Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How about Athens? Looks like it's about an hour or so from downtown Atlanta.
That town is all about the University of Georgia. It is party central and at one time had the highest DWI rate in the state. My info is dated; things may have improved. I saw Skynyrd there the spring before their crash (but my info isn't that old).
That town is all about the University of Georgia. It is party central and at one time had the highest DWI rate in the state. My info is dated; things may have improved. I saw Skynyrd there the spring before their crash (but my info isn't that old).
I've heard that Athens was a party town (just like any other college town) but really wondered just how much of that really affected the residents.
OP, I grew up around Atlanta. The suburbs out beyond the MARTA train are a PITA regarding traffic. Mom's house is in Gwinnett county, the traffic between there and downtown, or anywhere else really, is damn awful, and there is no public transport there by choice of the locals (so "downtown types" who generally don't have cars can't travel out there)
If you pick something like around Buckhead, a fairly nice area and on the train, but you may find the housing costs there to be quite high. The areas around Oglethorpe University (my Alma Mater) is OK too, they are near the end of one of the northern MARTA train lines. For getting to the airport, the train rules, you can't beat it in a cop car with the lights running. Only thing that could beat it is a helicopter! Cheap too, even for single rides, and if you get a monthly card and use it a lot, quite a good deal.
Back around 1980, I lived downtown in a decent but older apartment building, at the time about $200 per month got me an efficiency apartment and enclosed parking in the basement. I liked it. On weekends and in the evening the city tended to clear out, you could drive or even walk around and it was pretty empty. That's 35 years ago though, but I imagine the general principle still holds.
Back in those days the MARTA train was not yet built, but the buses were OK, quite cheap, and beat driving in the traffic IMHO.
Atlanta is HOT and HUMID in the summer. Don't say I didn't warn you! Of course as a retiree, you can time your activities to avoid the worst of it.
You can check other threads about how Georgia is a fairly good place to retire, financially.
Sorry if my post is sort of North-side oriented, that is the part of town I am from and where I have been recently, maybe someone else will post up about other regions.
Athens has crime issues. Lots of DUIs (by college students). I wouldn't walk around Athens if you paid me because they have random robberies.
I would like to live in Midtown (actually in Atlanta) but that might be too young, hip, & urban.
I'd recommend Smyrna (metro-Atlanta area) which is in Cobb County. I live in Cobb County and would consider raising my future kids here.
I hear that Peachtree City (about 40 min. south of Atlanta) is great for retirees.
AVOID the south end of Fulton county like the plague. It's not safe.
I lived in Atlanta area suburbs (East Cobb county and Acworth) for too many years and would not move back for love or money. Mostly traffic and congestion between here there and everywhere and it takes a car to get to there.
When I volunteered to usher at the ATL symphony several husband and wife teams from small towns in North Georgia would come into town, check into a convenient downtown hotel and do the symphony, museums, etc then back to the small town when it was over.
Traffic and humidity are why I left Atlanta years ago. You can work around the traffic by using MARTA trains as I mentioned before, assuming you can find a place on the line that you can afford, but the year round damp was just a deal breaker for me.
Traffic and humidity are why I left Atlanta years ago. You can work around the traffic by using MARTA trains as I mentioned before, assuming you can find a place on the line that you can afford, but the year round damp was just a deal breaker for me.
The weather wouldn't bother me much, if it didn't get so hot. Traffic and crime would bother me a lot more. I like Louisville, KY, because it seems like the perfect compromise between big and small cities, and between north and south. It's about 24% the size of Atlanta (1.3 million vs 5.5 million), and the traffic is usually not very bad. The crime is mostly in a relatively small part of town, which is easy to avoid. Most of the city has a lot less crime than in bigger cities. It doesn't have trains, but the buses are very convenient, and you can get by without a car, if you want to. Spring and fall have a lot of very nice days. It's a very economical city, perfect for retirement for the average person who doesn't have a huge retirement account to live in San Diego or some such place.
To the OP Artking, Atlanta metro is worth considering as a retirement place. I lived in your home state NJ for 3 years in the early 1990s, and enjoyed my time there a lot. I was a short distance from NYC with access to all the transit in the NJ burbs of NYC. I also lived in the southeast (Auburn, AL) for a couple of years in the late 1990s. Atlanta was the closest big metro so I got to know it pretty well.
Things I like about Atlanta area, if you don't have to commute during rush hour to a job, is a good variety of neighborhoods within the city core that are fairly self contained. Some are walkable (many are not), and some have good public transit connections too. I like the MARTA system in Atlanta and if I lived there, I would want to have access to it. Housing costs as either renter or homeowner are a fraction of what they are compared to my home area in Southern Cal or in other metros like NYC/NJ or DC.
I am still working (20 months till retirement) and the company I work for is based on the north side of Atlanta. I've gone there several times on business trips and those reinforce my view that Atlanta has lots of good things. Georgia has favorable tax laws for retirees, with generous exemptions for IRA, 401K and private pension income. SS is also not taxed. Real estate taxes are reasonable, sales tax is reasonable, and utility costs are also reasonable compared to most places. GA does have a steep one time vehicle registration fee, but not bad after that.
Because I live in such a high cost area (like OP) I am also comparing my options on where to call home in a few years from now.
To the OP Artking, Atlanta metro is worth considering as a retirement place. I lived in your home state NJ for 3 years in the early 1990s, and enjoyed my time there a lot. I was a short distance from NYC with access to all the transit in the NJ burbs of NYC. I also lived in the southeast (Auburn, AL) for a couple of years in the late 1990s. Atlanta was the closest big metro so I got to know it pretty well.
Things I like about Atlanta area, if you don't have to commute during rush hour to a job, is a good variety of neighborhoods within the city core that are fairly self contained. Some are walkable (many are not), and some have good public transit connections too. I like the MARTA system in Atlanta and if I lived there, I would want to have access to it. Housing costs as either renter or homeowner are a fraction of what they are compared to my home area in Southern Cal or in other metros like NYC/NJ or DC.
I am still working (20 months till retirement) and the company I work for is based on the north side of Atlanta. I've gone there several times on business trips and those reinforce my view that Atlanta has lots of good things. Georgia has favorable tax laws for retirees, with generous exemptions for IRA, 401K and private pension income. SS is also not taxed. Real estate taxes are reasonable, sales tax is reasonable, and utility costs are also reasonable compared to most places. GA does have a steep one time vehicle registration fee, but not bad after that.
Because I live in such a high cost area (like OP) I am also comparing my options on where to call home in a few years from now.
Thanks a lot for the info. It seems the northern suburb is the better part of Atlanta metro. I don't have to live too close the the city center; so small and quite community a little further away from downtown is fine with me, as long as I have an alternative time slot to drive or take public transportation to get around, to stores, city center or airport.
Traffic and humidity are why I left Atlanta years ago. You can work around the traffic by using MARTA trains as I mentioned before, assuming you can find a place on the line that you can afford, but the year round damp was just a deal breaker for me.
Is it still damp in Fall or Winter? Here in NJ, I have to keep using body lotion to prevent my skin from drying during winter time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
