Moving from CA, 1st baby on the way, Germantown or Collierville?

[pinklynn]

Collierville is wonderful for new families!! There are walking trails connecting all of the neighborhoods. There are nice parks and even have very nice "sprinkler" parks which have interactive water toys, fountains, etc. It is free! The town is not spread out. You can get to your childs school, Target, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Schnucks, movie theater, restaraunts, a nice mall, the square, library, etc all within a 5 min drive or less. They have the Collierville Youth association so boys can play football and girls can do cheerleading from 1st grade up. they also have a great soccer league, and any other type of sport or dance etc. for kids. Their is a YMCA that has a zero entry pool which is very nice. There is also a Prairie Fitness and Desoto Athletic Club. The schools are wonderful. My oldest just graduated and took 11 Honor Classes and 11 AP classes graduating at # 10 in a class of 456. The principle said the Senior class received over 19 million dollars in scholarships. My daughter got a full ride to Boston University in their Honors Program. She received a 32 on her ACT. A 34 ACT super score. the square has live bands in the summer on Thursday nights called Sunset on the Square. Families come bring picnic blankets and enjoy it. There are festivals on the square. So yes I believe Collierville is much more family friendly and more centralized than Germantown. Germantown buffers Collierville from the bad elements of Memphis which is #1 in crime and rape per capita in the US. You will love Collierville!

[jjtempo]

Check out those home prices in Collierville, they have fallen quite a bit and I think they is more to come . Lots of houses out there for sale for quite a bit of time so no reason to not get a bargain . Good luck.

[jnr4411]

I think G'Twn is a little too "snobby". Of course that is just my opinion. By the way, I have a cousin who lives on Eulas Ridge Cv. Nice folks!!

[UptownSwings]

I haven't lived in Germantown or Collierville, but I was born and raised here and have friends/family who live in both. Honestly, if I was going to pick either...I would go with Germantown. I live in downtown Memphis right now, but my DH and I have plans to move out of the city before our oldest starts school. (If you haven't heard, Memphis City Schools are scary!) We are planning to move to Arlington though.

Collierville is very nice, and very new. If you were going to only live there 5 years or so, I'd say go for it. Homes are new and the "new" hasn't worn off yet. But if you are looking for somewhere to call home for 10+ years...go with Germantown. Cities in the Memphis area tend to have a short "newness" lifespan. 10 years ago, Cordova was all the rage! Everyone moved to Cordova. Now...it's almost impossible to sell your house if you live there. I believe Collierville will end up the same way. It's grown HUGE almost overnight, the houses are cheap, and city planning is minimal. Germantown on the other hand is established and the city leaders are still active in keeping it a desireable place to live.

[bonniesaturn02]

Originally Posted by soopermnstr

Thoughts on the differences between the two?

Hi soopermnstr! As you see, everyone has their favorite when it comes to these two suburbs. In all honesty, you are not going to find that you have made a poor decision in either choice. If you have the opportunity, I would advise coming to town for a long weekend and visit each area to see which matches the personality of you and your family the best.

Best wishes and congratulations on your move!

[jaimelemer]

I think you cannot go wrong in either area. I am a single mom and I live in Germantown and find it completely affordable. Of course, I moved here from Northern VA outside of DC, so to me, the houses in Germantown are incredibly priced. There's a 4 bedroom home with a pool down the road from me for 202k, and it's gorgeous! I love living in Germantown. It's just a pretty area, well maintained... you definitely have your snobs, but you'll get them wherever you go. You just have to ignore them. I really think our officials take good care of our town and I love it. With that said, I think Collierville has some nice areas, too, and I haven't heard anything bad about the schools. I think you should be just fine with either choice, but for my ten cents, I'd choose Germantown.

[g00se518]

I work for one city and all my family is from the other. They are very different with each having good and bad qualities.

I won't rewrite everything said above but Germantown is very old and established. The city was planned very well and has sustained its home values because of its desirability.

Everyone is touting Houston High School which is great, but is made up of about 40% East Germantown, 40% West Collierville, 10% SE Unicorporated Shelby County as well as a small amount of Cordova. The school is maybe ten feet over the Germantown line so you will just have to look at your district to know if your children will attend.

If you find a cheaper home in Germantown or Collierville it will most likely not be in the Houston School District and while Germantown Elementary, Middle, and High are coming back around, they have gotten less impressive in the last few years after all the students bussed in from other areas. The education hasn't dropped but the atmosphere of the school is not what it was when all my in-laws graduated from the school.

Collierville is a lot more of a bulldoze and build a $400,000 house so you don't get the old established feeling. What you do get is a better parks system, a greenbelt system that is unmatched in the area and knowing that all the schools in the system are very good (minus Schilling Middle as pointed out above). You also get the town square but neither city has a large walkable district...Just a few shops with great places to eat.

Collierville is also projected to grow to 90,000 citizens while Germantown is landlocked and won't grow much over its 45,000ish. There are also many community events in both which are well publicized and I try to attend the events in both cities...why not? There are tons of opportunities to get involved and meet people easily. This is the south and if you are polite and easy to get along with you will make friends quickly in either city.

There is no clear cut answer as it depends on your age, neighborhood type preferences, children's age, level of activity, etc. Hopefully this will help you make your own informed decision and not push a strong opinion on you.

Check School Attendance Zone

Use the link above to find out which school district the homes you like are in.

[ColliervilleMom]

Where is this data from goose518?
"Collierville is also projected to grow to 90,000 citizens while Germantown is landlocked and won't grow much over its 45,000ish."

You all crack me up with calling Collierville a bulldoze community, I will post some pictures of beautiful places to live in Collierville with mature trees, lakes, woods. Try driving past Poplar sometime before you knock it.