Help: ATL Clueless to Homeowner in ~1 Month (Atlanta, Marietta: to buy, best schools)

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Riverside, Bolton and other neighborhoods in NW of the rail yards. Had some friends buy a house in the area for that budget and commute to CNN.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8136...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

I was also going to suggest these neighborhoods along with Howell Park/Knight Station, Blandtown, and Berkley Park. I'd also suggest renting though for a year before buying to see how you like wherever you end up moving to.

[GA5mom]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Decatur for $300K? Never find anything in City of Decatur for that price.

He went up to $400k. They would have to go with smaller and older for sure, but something near 400k could be possible.

[CCATL]

I echo people saying to look intown, mainly to keep the commute times that you're seeking. I would HIGHLY recommend looking at homes that are MARTA accessible, especially because you will be working downtown. I know you said access to public transportation isn't important, but that will save you a good amount of cash (parking isn't cheap) if you can be a 1-car household, which would be easy to do if you live and work on the MARTA line. If you're on the train line, even better, since your commute will be basically exactly the same everyday without worries about traffic.

If you can go up to $400, Grant Park and Ormewood Park are great options, and have easy access to downtown via MARTA bus 32, or MARTA rail depending on where in the neighborhood you are. Very family friendly, good and improving schools. Since you have a kid on the way, I might shy away from the cheaper transitioning areas, but that's just me. Also look in Reynoldstown and Cabbagetown, which have bus and train access and have homes in your price range. All of these neighborhoods are within Atlanta Public Schools. It also is nice that the home values have been increasing, and will probably continue to do so, in these areas, so it isn't a very risky investment.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by CCATL

I echo people saying to look intown, mainly to keep the commute times that you're seeking. I would HIGHLY recommend looking at homes that are MARTA accessible, especially because you will be working downtown. I know you said access to public transportation isn't important, but that will save you a good amount of cash (parking isn't cheap) if you can be a 1-car household, which would be easy to do if you live and work on the MARTA line. If you're on the train line, even better, since your commute will be basically exactly the same everyday without worries about traffic.

If you can go up to $400, Grant Park and Ormewood Park are great options, and have easy access to downtown via MARTA bus 32, or MARTA rail depending on where in the neighborhood you are. Very family friendly, good and improving schools. Since you have a kid on the way, I might shy away from the cheaper transitioning areas, but that's just me. Also look in Reynoldstown and Cabbagetown, which have bus and train access and have homes in your price range. All of these neighborhoods are within Atlanta Public Schools. It also is nice that the home values have been increasing, and will probably continue to do so, in these areas, so it isn't a very risky investment.

100% agree, Jackson Cluster is on a fast track to becoming one of the best clusters in APS.

[Clayton white guy]

Clayton/ Henry are no further than the bulk of Cobb County to Downtown Atlanta; Cobb may have a slight edge to Midtown, Uptown (Buckhead). Fayette is further, but the commute up I-85 from the southwest suburbs is the best in the Metro. The City of Morrow (Clayton County) is really close and has a really good elementary school option (Morrow Elementary).

[evannole]

Originally Posted by Clayton white guy

Clayton/ Henry are no further than the bulk of Cobb County to Downtown Atlanta; Cobb may have a slight edge to Midtown, Uptown (Buckhead). Fayette is further, but the commute up I-85 from the southwest suburbs is the best in the Metro. The City of Morrow (Clayton County) is really close and has a really good elementary school option (Morrow Elementary).

Sorry, but I have to inject a healthy dose of skepticism here. For the sake of argument, let's say the job location is smack in the middle of Downtown ATL, at SunTrust Plaza.

*From Downtown Marietta, where I live, it would be a 30-40 minute drive most days. (I drive to the area around the airport at 8 AM every day, and when I pass through the city, I'm going past the Capitol at around 30-35 minutes into my drive.) (Google pegs it at 26-55 minutes on a typical Tuesday at 8 AM, and I think both of those times would be rare outcomes, but right in the middle of that is probably about right.)

*From Smyrna, if you're near 285, it would probably be 10 minutes shorter, either via I-75 or going straight down Atlanta Road.

*Even Walton High School, deep in East Cobb and one of the best schools in the state, would take between 30 minutes and 1:10, again, per Google Maps.

*From Peachtree City, per Google Maps, on a typical weekday morning, you're looking at a minimum of 50 minutes, up to an hour and a half. This makes sense to me; MANY of my colleagues live in Peachtree City, and it is, indeed, a pretty attractive commute to the airport, around 35 minutes. However, the Connector backs up horribly just as you get to 166, and is bumper-to-bumper most mornings the rest of the way into the city. I see it every single day while I'm sailing in the other direction. In rush hour traffic, it's at least another 20 minutes into the city.

*From Henry County (the Union Grove High School area, as you proposed) is 45 minutes to 1:20.

