which could get you to Athens (Univ of Georgia) or Gwinnett and Atlanta. Also your next largest city is Lawrenceville, the county seat for Gwinnett which is 15 minutes or so away. Hope this helps.

[kc_tinman]

outdoorman had a detailed & accurate post. Barrow is a fast growing place and will continue to grow.

[ReturningWest]

I live next door in Jackson Co.(4 mi to the county line) and go to Winder to shop as right now Jefferson has NO stores.

Winder doesn't have a bi-pass so traffic can be tricky thru town...there are a few snake arounds but I do try to stay out of the downtown area during peek times.

I will tell you that it is "country" atmosphere and it is the bible belt, the Barrow county court house posted the 10 comandments and went to court over it and you will see driving thru neighborhoods signs of support.

I've lived in the Jackson/Barrow county areas for over 10 years and I will also tell you that the KKK is there. On several occasions I have been driving a back country road and driven past a meeting/rally or what ever you want to call it. It scared the SH*T out of me. On one occasion they were in full sheets and about 50 strong walking down the middle of the road I was driving on. I felt fortunate that I was in my big pick up F150 and I had a baseball cap on and the sun was right and they thought I was ummm white so they moved out of the way and I blew by.

The racism is one of the reasons I will be leaving GA.

I know both counties are growing in leaps and bounds and a more diverse population is moving in and I think much of the racism will eventually move farther up into the hills. But do investigate about the area you plan to move to.

I work in both court houses doing title searches so I see how much growth is happening.

If you have any questions you can always PM me.

[Georgia]

Winder is a small town going through growing pains.
The issue with Barrow County is:
7% sales tax
Higher than Jackson, Gwinnett, and Hall county Ad Valorem car tax
Higher than Jackson, Gwinnett, and Hall county property millage tax rates.

Winder can be rather funny. I was laughing at the previous post in regard to the racial thing.
Heck, I transferred to GA 3 years ago. I was looking at homes stopped at a small C store in downtown Winder, went inside for a Coke and guess what I got?
Well darlin' you ain't from around here, are you.
Funny, I'm an old West Virginia white boy and she thought I had a Yankee accent.
Winder up!

[hmerritt]

Funny that you say that Barrow has higher property tax and auto taxes because we moved from Gwinnett into Barrow and they went down. We paid the same amount of property tax for our new house in Barrow which was $110000 more than our old house in Gwinnett, so I know that's not true. And the same for our autos, they dropped around $125 each. I'd like to see the data that you are getting your information from. Oh and the schools in Gwinnett are majorly overcrowded.

In 2006, Barrow county millage was 26.66 and Gwinnett was 32.10.

Here is an excerpt taken from Barrow's Website: Barrow County’s Millage is 26.666, which happens to be 3.11 mills (on average) lower than our neighboring Counties.

Heather