How do you all feel about the city of Lithonia? (Atlanta: renters, crime) - Georgia (GA) - City-Data Forum

Khouston30 · 03-30-2015, 11:09 AM

Since we having trouble finding a home in Gwinnett and Cobb county where the schools are good and areas are decently safer in some pockets...we are looking into DEKALB! I don't want to move there just because of the homes...the school system is bad and I hear the crime can be bad too so it's throwing us off, however, the homes are beautiful and affordable! But I don't think most people are willing to compromise their children's education, but I thinking how much weight can you put on online ratings of schools? There are always good teachers in every school...bad or good. So I don't know. When I look up crime statistics in the area where we want to go..30058 area, it's really not that bad...in fact, I don't see any recent crimes 1 mile away from the homes we looked at and that has to be a good thing.

So, does anyone have experience living there? Is is safe for the most part? The schools, are they all bad as they make it seem on the internet?

lem1985 · 03-30-2015, 01:45 PM

me personally I don't have kids so the school thing I tend to stay out of even though I have little cousins that's in school. I lived in Lithonia but not in the city limits I stayed in the 30038 zipcode the panola rd area. only issue in that area was motorcycles going up and down I-20. school wise from the people I know that have kids in those schools in the Lithonia area love it the kids do too they didn't go by reviews or what others say they went with 1st hand experience something that is lost these days and no one practices no more..... like I tell folks if you read about bad schools on the internet just go with it no need too be questioning yourself on that decision if other peoples experience has already got you thinking they not good. no matter if that is a real person experience or a bot typing that experience. if you think the area is bad don't move don't waste your time thinking about it. it will probably be a bad experience for you and your family if you already have an idea negative idea about it and from news and people that may have never lived in the area(they tend to be the ones that supposedly have the best idea about a place from what the news tell them)....Cobb and Gwinnett shouldn't be that hard to find a place and decent schools in safe areas at all since most advocate for both those counties. i lived in for a few years cobb and went to Marietta High for 3 yrs(class of 2003) i stayed in the top 5 worst areas in cobb but overall the county is really safe especially the north east and west cobb areas and have the best schools

SAAN · 03-30-2015, 02:03 PM

City of Lithonia looks poor. The lithonia area itself can be hit or miss, depending on what part. Arabia Mountian is a good scholl from what I hear, but its a charter school.

joey86 · 03-30-2015, 04:01 PM

I don't know much of them city, but I can say that Arabia Mountain is one of the coolest natural features I've seen.

lastminutemom · 03-30-2015, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khouston30

Since we having trouble finding a home in Gwinnett and Cobb county where the schools are good and areas are decently safer in some pockets...we are looking into DEKALB! I don't want to move there just because of the homes...the school system is bad and I hear the crime can be bad too so it's throwing us off, however, the homes are beautiful and affordable! But I don't think most people are willing to compromise their children's education, but I thinking how much weight can you put on online ratings of schools? There are always good teachers in every school...bad or good. So I don't know. When I look up crime statistics in the area where we want to go..30058 area, it's really not that bad...in fact, I don't see any recent crimes 1 mile away from the homes we looked at and that has to be a good thing.

So, does anyone have experience living there? Is is safe for the most part? The schools, are they all bad as they make it seem on the internet?

Depends on the school, but overall they are very weak. Lithonia High School has really struggled for YEARS. Stephenson High struggles as well. IN large part these struggles are because of a broken school system and a challenging school population.

Did you see the article in the AJC this weekend about property values and how horrible the recovery has been south of I-20 (this includes much of S. DeKalb)? The reason you are seeing great deals is because the area is depressed -- you need to be concerned about how many homes are occupied by renters (and owned by out of state investors) vs homeowners on any given street and neighborhood.

What criteria for housing are you looking for? Where is your employment?

Khouston30 · 03-30-2015, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

Depends on the school, but overall they are very weak. Lithonia High School has really struggled for YEARS. Stephenson High struggles as well. IN large part these struggles are because of a broken school system and a challenging school population.

Did you see the article in the AJC this weekend about property values and how horrible the recovery has been south of I-20 (this includes much of S. DeKalb)? The reason you are seeing great deals is because the area is depressed -- you need to be concerned about how many homes are occupied by renters (and owned by out of state investors) vs homeowners on any given street and neighborhood.

What criteria for housing are you looking for? Where is your employment?

My husband works in Atlanta....near downtown. The home is an investor property that we decided on putting an offer on. I am not sure about the school system being horrible based on online reviews and what not, but we live in Gwinnett county now, and the schools in our area aren't very good either. They are better than the ones in Dekalb, but my kids are really small, so that may be something to deal with in the future....my youngest is 2 and my oldest is only 4 and she's in pre k for now...so we may not have too much to worry about. I don't know. Well, we loved the home we seen...it's an awesome property and a quite location..fully renovated. It's just that the assigned schools to that address are rated poorly. However, there are charter schools and private schools...though we can't afford those, we might be able to get them into charter schools if we feel the elementary schools are crap. And there's always homeschooling right? lol

GA5mom · 03-31-2015, 05:37 AM

If the house in Lithonia does not work out, you might consider Rockdale County next door. You can get very nice homes in good school zones at a good price. You would want to look in the areas zoned for Barksdale/Honey Creek/Lorraine Elementaries -> Ray Davis Middle -> Heritage High. The commute to downtown from Rockdale is not bad if you can leave early and there are no major accidents, etc.

Iconographer · 03-31-2015, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAAN

City of Lithonia looks poor. The lithonia area itself can be hit or miss, depending on what part. Arabia Mountian is a good scholl from what I hear, but its a charter school.

Hit or miss is a pretty accurate term for Lithonia. I've seen some lovely subdivisions in the area off Stone Mountain-Lithonia Road.

SAAN · 03-31-2015, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Hit or miss is a pretty accurate term for Lithonia. I've seen some lovely subdivisions in the area off Stone Mountain-Lithonia Road.

Yeah those are very nice, especially Greenridge as those homes would be close to 1 million in the Northern suburbs, but are 3-600K+ more than likely because they are in Stn Mtn even though they are all by themselves next to other very expensive homes.

lastminutemom · 03-31-2015, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khouston30

My husband works in Atlanta....near downtown. The home is an investor property that we decided on putting an offer on. I am not sure about the school system being horrible based on online reviews and what not, but we live in Gwinnett county now, and the schools in our area aren't very good either. They are better than the ones in Dekalb, but my kids are really small, so that may be something to deal with in the future....my youngest is 2 and my oldest is only 4 and she's in pre k for now...so we may not have too much to worry about. I don't know. Well, we loved the home we seen...it's an awesome property and a quite location..fully renovated. It's just that the assigned schools to that address are rated poorly. However, there are charter schools and private schools...though we can't afford those, we might be able to get them into charter schools if we feel the elementary schools are crap. And there's always homeschooling right? lol

It sounds like it is a done deal, but you really should have visited the schools given your child is in kindergarten next year. Charters are hard in DeKalb, because the schools aren't great so many folks want out. You have missed the enrollment window for next year in terms of school choice. Many DeKalb parents, who value education, find that managing their child's experiences in DeKalb schools can easily become a full time job. (and this isn't talking about homeschooling.) You need to start educating yourself about DCSS and how things work.

Poor schools will hamper your ability to resale as well.

Good luck.