Moving from Richmond to Atlanta (Decatur, Snellville: rent, condo, townhome)

[mcondon77]

Moving the family from Richmond, VA to Atlanta. Looking for the suburban lifestyle we're accustom to with family friendly neighborhoods, good schools, etc.

1. Budget
Home value ~$350k
2. House/Condo/Townhome?
House aprox. 3000 sqft
3. Employment Status(commute/work from home)
Commute to Conyers (willing to travel ~30-45 min)
Commute to downtown Atlanta (willing to travel ~30-45min)
4. Children(public school vs. private)
public (good schools are important)
5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle preference or a mix of the two
Suburban
6. Easy access to public transit, important or not?
not important
7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood.
family friendly (playgrounds, young kids, community pool, walking paths, etc.)

These are just a few off the top of my head, feel free to add more.

[Ant131531]

I would have suggested the Northern Atlanta suburbs, but the commute to Conyers would be awful. This is very hard. North Dekalb area(Lavista Hills, Briarcliff, Druid Hills) or Decatur would probably be the best bet. Decatur city schools are probably the best in the state, but the area is also costly.

[GA5mom]

I would look in McDonough in the Union Grove school zone. It is south of Conyers and would be a very easy commute there. The commute to downtown Atlanta from there would be longer, more like 50min-1hr. You could take 155 up to I-20 to avoid 75. Might also consider the Brookwood zone in Snellville. Excellent schools. It is north of Conyers and would be about 30 min. commute to Conyers taking back roads assuming you are not working in south Conyers and probably 1 hr. to downtown.

[Alicia64]

Feel free to PM me if you want more specifics. We moved from Richmond in Nov. '14 and I can you a ton of tips, but the biggies are:

1 -- the traffic here is like DC so you want to live as close to your job as possible. Do not take this lightly. I think people drive pretty aggressively here. I'm just guessing but I think it's because they're sick of being in their cars all the time. (Police are everywhere and I often see traffic accidents -- way more of both than I ever saw in RVA.)

Someone told me that a 20 to 30 min. drive to an event is not considered a big deal here. I'm glad I heard that advice or I would have been fighting it.

2 -- Rent before you buy. It'll give you the chance to get a lay of the land and figure out what you want to do next.

3 -- Know that moving can be emotionally hard. I had that "great adventure" idea in my head and that went out the window pretty quickly. The one thing I did that seemed to help was to get out and meet Atlanta. We did all of the tourist things like World of Coke (surprisingly fun and worthwhile), Stone Mountain and Fernbank Museum (not flashy, but kind of cool).

Lake Lanier is supposed to be a great water park in the summer.

4 -- Might not be a bad idea to take this tour one weekend in the morning: Atlcruzers.com. It was fun and we got to see a lot of ATL quickly.

Again, PM me if you want more details.

Alley

[mcondon77]

Thanks everyone for the help!

Alicia64...I'm PM you later to discuss this further. Thanks!