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Having raised three kids in Morningside and Ansley Park I can certainly tell you all that there are very very many families in those areas with school aged children in both public and private schools. You won't see them in clubs and bars so much, but they are certainly there and, I dare say, are a major driver for the area.
It is certainly tough for families, no argument here. But some of it is lifestyle choices and what you need, want or expect in a home. If you want 3,000-5,000 sq ft in a Decatur quality school district then yes, but I can purchase today a 1,900 sq ft townhouse with Decatur schools for under $250k. My income is well under half of yours so things like $500k houses are not options but we also do not desire that big a house, regardless of what we can afford. I am really sorry you ended up in a place you are not happy in, I can't imagine, especially with a long commute I assume on top of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a2t
Compared to the burbs, there are very few families intown with school aged kids.
Yes you see lots of new families with babies but once they start doing their school research, they move asap. Like I said, you have to be making about $250K/yr to live in town with school aged kids (and even that would be tough). If you want to go private, you can add at least another $100K to that requirement.
This is exactly why we HAD to move from EAV to Ros(and Im pissed about it!). I felt like Decatur was literally extorting us with the house prices ($700K) and if you could swing that with your jumbo loan, then you still had their $1500/mo tax to add in. After all that, the city was in everyones business about exactly what sort of house you can build. We had a contract on a $650K new build where the builder literally said what the buyer must do is "finish off the stairs to the upstairs on a weekend, and hope your neighbors dont call the city on you". Completely unreasonable. But they know intown families want to stay intown (like us), and unless they want to pay $20K/yr per kid to go private, Decatur is 1 of their only options. They have you over a barrel and there are enough uber rich to pay this extortion (mostly DINK, no families). In the end I said f*ck it, left intown behind and went to Ros. Been miserable ever since, but feel as if I had no choice. I make $200K/yr, too and still couldnt swing Decatur (or anywhere intown). And no, I wasnt going to pay $450K for a tear down that would of needed another 200K. Instead I got a 5000 sq ft house in Ros in a great school district for $342K.
APS has lots of kids however most are lower income families stuck and either cannot move to more affluent area, or do not want to due to race divide. The APS schools are also not very good unless you can live in one of those $700K houses in the mary linn district. Otherwise, you wouldnt send your kids to public.
Long rant ... if I could do it all again, yes I would of paid $450K for a tear down. I was expecting burbs to be more lively, I dont like it here.
Compared to the burbs, there are very few families intown with school aged kids.
Yes you see lots of new families with babies but once they start doing their school research, they move asap. Like I said, you have to be making about $250K/yr to live in town with school aged kids (and even that would be tough). If you want to go private, you can add at least another $100K to that requirement.
This is exactly why we HAD to move from EAV to Ros(and Im pissed about it!). I felt like Decatur was literally extorting us with the house prices ($700K) and if you could swing that with your jumbo loan, then you still had their $1500/mo tax to add in. After all that, the city was in everyones business about exactly what sort of house you can build. We had a contract on a $650K new build where the builder literally said what the buyer must do is "finish off the stairs to the upstairs on a weekend, and hope your neighbors dont call the city on you". Completely unreasonable. But they know intown families want to stay intown (like us), and unless they want to pay $20K/yr per kid to go private, Decatur is 1 of their only options. They have you over a barrel and there are enough uber rich to pay this extortion (mostly DINK, no families). In the end I said f*ck it, left intown behind and went to Ros. Been miserable ever since, but feel as if I had no choice. I make $200K/yr, too and still couldnt swing Decatur (or anywhere intown). And no, I wasnt going to pay $450K for a tear down that would of needed another 200K. Instead I got a 5000 sq ft house in Ros in a great school district for $342K.
APS has lots of kids however most are lower income families stuck and either cannot move to more affluent area, or do not want to due to race divide. The APS schools are also not very good unless you can live in one of those $700K houses in the mary linn district. Otherwise, you wouldnt send your kids to public.
Long rant ... if I could do it all again, yes I would of paid $450K for a tear down. I was expecting burbs to be more lively, I dont like it here.
Who would live in a new home in Decatur? The whole point of Decatur is to get the renovated 1930-1940's with character and charm in a good school district. If you are going to live in a new home, you might as well be in the suburbs anyway.
Been miserable ever since, but feel as if I had no choice. I make $200K/yr, too and still couldnt swing Decatur (or anywhere intown). And no, I wasnt going to pay $450K for a tear down that would of needed another 200K. Instead I got a 5000 sq ft house in Ros in a great school district for $342K.
