Questions about relocating my family... (Woodstock, Canton: transplants, sales, real estate)

[MaybeleavingLI]

My husband has an opportunity for work in Georgia, which means we may split up the family for a few months until I can join him with my children (ages 4 and almost 6). We are from Long Island and have no family in GA. The information I am finding here is very helpful. Thank you in advance. I have some more questions for you.

As far as finding an area to live in- I have been researching the Cherokee area (Specifically Holly Springs and Woodstock). Here are some specifics I am looking for if there are some other areas I should consider:
family oriented, small town feel (I want to know my neighbors, but not be on top of them), good schools , a Catholic church nearby, other "transplants" in the area (FYI we are New York and Italian- currently living in an area with a mix of ethnic backgrounds), little league for my boys.

I am a speech pathologist working in a school. Are there any transplanted teachers that have found a job in GA?

If we were to move next summer (2010)- my older boy will have completed 1st grade in NY- but his b-day is 10/24- past the cutoff. My younger son will be 5 on 9/2- so he will miss K for the next year. Would I have to hold my older son back?

We also plan to rent for a while- so I would need to find an area I could rent in and then purchase a house- so the kids can remain in the district.

How are the real estate taxes? I can't find any information on the web.

Thank you again for any help you may have. I can't believe we may be considering this move, but we are ready to have a quality of life.

Ali

[neil0311]

If you are from LI, then the taxes here will be a big reduction. You can look on the web site for the Assesor's Office for the County you plan to look in for exact information. In Cobb County, the site has exact info for each specific property, so you can review homes that you're interested in looking at to get an idea of the value and taxes.

http://taxassessor.cherokeega.com/taxnet/

http://www.cobbassessor.org/Main/Home.aspx

In addition to Cherokee, you may want to review parts of Cobb, parts of Gwinnett, and north Fulton. Each will have good schools, transplants, and many of the things you want. Teachers are being furloughed and laid off in most counties, and most school districts are in financial trouble, so I'm not sure how you'd do on the job front.

[brookdaleresident]

We were in a very similar situation last year. Your son will enter 2nd grade. We live in North Gwinnett and are very happy with the area. As for speech pathologists, you may be able to find a job in that field. Please message me if you have any questions.

[MaybeleavingLI]

Thanks for the info. Just bumping for some more help.

I tried looking for infomation about real estate taxes of the newer developments in the Canton/Woodstock area. I still can't find it!
I pay around 9000 in Long Island. Please tell me GA taxes are lower!

[BobKovacs]

I live in Holly Springs, and we relocated from NJ two years ago and love it. It's definitely got a small-town feel, and you can find homes as close together or as far apart as you'd like. There's tons of transplants (our street is 90% transplants), and there are several Catholic churches in the area (we've got 1/2 a dozen Catholic families on our street).

GA taxes are much lower- for a rough approximation, figure on around 1.1-1.2% of the sales price of the house.

The challenge with renting first and trying to stay in the same school is that the elementary school zones aren't all that big, and there are only a few apartment complexes, which may or may not be in the same zone you'd like to buy in. In the perfect world, you'd rent a house in the development you eventually want to buy in, and then it's a non-issue.

Let me know if you've got any further questions on the area.

[Zimbochick]

You don't mention in your post where your husband will be working. Bear in mind the commute here can be brutal. When we moved here 4 years ago we first looked at an acceptable commute time for my husband, and then took it from there. It is very tempting to look at neighborhoods first, but I would strongly urge you not to. I'd agree with the areas recommended above. Looking for a job when you are here is going to be tough, there just are not a lot of opportunities out there, but there are many applicants. As for your sons birthdays, on the whole people tend to keep their children back here rather than send them early, so your 1st/2nd grader will end up being quite a bit younger than his classmates, maybe as much as 18 months. My son has an end of August birthday, we decided to keep him back a year as he was fairly immature. I always worried he was going to be the oldest by far, buy he is right in the middle. Good luck!