Nice Atlanta suburbs for family- I filled in the needed info! (Roswell: low crime, home search)

[HannahD]

Hi all, we are a N. Ca family moving to the Atlanta suburbs. During our stay this summer we visited and liked Roswell and Alpharetta as well as Milton. We also have since been hearing of East Cobb though more difficult to pinpoint since apparently that's the area of a county rather than name of a town! Any help you can offer would be appreciated. We are looking now, as our home is now on the market and should be sold soon.

1. Budget up to $400k, but wouldn’t mind a cosmetic fixer in the $300’s either
2. House: 4/3, older is fine if updated some, less than 30 years old would be preferred, basement, larger, wooded yard
3. Employment Status hubby work from home & stay at home mom
Excellent public schools (9 or 10 rated) have a 2nd grader
5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle preference or a mix of the two suburban
6. Easy access to public transit, important or not? Not super important, up to a 30-40 min drive for an occasional drop off of the hubby at MARTA for a business trip is doable
7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood. A "nice"/upscale family neighborhood.The "swim/tennis" communities seem like a good idea from a social standpoint. Biggest "must haves" are low crime, good public schools and larger, treed lots.

[ahope1980]

The fact that your husband works from home and you stay home I would seriously consider South or West Forsyth. Your budget is good but not good enough to get a decent basement home in any of the areas you mentioned. If youcan do without the basement I would pick Roswell in the East Cobb section. That being said you could get your ideal home, lower taxes and great schools in Forsyth County. It is also very family oriented.

[flyonpa]

Roswell, Alphaertta, Milton, (East Cobb) are all Excellent schools, good suburban location. Hundreds of subdivision with swim/tennis to pick from. You might also include Western & Southern Forsyth, also.

Generally outside of the Incorporated (and also in them also) Locations, areas are normally define by High School Clusters. The area that feeds that High School. (Note: growing area do get school redistricting from time to time to balance school populations, and for new school openings etc.)

You should be able to get a 1/4 - 1/3 lots, Older sub-division will be more wooded, Basements are harder to find, most are open air.

[andy1324]

The fact that neither of you have to commute is great... Total freedom is picking a location. That being said east cobb should tops your list. Look at 30062 and 30068 area codes, feeder zones for walton, pope, and Lassiter HS. Those are the top areas. Your budget will get a decent home there, but you do pay a lot for the schools.

[SpecialSan]

I think the school system should be your first criteria used to narrow down to locations. The previous posts listed several zip codes which I am sure are a good start. Shopping around for schools for my family now and I would bet 9 or 10 for elementary/middle are in only a few areas.

[tamlym]

Hey there! We came here from the East Bay 4 years ago and haven't looked back . We picked the Johns Creek area for the schools, and my husband takes the MARTA bus from the Windward Park and Ride to North Springs stations, and then into Atlanta to work EVERY DAY. It's still worth it, we like the area.

You guys are lucky in that you won't have a daily commute so you can live almost anywhere!

I did want to warn you that you will come to Atlanta with CA home prices skewing your home shopping experience. Everything will seem to be a great deal to you. The market has improved, but there are still a lot of homes that are overpriced by homeowners thinking they can get their asking price (and the home sits). Overpaying is the worse thing you can do here because home prices here aren't like CA where you'll make it up in a few years...depending on the location and age, you might never make it up!! (I exaggerate but it will be a LONG time).

I agree with the other posters...start base your home search on the schools first. Then, since you are both home based, what kind of shopping extra curricular things etc do you/hubby/children like to do? Nothing worse than having to drive 20-30 minutes to anywhere to do anything even if it's only a few miles - in town traffic can be nuts!! Large treed lots may point you to Milton more, but there, your budget may be at the bottom of the range there. You may have to give some things up.

Also, keep in mind the property taxes...might seem low in CA standards, but it's still a lot of money. Like other posters said, parts of W and S Forsyth may give you the best bang for your buck (home size, lot, schools) and does have lower property taxes than the other areas (Fulton and Cobb), but it IS the furthest from the city (ATL)

[HannahD]

Thanks SO MUCH everyone for your helpful replies! A few follow up questions and more info.