.
Intown is expensive but the highlighted part is just silly. Do you think every family intown is making $500k/yr?
Using 3x income as a guide for affordability, based on your stated income you can afford a $600k house. Plenty of decent houses have sold in that price range in Decatur, Morningside and even Ansley. They aren't 5000 sq ft and dont have three car garages but they do exist.
Nothing wrong with the big house in the suburbs, but it is really just a lifestyle choice.
We downsized, paid more, and moved into a home not half as nice as our previous home --and it has been almost all good. The schools, neighbors, the commute, walking to parks and restaurants. The only thing that really stinks is that you have to travel for rec-league soccer, but living in less house is something you get used to.
The 750k homes in the Lin district may be the only ones you considered living in, but most folks live in homes much less expensive (and most squeeze in a couple of kids--we have 3!)--one person's "tear-down" is another person's "home".
Anyway, I am sorry it is not working out for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a2t
Compared to the burbs, there are very few families intown with school aged kids.
Yes you see lots of new families with babies but once they start doing their school research, they move asap. Like I said, you have to be making about $250K/yr to live in town with school aged kids (and even that would be tough). If you want to go private, you can add at least another $100K to that requirement.
This is exactly why we HAD to move from EAV to Ros(and Im pissed about it!). I felt like Decatur was literally extorting us with the house prices ($700K) and if you could swing that with your jumbo loan, then you still had their $1500/mo tax to add in. After all that, the city was in everyones business about exactly what sort of house you can build. We had a contract on a $650K new build where the builder literally said what the buyer must do is "finish off the stairs to the upstairs on a weekend, and hope your neighbors dont call the city on you". Completely unreasonable. But they know intown families want to stay intown (like us), and unless they want to pay $20K/yr per kid to go private, Decatur is 1 of their only options. They have you over a barrel and there are enough uber rich to pay this extortion (mostly DINK, no families). In the end I said f*ck it, left intown behind and went to Ros. Been miserable ever since, but feel as if I had no choice. I make $200K/yr, too and still couldnt swing Decatur (or anywhere intown). And no, I wasnt going to pay $450K for a tear down that would of needed another 200K. Instead I got a 5000 sq ft house in Ros in a great school district for $342K.
APS has lots of kids however most are lower income families stuck and either cannot move to more affluent area, or do not want to due to race divide. The APS schools are also not very good unless you can live in one of those $700K houses in the mary linn district. Otherwise, you wouldnt send your kids to public.
Long rant ... if I could do it all again, yes I would of paid $450K for a tear down. I was expecting burbs to be more lively, I dont like it here.
Who would live in a new home in Decatur? The whole point of Decatur is to get the renovated 1930-1940's with character and charm in a good school district. If you are going to live in a new home, you might as well be in the suburbs anyway.
You haven't been to Oakhurst, have you? Lots of new construction. Blends in with the old houses, but still new.
And if its fully renovated, its not going to look much like it did in the 30s and 40s. It will have modern kitchens, baths and it will actually have closets.
SE? Like Ormewood Park, Kirkwood, Grant Park or NE too, like Candler Park, Inman Park, Druid Hills?
I know Morningside is pretty much a no, right?
They are going to be really excited and I can now answer their question.
Thanks again.
To answer your question: Morningside/VaHi is only 10% african-american, making it the 3rd least african american neighborhood in Atlanta behind Buckhead (3.2%) and Collier Hills (8.4%).
I rarely saw any other african-americans during my 15 month stint in Morningside.
I think what a lot of people's problem is that, at most middle-class income levels, there is some place in the Atlanta metro area where you can buy a 3,000 sq ft + house, so it's hard not to have that in the back of your mind when you're looking at 1,200 sq ft, $400K homes in Candler Park.
Also wanted to say they know there are alot of African-Americans in the Cascade area. They wanted to know if there were African-American families in the intown areas (as opposed to areas out near 285, etc.).
Thank you. I passed on the news about Grant Park and West End to them. Isn't West End kind of far out or is that about the same distance from downtown as say a Grant Park (just on a different expressway)? Also, I did not realize West End was a family heavy place (i.e. lots of people with kids playing in the park on Saturday type of thing). I thought it was more older people and singles. Guess I didn't get the full story. Thanks again.
