moving to atlanta from nyc (Sandy Springs, Vinings: crime, house, neighborhood)

[mg83]

True Vinings (say, 30339), is much, much better than Smyrna... (30080). If I had that money and was at the stage in life where I was raising a family, I'd go with 30327, Buckhead area... no sex offenders registered there... probably more what you're looking for in terms of "quality".

Smyrna has too many sex offenders...

[IntownHomes247]

Originally Posted by mmm28

Thanks I will look into Vinings. Is anyone familiar with Greenwich, CT? Is Buckhead similar? Are there parts of it that are better then others. We are really looking for a suburban town that has a heartbeat.

Buckhead isn't a suburban town. It's an "intown" although not "urban" neighborhood. Residential Buckhead is a very elegant and affluent part of town with a lot of old money and old Atlanta families. It's home to the Georgia Governor's Mansion as well as estates ranging up to $20+ million (although there are plenty of homes available in your price range). It is an exceptionally convenient area if you are interested in the arts -- the city's main cultural venues are located in Midtown, just south of Buckhead. It is also home to a lot of boutique shopping -- and will have a new development (The Streets of Buckhead) that will feature some seriously high end retail (a la Rodeo Drive).

In addition to the excellent private schools in the area, there are convenient recreational venues including Chastain Park (a very large and popular park that is also home to the Chastain Park Amphitheatre, which hosts a couple of very popular outdoor concert series); Atlanta Memorial Park; and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

I'm not familiar with Greenwich, so I don't have that frame of reference. In my opinion, the nicest "suburban town" in Atlanta is Decatur. It's about 5 miles from Downtown Atlanta. It's quaint and charming with a traditional courthouse square surrounded by nice shops and restaurants. It's got a little bit of a college town vibe since it's convenient to both Emory University and Agnes Scott College, but it's very Mayberry-esque, with concerts on the square and lots of special events (like an annual beach party where they truck in sand for the kids, an annual book festival, etc.) Of course your proposed budget is far beyond the cost of homes in Decatur. It's a nice upper middle class area but you won't find many (if any) $1+ million homes there (although the homes in nearby Druid Hills, which is adjacent to Emory University, are typically priced over $1 million).

[netdragon]

Sounds like a 4br/4ba home is the kind of thing you are looking for. John Weiland homes have a great reputation, but the Vinings Estates homes (around $800k each) are actually in the "Vinings" part of Mableton -- Vinings Estates and The Registry at Vinings Estates

There are plenty of high quality homes like this in Vinings, which will run you half a million more than those examples for the same kind of ameneties in most cases: 30339 Real Estate & 30339 Homes For Sale — Trulia.com

Originally Posted by mg83

Smyrna has too many sex offenders...

Note that Vinings only has 1 registered sex offendor. I counted 20 sex offendors in adjoining Buckhead neighborhoods, and 19 more in the Lindbergh area. I won't argue that Vinings is more upscale than Smyrna, however with a population of 50,000 (as compared to 20,000 in that Buckhead zipcode), you'd think there are odds Smyrna would have more registered sex offendors than the one Buckhead zipcode you mentioned that only has 20,000 people. To further illustrate, NY City has 413 registered sex offendors. Obviously there's a correlation with population. :-)


Slightly offtopic: I was surprised how low the median household income is in 30327 -- not much higher than my own income and way less than the median income of Vinings. Then I noticed many homes/units were in the $100k-$200k range (in 2005 - probably not anymore).

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by netdragon

I also wanted to mention some parts of Smyrna and Mableton have communities that use the Vinings name. There's nothing wrong with either but they are farther from Buckhead, however both are a little less expensive than Vinings but Smyrna, being a small city, has higher taxes. There's also an unincorporated small unincorporated community (with Smyrna addresses, but not actually Smyrna) called Spring Hill along Spring Hill Rd, which intersects Paces Ferry Rd before it reaches Atlanta Rd. Spring Hill is often called Vinings as well, and is where the Home Depot world headquarters is located. Vinings is zip code 30339 so you can start your search of the Vinings area around there. Spring Hill and the Viningish parts of Smyrna and Mableton are 30080 and 30082.