*Lake Spivey is 35 minutes to 1:10, per Google Maps, similar to East Cobb and a bit longer than Marietta proper, but certainly more workable than PTC or Henry.

[Calm Down ATL]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Eastland Rd is not in the city limits of Atlanta and therefore APS, but in unincorporated DeKalb County and is zoned for not-highly regraded school. DCSD School Locator
Hill Park is also zoned for a not-highly regraded school cluster, Douglass. http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/cms/lib...8/Douglass.pdf

Neither schools show upward trends that have been seen in other school clusters.

I'm not sure if Hill Park is another neighborhood, but Hills Park (which the poster asked about) is not in the Douglass cluster. Hills Park is zoned for Bolton/Sutton/North Atlanta. Those are solid intown schools.

I think Hills Park meets all of your criteria. You can definitely find a nice house with a yard for your dogs and an easy 15 minute commute to downtown for under $400,00.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by evannole

Sorry, but I have to inject a healthy dose of skepticism here. For the sake of argument, let's say the job location is smack in the middle of Downtown ATL, at SunTrust Plaza.

*From Downtown Marietta, where I live, it would be a 30-40 minute drive most days. (I drive to the area around the airport at 8 AM every day, and when I pass through the city, I'm going past the Capitol at around 30-35 minutes into my drive.) (Google pegs it at 26-55 minutes on a typical Tuesday at 8 AM, and I think both of those times would be rare outcomes, but right in the middle of that is probably about right.)

*From Smyrna, if you're near 285, it would probably be 10 minutes shorter, either via I-75 or going straight down Atlanta Road.

*Even Walton High School, deep in East Cobb and one of the best schools in the state, would take between 30 minutes and 1:10, again, per Google Maps.

*From Peachtree City, per Google Maps, on a typical weekday morning, you're looking at a minimum of 50 minutes, up to an hour and a half. This makes sense to me; MANY of my colleagues live in Peachtree City, and it is, indeed, a pretty attractive commute to the airport, around 35 minutes. However, the Connector backs up horribly just as you get to 166, and is bumper-to-bumper most mornings the rest of the way into the city. I see it every single day while I'm sailing in the other direction. In rush hour traffic, it's at least another 20 minutes into the city.

*From Henry County (the Union Grove High School area, as you proposed) is 45 minutes to 1:20.

*Lake Spivey is 35 minutes to 1:10, per Google Maps, similar to East Cobb and a bit longer than Marietta proper, but certainly more workable than PTC or Henry.

I agree with this post as well in regards to commuting downtown.

I lived in Cobb County (first near downtown Marietta, then in Mableton, then in Smyrna) before moving into the city itself. Both my spouse and I worked in the Peachtree Center area downtown.

Commuting from Cobb County is not all that bad until you get closer to downtown. You will be stuck on ramps if you take the freeway for a long amount of that time. The traffic itself downtown in the mornings/evenings is slow due to the large amount of commuters, so relying specifically on estimates from googlemaps should not be done IMO as the estimated time will fall somewhere in the middle and more than likely at the higher end of the estimate.

I knew people who lived in Henry County as well who worked with me and it took them longer to get to work than it did myself. There is a lot of traffic on the south end.

I took Atlanta Rd when we lived in Smyrna to commute downtown and it was quicker for me than 285 but there are intersections that slow substantially on that commute as well.

IMO living on the west side of Atlanta offers the shortest commute to downtown primarily because it is not as heavily populated (yet) as the east side. There is less commuters to deal with as a result and so it would be quicker. Knight Park/Howell Station, Bolton, and Riverside and the area near Marietta St/Howell Mill would offer a pretty short commute downtown.

I will note though that, like I said above, when you actually get to downtown, the drive slows substantially. I lived only 2 miles from Peachtree Center after moving to the city and most days it would still take 15-20 minutes to both drive to, then enter the parking garage. It would take 5 minutes to get downtown, then 10-15 minutes to get into the parking garage.

I'll also second the suggestion to live near the MARTA train line if you can. I lived not too far from the Ashby and Vine City stations. I frequently had meetings as well in the City of Decatur and on some of those days, I would park at the train station and take MARTA to the Decatur station. It was only a 15-17 minute ride and a 5 minute walk and it would have taken an additional 10-15 minutes to drive there depending on the traffic or more. I would have taken the train to work everyday if I didn't have to drop kids off at school/daycare in the mornings.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Calm Down ATL

I'm not sure if Hill Park is another neighborhood, but Hills Park (which the poster asked about) is not in the Douglass cluster. Hills Park is zoned for Bolton/Sutton/North Atlanta. Those are solid intown schools.

I think Hills Park meets all of your criteria. You can definitely find a nice house with a yard for your dogs and an easy 15 minute commute to downtown for under $400,00.

Yes, you are correct. I must have mistaken it for another neighborhood, south of the railyards.

[Maharishineo]

Anybody know how noisy (or otherwise inconvenient) living near the railyards is?


Thanks for the thorough analysis on commute times!