West End is actually a very heavily family friendly neighborhood. It is a gentrifying area as well with a lot of diverse families but historically had and still has a lot of black Muslim families in the area along with black educators and professional people. You see kids and families out at parks, the Wren's Nest, various neighborhood events (most are family friendly), and the West End Library. The Shrine of the Black Madonna is also in the neighborhood along with many historic predominately black baptist churches.
It is located off of I20. From Cascade, you can get there without getting on the free way because Cascade itselfs turns into Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, which is one of the main thoroughfares in West End.
Quote:
Originally Posted by a2t
Compared to the burbs, there are very few families intown with school aged kids.
Yes you see lots of new families with babies but once they start doing their school research, they move asap. Like I said, you have to be making about $250K/yr to live in town with school aged kids (and even that would be tough). If you want to go private, you can add at least another $100K to that requirement.
This is exactly why we HAD to move from EAV to Ros(and Im pissed about it!). I felt like Decatur was literally extorting us with the house prices ($700K) and if you could swing that with your jumbo loan, then you still had their $1500/mo tax to add in. After all that, the city was in everyones business about exactly what sort of house you can build. We had a contract on a $650K new build where the builder literally said what the buyer must do is "finish off the stairs to the upstairs on a weekend, and hope your neighbors dont call the city on you". Completely unreasonable. But they know intown families want to stay intown (like us), and unless they want to pay $20K/yr per kid to go private, Decatur is 1 of their only options. They have you over a barrel and there are enough uber rich to pay this extortion (mostly DINK, no families). In the end I said f*ck it, left intown behind and went to Ros. Been miserable ever since, but feel as if I had no choice. I make $200K/yr, too and still couldnt swing Decatur (or anywhere intown). And no, I wasnt going to pay $450K for a tear down that would of needed another 200K. Instead I got a 5000 sq ft house in Ros in a great school district for $342K.
APS has lots of kids however most are lower income families stuck and either cannot move to more affluent area, or do not want to due to race divide. The APS schools are also not very good unless you can live in one of those $700K houses in the mary linn district. Otherwise, you wouldnt send your kids to public.
Long rant ... if I could do it all again, yes I would of paid $450K for a tear down. I was expecting burbs to be more lively, I dont like it here.
Find the bold above to be very general about CoA families who send their kids to APS. I lived in the City of Atlanta for many years and actually moved to CoA from Cobb County prior to my son starting kindergarten. He went to an APS public school and then to a great APS charter school (Kindezi).
Contrary to what you may think, we lived in the city because we don't like burbs. We could have stayed in Cobb or moved to other more affluent areas in DeKalb County or other parts of the CoA and honestly as a black mother, I could care less about the "race divide." LOL. There are other APS schools that are just as good as Mary Linn and many parents who do live in lower income neighborhoods choose to send their kids to charters, like Drew, the many KIPP schools, and Kindezi which are some of the best performing schools in the city and are predominately black and low income.
FWIW, we didn't even make $200K per year and I could have afforded to live in Decatur if I wanted a smaller house or townhome and I honestly feel you must have just been extremely picky about the type of house you wanted to live in if you couldn't have found something that you could afford with a $200K annual salary in City of Decatur, Druid Hills, or a home in the better feeder schools in CoA. I would think you were being excessive with your wish list maybe or that you have a high degree of extra "expenses." $200K is over $13K per month after taxes. I could have lived off of your salary in a townhouse in Decatur for 6 months of your salary.
Certainly most people don't make $200k, it puts someone in the top 5% of all US households. I think it just illustrates that even at that salary trying to have it all too early in life (before you have accumulated meaningful assets) is very difficult. Those in the middle class know they can't have it all and make choices between further out, SFH vs Townhouse, top schools vs average school etc. If your middle class and start by saving your 10-20% for retirement you know you have to compromise on something and thats ok but I suppose if you were in the top 5% you migh feel different.
Quote:
Originally Posted by residinghere2007
FWIW, we didn't even make $200K per year and I could have afforded to live in Decatur if I wanted a smaller house or townhome and I honestly feel you must have just been extremely picky about the type of house you wanted to live in if you couldn't have found something that you could afford with a $200K annual salary in City of Decatur, Druid Hills, or a home in the better feeder schools in CoA. I would think you were being excessive with your wish list maybe or that you have a high degree of extra "expenses." $200K is over $13K per month after taxes. I could have lived off of your salary in a townhouse in Decatur for 6 months of your salary.
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