That will cover most of Smyrna, but the southern portions of Smyrna and northern parts of Mableton where developments like Vinings Estates, The Cove at Vinings Estates, and Vinings Springs are located is actually 30126. This web site makes it easy to find ZIP code bounderies.

[plessthanpointohfive]

Let's not forget the standard advice for anyone moving into Atlanta...buy close to where you work and your daughter will be going to school.

Now, just a question, is all-girls private a done deal or are you just worried about Atlanta's public schools? I know that it's a "thing" that relatively wealthy people have to send their kids to single-gender private schools. I've got a few lines of old New Orleans money in my family tree and they're all into that...or were since everyone's grown now.

I only ask because there ARE some good public schools in Atlanta and it gives you more options regarding neighborhoods to buy in.

Also, if private school is a done deal but you can go with co-ed, consider Paideia, which is supposed to be a very, very good school (i think a few Oxford Scholars) and you'd be able to walk her to school from Druid Hills. If you bought a house in Druid Hills you'd be in the oldest prestigious neighborhood in Atlanta - elegant homes from the turn of the last century. They typically go for 800K to somewhere north of 1M. And they're always renovated and most are probably around 4000sqft (I think that's big...for my husband, son, and self I think 2300sqft is PERFECT).

Also, Druid Hills is ideally situated so that traveling to work downtown or near the Emory area is easy.

Where would you be working? Will your wife stay at home or will she be working outside the home? If so, where? I'm not asking for company names, just zipcodes or street name.

[patmanandrobin]

I lived in Atlanta for a number of years. It was beautiful. However, in the past 10 years the area has become rife with crime, outrageous real estate prices and taxes. Also, the traffic is a nightmare!! My husband and I have moved to the North Georgia mountains for the more relaxed lifestyle and the beautiful climate. The schools here are safe and well-funded. Do you think you would be interested in living in the mountains? The town I am in is called Clayton, GA. There is a lovely golf course community called "Kingwood". There are also some lake view homes on the market.

[LaMadden]

Originally Posted by mmm28

We would be looking for a new home or one that has been renovated - no big projects. Also, we have no interest in having a huge yard.
My daughter attends a all girls private school in the city - education is important.
Lastly, does anyone know of a good real estate agency with a good website?

Use Atlantamls.com

[IntownHomes247]

Originally Posted by Cruikshl

Use Atlantamls.com

atlantamls.com is the consumer portal of Georgia MLS. There are 2 multiple listing services that serve the Metro Atlanta area, GaMLS and FMLS. GaMLS is the only one with a consumer portal. Unfortunately, GaMLS is significantly more popular outside the perimeter than it is in the intown areas. This means that, not only do some intown agents not enter their listings into GaMLS at all, but, since so few intown agents actually use GaMLS, the VAST majority of them don't bother to put photos in their GaMLS listings. If you use atlantamls.com and you are looking for an intown home (like Buckhead), you won't see all the listings and a very large proportion of the listings you do see won't have multiple photos or virtual tours attached.

If you want to look in Buckhead, you'll need to search via FMLS and for that you really, really need an agent to set you up a custom gateway. It's by far the most efficient and easiest way to search for a home online. I don't work with buyers myself, but I'd be happy to set up a gateway for you. Just PM me if you'd like my help.

[mmm28]

First of all I don't care much about the sex offender issue (unless they live next door). I have lived in NYC for 13 years there is no way Atlanta has more crime, higher priced real estate or taxes then Manhattan. One example of how crazy prices are is that we paid $150,000 for a parking spot in our building 5 years ago! With all that said we have no interest in living in the mountains. I think we will focus on Buckhead.
I (mother) am fortunate enough that I do not have to work and my husband will work from a home office along with traveling. So there is not much concern for a commute.
In terms of schools it is not set in stone that she attends an all girls school, but she will attend a private school. It is just what we believe in. Every school is different so we will explore the options.
We have plans to visit Presidents day weekend and will try to get a handle on the realestate and schools. Again, if anyone knows of a top agent who deals with property in the perimeter I am open to suggestions. Thanks for all the info. Wish me luck!

[netdragon]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

This web site[/url] makes it easy to find ZIP code bounderies.

Wow! You rock! I was looking for a good zip code breakdown online map :-)