Best place for families between Brookhaven and Madison

[Mrscllc]

Maybe I don't want to live there?? Is there something bad about Yazoo City? It hasn't come up on a list to avoid from people here or those I know so I assumed it was ok..

Being that he will be working out of Clinton, which area should I search for housing? Brandon and Madison are around Jackson from there and I was assuming the commute would be difficult.

[madison2013]

Have you been there yet? Yazoo is rural. If that's the life you want then by all means go for it.

Yazoo to Clinton is 45 minutes.
Madison to Clinton is 28 minutes.

There's a reason why people have moved to north and east of Jackson and avoided the south and western sides. Also the "traffic" in Jackson is minimal compared to other cities. People here think they have bad traffic because they've never lived in a big city before.

Also you might consider the Jackson suburbs forum. This is just the forum for the state.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/jackson/

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by Mrscllc

Thank you all for the information! It took a while but we finally nailed down some details about the coming move. The job will be out of Clinton, and in an effort to avoid driving through Jackson on a daily commute we had to rule out Mendenhall, and Brandon. Most of our search has been from Yazoo City, which is a little north of ideal conmute, Raymond, Byram, outlying Terry areas and Crystal Springs. Thank you for the info on Terry, we did a drive up there and decided the areas west of 55 but still considered Terry are both picturesque and provide acreage lots with nice houses.

Do you not want to live in Clinton? I mean, it's not as nice as Brandon/Madison but it's alright, and has a decent school system, if I remember correctly. The downside is that it's in Hinds County and controlled by the morons there, and you have higher taxes. They are about to build a Continental Tire Plant out there, so I bet the area will boom in all honesty (or the workers will drive in from the other areas I mentioned).

I'd probably still look into Madison and take the Natchez Trace to Clinton every day. Just don't speed. Much better than points south of there. And certainly do not live in Yazoo City. No way. Honestly, you'll likely be go against traffic if you take 220 out there. Just don't break down.

[Mrscllc]

We are currently living in a rural area outside Baton Rouge which was incorporated about 10ish years ago. We like rural, and driving 30 minutes to "town" isn't foreign to me. As long as UPS and the post office deliver I will be ok. But a safe area for my kids to play on our own land is important. Then secondly would be the availability of groceries in general, then school system.

We have considered Clinton, there's just nothing available there that fits our criteria right now so it hasn't come up much.

I think we will try then to focus on Brandon or Madison. We were worried crossing Jackson would be similar to crossing Baton Rouge on a commute, which is a nightmare..

We go next weekend for our first real look-see.

[brickpatio]

If the job is in Clinton, then yes that's a pretty area and a nice community with good schools (inside Clinton school zone) and services etc.

I would say the best rural area for growth on that side of the city that also has well ranked schools is the Flora area. The wealth from Madison has come right up to edge of Flora so there are more than a few large lot subdivisions in the area, particular east of Flora near Highway 22.

Examples are "The Highlands" and area around the lovely Livingston township at the corner of Hwy 22 and Hwy 463. The key for schools is being inside of Madison County but not inside Canton school zone.

The Flora area feeds into top-ranked Madison schools (middle and high school), with the exception of the elementary school in Flora proper which isn't well ranked. If you need elementary schools, then you want to get into Madison and Germantown school zones, or else Clinton on that side of the city.

As far as traffic between Brandon and Clinton, I'm not certain but my impression is that traffic would be fairly light. Jackson isn't like Baton Rouge in that sense. Rankin County has stronger schools and lots of beautiful property all over. All around Brandon is nice with lots of large lot properties. Same for Florence, with the only difference being that to Florence you would have to take Hwy 49 which means traffic lights. For that reason if you are commuting to Clinton, you probably want to stay on I-20 between Brandon and Clinton.