Please help me and my family!!!!! (Atlanta, Tucker: apartment, rental, crime)

[Jadecollins1218]

Hello everyone. My husband and I have recently decided to move our family from Chicago to Atlanta. Our budget for housing is $700-$1000 and we would like a single family house. We would like to be close to public transportation if we ever need to use it. We have a 4 year old son so we would like the neighborhood to be fairly decent, as well as the schools. We both plan to go back to school but we need to work as well. I'm a CNA and he's a special education assistant, but we both have Associate degrees in Networking Systems Administration. Any suggestions on good places to work and live? And we also plan on buying a used car when we get there. Any suggestions on where to find an affordable that runs well? My husband mentioned living in buckhead, is that a good place to live? Is it within our budget? Any advice and tips will help. Thanks.

[atltechdude]

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

Our budget for housing is $700-$1000

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

single family house

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

close to public transportation

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

neighborhood to be fairly decent, as well as the schools

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

My husband mentioned living in buckhead

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

Is it within our budget?

Nope, not even close.

Further, $700-$1000 for a single family home in a good area with good schools and close to a public transportation is very likely not going to happen in any area.

Something will have to give, either your budget needs to increase, your type of housing needs to change (you could get an apartment for that intown), or you need to go further out into the suburbs (no public transit).

[ElleKaye]

Well, let's just start with one thing first - a SFH for in Buckhead for $1,000 or less is not an option.

I'm not all doom and gloom, but you have to plan a little better finding jobs first. Unless you're prepared to pay you entire lease up front, Atlanta isn't the type of place where you can just hop in and rent a space in a safe area cheaply. Also, where you will work strongly affects where you need to be looking for this SFH.

The metro is not very transit friendly so finding a place even for $700 would likely still be an issue if you're waiting to get here to buy a used car. Buy one there and drive it down because you'e likely going to need it.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Originally Posted by Jadecollins1218

Hello everyone. My husband and I have recently decided to move our family from Chicago to Atlanta. Our budget for housing is $700-$1000 and we would like a single family house. We would like to be close to public transportation if we ever need to use it. We have a 4 year old son so we would like the neighborhood to be fairly decent, as well as the schools. We both plan to go back to school but we need to work as well. I'm a CNA and he's a special education assistant, but we both have Associate degrees in Networking Systems Administration. Any suggestions on good places to work and live? And we also plan on buying a used car when we get there. Any suggestions on where to find an affordable that runs well? My husband mentioned living in buckhead, is that a good place to live? Is it within our budget? Any advice and tips will help. Thanks.

Get Two jobs?

[Fubarbundy]

Wouldn't the tri-cities areas be appropriate?

Not Buckhead, of course, but otherwise OK?

[jeoff]

You can probably live further out maybe on the top of your budget to some place with less to no public transit and pretty good schools in Gwinnett. Or you could move to a place with poorer schools, a little more crime with transit, maybe in the Clarkston-Stone Mountain area (plus Perimeter College is there, for doing the school thing). If you want to go way out, you could look at Winder. Those are some guesses as where you could look for SFH--there are others, but look at those places to begin to adjust your expectations.

[jeoff]

Since you don't have jobs, but want to go to school, maybe look for jobs near colleges/community colleges that have inexpensive housing, Lawranceville, Athens (not UGA, but Athens Tech, Gainsville College), Clarkston, etc. Also probably include duplexes in your search for homes. There are others that are along the same lines that may be better, but if your plan includes school, look for jobs near schools that you think you can get in to. Lawranceville might be good. You can get a duplex for $700 there, maybe a home for $1000.

[residinghere2007]

I will repeat to get a car before you come down. Atlanta doesn't have the public transit that Chicago has and you don't want to move to Atlanta without a car especially since you have a child.

I agree as well that Buckhead is way out of your reach. You could find a smaller SFH in SW Atlanta in your price range if you want to be in the city. I did a quick search of zillow and found a few between 700 and 1000 dollars.

Also, you can check out the burbs as mentioned earlier. Gwinnet has the best schools of those mentioned and you could find a nice townhouse or apartment in Gwinnet and maybe a 2bedroom SFH in that range. Dekalb (Clarkston, Stone Mountain, Tucker, etc) are also places where you can get a cheap rental but their schools don't have that great of a reputation. Cobb County is a place you can also fing a decent apartment/townhome rental with a good school system.

I will also state that Atlanta is similar to Chicago in that it is pretty segregated within the city so if you look at SW Atlanta then it will be a majority black area. Gwinnet is a very diverse county as is Cobb County. Dekalb is more segregated but as stated doesn't have the reputation for schools. SW Atlanta and Atlanta in general also doesn't have a good reputation for schools but they do have a free pre-k program for 4 year olds at nearly all the Atlanta Public Schools locations on the south and west sides and they provide all day pre-k services and a decent state mandated educational program.

But you should get a car first, then one of you at least needs to find a job. Even though the job market is better it is still difficult to find a position if you don't have an in-demand skillset and there are a lot of CNAs in Atlanta so it may take a while to land a job. Also, I will state, I have an aunt who is a nurse and she is paid less in Atlanta versus what she was paid in Detroit 7 years ago. She is a nurse manager in Atlanta and says the salaries for all healthcare workers are pretty low compared to the Midwest so that will be something to consider. My husband's cousin is also a nurse (LPN) who says the same thing in regards to Chicago versus Atlanta wages. She is from Chicago.

FWIW, all our Chicago relatives live in Gwinnet county,mostly due to the school system there being superior to practically all the others in metro Atlanta and it being a more affordable place to live. It is traffic heavy though in Gwinnet so if you live there, you should find a job in Gwinnet or somewhere close to Gwinnet so you won't be in traffic multiple hours a day. They do not have adquate public transit in Gwinnet county.