Atlanta Suburbs with Good Schools (Sandy Springs, Roswell: middle-class, rent, townhomes)

[BoltJam3s]

Hello everyone. My family and I are planning to move to Atlanta. My wife's job is going to relocate us to your beautiful city. I work remotely- My wife will have to go to downtown 2/week. Ideally, we would move to Atlanta, rent for a year, and then buy a home. But with 2 kids and lots of stuff to move, I don't see this being feasible. So we intend to purchase a home and then move in. We've been in Houston, TX for 14+ years, so this will be quite the change!

We both aren't familiar with the city as much as yall- so I wanted to get ideas on where to live. Here are some details:

-2 Kids (1 & 3 yrs old)- great public schools is a priority
-General budget for a home- $1.5million USD
-General home requirements- garage, 4+ bedrooms. Not interested in townhomes- only in single family homes.
-Proximity to grocery/wholesale stores/park and ride (if it exists)
-Don't want to commute for more than 45mins (office in downtown)

From what I have explored in Zillow, getting a home in the metro area with good schools is out of the question. So I looked into a few of the suburbs and my thoughts (Note that this is all Googled, so I could be way off):

-Buford- Heard that this area has the best schools, but thats it. Not a whole lot happening around here
-Alpharetta- Great schools, but extremely expensive homes ($/sqft wise), unless I go way up north
-Marietta/East Cobb- looking like a good balance of good homes and great schools
-Johns Creek- Good schools, but pretty isolated place to live(?).

Any thoughts you guys can provide would help us a lot! Thank you!

[Citykid3785]

In very crude terms, you want to look inside of I-75/I-85/I-285. That's obviously just a quick rule of thumb.

That means places like:

Alpharetta
East Cobb
John's Creek
Woodstock
Milton
Roswell
Kennesaw
Duluth
Cumming
Suwanee

Given your commute requirement and my own personal preferences, I might start with:

Alpharetta
Roswell
East Cobb

Sandy Springs in a good option in that you have MARTA access, it's a bit closer to the city, and tons of jobs there. However the schools are good, not great.

I'd be happy to answer any specifics you have. Welcome to ATL!

[ShenardL]

I think the commute into downtown should be better on I-75 from Marietta/East Cobb compared to Alpharetta/Milton (GA-400) and Suwanee/Buford (I-85). Another area you might consider is Berkeley Lake/Peachtree Corners, which is close by to Wesleyan School, a top private school.

[aus10]

With that budget I'd go one of the East Cobb Schools of Walton, Pope or Lassiter. With that said, it is my understanding that those three have differences although each is tremendous academically. I can't help because grandchildren are still elementary age, but will attend this cluster, so perhaps others can be more specific.

On a side note.... you will miss feeder roads, kolaches but fear not Bucee's is making it's way to Georgia. Two now on I-75!

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by aus10

With that budget I'd go one of the East Cobb Schools of Walton, Pope or Lassiter. With that said, it is my understanding that those three have differences although each is tremendous academically. I can't help because grandchildren are still elementary age, but will attend this cluster, so perhaps others can be more specific.

On a side note.... you will miss feeder roads, kolaches but fear not Bucee's is making it's way to Georgia. Two now on I-75!

To chime in here, Walton, Lassiter and Pope are all top tier. Splitting hairs, Walton is known to be the most rigorous (not I didn’t say best) of the 3. To the point where many locals view it as too much of a pressure cooker.

Pope and Lassiter are similar, pope will put you in better commuting distance.

[BoltJam3s]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

In very crude terms, you want to look inside of I-75/I-85/I-285. That's obviously just a quick rule of thumb.

That means places like:

Alpharetta
East Cobb
John's Creek
Woodstock
Milton
Roswell
Kennesaw
Duluth
Cumming
Suwanee

Given your commute requirement and my own personal preferences, I might start with:

Alpharetta
Roswell
East Cobb

Sandy Springs in a good option in that you have MARTA access, it's a bit closer to the city, and tons of jobs there. However the schools are good, not great.