For fun, we enjoy things like shopping in cute areas (I hear about old Roswell and the Crabapple area), we love vintage/antique stuff, dinner date nights out for mom & dad, getting together with other families for dinner/bbq’s etc. Walking/biking on trails or just around the neighborhood,etc. Pretty simple things. For my "day to day" life, I just need to be able to get to Target, Trader Joe’s, Costco and Whole Foods with an occasional trip to the mall. Right now we drive about 15 minutes to those places (& 45 to the mall!) and that is fine with us. We currently live in a smaller, foothill town about 45 minutes outside Sacramento. In the span of many years, I can count on my fingers how many times we’ve been to "the city" for some sort of entertainment. While I like to do tourist-like "big city" things once in a while, we much prefer spending our time in smaller towns/areas and are not into the big city scene/night life, etc. (Plus I hear Atlanta itself is way scarier than Sacramento!) So, it does not bother us to be at little further out. The only concern I would have is making sure it’s not a back-woodsy type of situation. So, I guess trying to get that middle ground of a nice family town that’s neither backwoods country nor big city? Just trying to be as descriptive as possible and not offend anyone!

When you mention parts of West and South Forsyth are we talking about Cumming? Are there other towns I should look at? What do I use as search terms to look up potential listings such as on Realtor.com?

It seems every time we find a home in Roswell it’s with a lower rated school, but there are certainly highly rated schools there, I guess they are all homes with a higher price? We are seeing some homes in Alpharetta in our range, but are there certain areas that are better or worse than others? We are very confused about East of 400 vs. West of 400. Is it only a traffic issue, or are there other factors that make one side preferable to the other? Although highly rated schools are a priority, we are not concerned with SUPER high test scores and infact have been warned that perhaps Johns Creek is not a good fit as it has extremely high performing kids and is super competitive? But we've also heard that is just Northview HS so perhaps we should look at the rest? Maybe some of you could weigh in on another issue we are hearing about: that East Cobb is very nice (& sounds like we'd love the neighborhoods) but because of more affluence there is also more of a drug problem with the kids? So again, trying to get that middle ground of good school and family neighborhood, but nothing extreme on one end or the other!

And Tamlym, thanks so much for your helpful pointers as a fellow former Californian! I’d imagine coming from the Bay Area the GA prices seem like a fabulous deal! To us, they certainly seem better than here, but not greatly so. In fact, when we heard that $300k was the median price in Alpharetta & Roswell we’d really hoped for up to $400k we’d be getting a nicer home, but it appears that we’re going to have to go with older, less updated and possibly even give up the basement. Whatever we have to do to change the parameters of a possible home purchase, our main goals of very good schools and nice neighborhood are unchangeable, so we really need to know the right places to look for that. I'm even willing to go smaller, but it seems most homes there are pretty large anyway so that hasn't helped us find something that's a better deal.

Again, thanks so much everyone and if you can shed any light on what other towns to look at and clear up some of the other myths and mysteries that would be great!

[deacongirl]

We are in East Cobb. Walton has the stereotype of being supercompetitive, and yes, that is a factor, but we just opt out of the competition. The orchestra program at Dodgen and Dickerson middle, and Walton is amazing. My daughter has already learned so much and she is only a freshman. She has some really excellent teachers. I love living in East Cobb and would highly suggest it. I think any of the swim tennis neighborhoods are great. Timber Ridge elementary is wonderful, but I have heard great things about all of the elem. schools that feed into Walton and Pope. Of course there are drugs at Walton--I doubt any more than at any of the other high schools in the area you are considering. We just have to teach and prepare our kids, but so far it has not been an issue, my daughter hasn't even heard drugs discussed. I heard so much about East Cobb being super affluent and snobby, and yes there are very wealthy people, but the majority of people I encounter are regular families driving mini-vans and hondas and shopping at Target. I have also lived in Northern Ca. (Sacramento and Truckee) and I have a feeling Cumming wouldn't be the best fit.

We live about 5 minutes from TJs, Whole Foods, Target, Kohls, Fresh Market, etc. We also live 10 minutes from historic Roswell, and we can be on hiking trails within 15 minutes of pulling out of the driveway. We live less than 15 minutes from the biking trails along the Chatahoochee.

Atlanta is not scary--it is a great city with some really fantastic museums, great restaurants and charming neighborhoods and parks.

Good luck with the move--I bet you will love it!

[nanhi]

You should look into South Forsyth high school cluster

[flyonpa]

Just a heads up Forsyth Schools announced today HS #6 Scheduled to Open in 2018.

This will change the feeding pattern to ALL High Schools. (Middle & ES also)

(Biggest impact to feed pattern South & West ), but Lambert, Central, North Will also be impacted as students are moved to "Fill" the new High School, around the edges as re-balancing of School sizes are done.

http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/site/de...68244&PageID=1



Somewhere near => 100 Kitchens Rd
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1517.../data=!3m1!1e3