valdosta (Jackson, Jacksonville: crime, houses, neighborhood)

[jeffw]

Hi all from wet new england, the rivers are going down finally, and we may see sun this week..... yuk weather up here this year...

so im working on a new job in valdosta which will get me outta the new england rat race.

what can you all tell me about this area. i live in a small town 40k so avg size suburb. housing sucks and cost of living is just as bad here. hence the move south.

i see new housing prices are real good in comparison salary is good for comparison. how is crime and amenties in the area, things to do, best beaches to visit from valdosta, i would assume florida for beaches would be closer. things like that. any areas to avaoid or prefer to look at houses.

thanks jeff

[mary88]

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Hey Jeff, What a small world, I am also from New england(North Providence) I am also interested in Valdosta. I have been researching the area for about 5 weeks now. My husband and I are doing a road trip in a couple weeks to check it out for ourselves. If I can help in any way feel free to let me know.

I have done all of the New England vs Georgia research. I have been going on the Valdosta Daily Times every day to check out local news, classified and things of that nature. They also have a Valdosta forum through the newspaper that you can use to connect with the locals(they have been very helpful to me). I wish you luck in your search and would love to talk to you.

Mary88

[jeffw]

very cool, lake park or lake wood looks like two possibles

[Valdosta Resident]

We have lived here for more than 10 years. My wife and I were raised in the midwest but have lived in the southeast for nearly 30 years. It is a great place to live and raise a family. The area is diverse, don't be afraid of the OLD SOUTH stereotypes. There is a large Air Force Base, a large university and a growing industrial economy. We did make the "metropolitan" status recently-we have more than 100,000 people living in Lowndes county and the three counties surrounding us. This will put us on the radar screen for even more economic opportunities in the future. We are still a small town in the sense that you will see people you know in the store, at a restaurant etc. Our dining options are surprisingly good and diverse- its not all BBQ! We live in the county school district and love it, 2 of our kids have special needs and we are thrilled with our schools. It will be a little warmer than you are used to! It will be in the mid 90's from June to Sept and even into early October. On the other hand, according to Weather.com it has never been below 0 degrees! Pick your poison! Good luck

[Allan Vrboncic]

I'm a Realtor in Valdosta, and I can answer all questions, and help ease the relocating process to Valdosta, Georgia. Check out my website in my profile.

[activemom]

Hi- I actually live in CT now...after spending 5 years in Valdosta (husband and I were both in the AF.) Valdosta is soooo cheap compared to New England...seriously our house here in CT is 1/2 the size and twice the price and the taxes are 3x as much. SO, cost of living is SO low there. However, salaries of jobs are also much lower than up here in New England.

We lived in Valdosta as compared to the "Lowndes" county area (it all runs together.) We didn't have children when we lived in Valdosta so we didn't really think about schools. We LOVED our neighborhood and the neighbors and the location. There was really nothing negative about where we lived until we tried to sell our house. Pretty much every single potential buyer we had turned us down because we were in the Valdosta school district. The people who bought our house (from Massachussets believe it or not) didn't have kids. You may want to check into this because it could affect you trying to sell your house!

Restaurants and shopping aren't much in Valdosta...we pretty much spent our time in Jacksonville or Tallahassee if we wanted to go out to nice restaurants or do shopping. You do have a great selection of chain restaurants, but coming from New England you will miss the independent "mom and pop" restaurants. You can easily take a weekend trip to get these. There are tons of weekend trip possibilities too.

[Robbied]

The best restaurant there is Mori's. It is a Japenese/Steak restaurant. The shopping isnt the best. There is a mall located on the side of Valdosta away from the AFB.
Not much to do there. Pretty quiet. Inexpensive. Many places to travel to nearby if you want something to do to have fun on the weekends.