I'd be happy to answer any specifics you have. Welcome to ATL!

Thank you so much for the response! It appears that East Cobb might be the best fit for us. It's definitely a challenge to find a place where all 3 schools (elementary/middle/high) are great, but this might be the perfect compromise.

How would you say East Cobb is as a place to live- in terms of ease of access/amenities/shopping?

Originally Posted by ShenardL

I think the commute into downtown should be better on I-75 from Marietta/East Cobb compared to Alpharetta/Milton (GA-400) and Suwanee/Buford (I-85). Another area you might consider is Berkeley Lake/Peachtree Corners, which is close by to Wesleyan School, a top private school.

Thanks for the info! While the commute might not factor in every day of the week, it's still pretty important- so we might look into East Cobb area.

Originally Posted by aus10

With that budget I'd go one of the East Cobb Schools of Walton, Pope or Lassiter. With that said, it is my understanding that those three have differences although each is tremendous academically. I can't help because grandchildren are still elementary age, but will attend this cluster, so perhaps others can be more specific.

On a side note.... you will miss feeder roads, kolaches but fear not Bucee's is making it's way to Georgia. Two now on I-75!

Haha, well if Bucee's is making its way, then it'll be bringing kolaches too! Would you say that the elementary/middle schools in that area (East Cobb) are also as good as the high schools?

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

To chime in here, Walton, Lassiter and Pope are all top tier. Splitting hairs, Walton is known to be the most rigorous (not I didn’t say best) of the 3. To the point where many locals view it as too much of a pressure cooker.

Pope and Lassiter are similar, pope will put you in better commuting distance.

Agree it's about finding a good balance between academics and not rigorous to the point of breaking. Thankfully with my older kid being around 3, I have some time to decide. For now, I need to make sure elementary/middle schools are good. Thank you!

[DoubleZ OTP]

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

Hello everyone. My family and I are planning to move to Atlanta. My wife's job is going to relocate us to your beautiful city. I work remotely- My wife will have to go to downtown 2/week. Ideally, we would move to Atlanta, rent for a year, and then buy a home. But with 2 kids and lots of stuff to move, I don't see this being feasible. So we intend to purchase a home and then move in. We've been in Houston, TX for 14+ years, so this will be quite the change!

Welcome to Atlanta! I'll begin by addressing some of your assumptions about Atlanta-area public schools:

From what I have explored in Zillow, getting a home in the metro area with good schools is out of the question... (Note that this is all Googled, so I could be way off)

I wouldn't say "way off" is right, but this assumption (given that what you call "metro area" refers to neighborhoods inside I-285 in an near the city) is not quite accurate, in my opinion. There are quite a few public schools ITP (Inside The Periemter, I-285) that many would consider to be quite good: in order from best reputation to least best reputation, these school clusters are as follows:

Decatur HS (City Schools of Decatur, City of Decatur):
- Renfroe MS
-- All of the ESs

Midtown HS, formerly Grady HS (Atlanta Public Schools, Midtown and NE Atlanta):
- Howard MS (formerly Inman MS)
-- Morningside, Springdale Park, and Mary Lin ESs

North Atlanta HS (Atlanta Public Schools, Buckhead):
- Sutton MS
-- Brandon and Jackson ESs (and maybe Smith and Rivers ESs)

Chamblee HS (DeKalb County Schools, Brookhaven and Chamblee):
- Chamblee MS
-- Montgomery and Ashford Park ESs

Additionally, some of the schools in the Druid Hills (DeKalb), Lakeside (DeKalb), and Maynard Jackson (Atlanta) clusters have good reputations.

Do note that many of the aforementioned schools often receive ratings of "7", "6", or even "5" on GreatSchools. This is in large part due to GreatSchools weighting heavily for equity. Unfortunately, there is a significant degree of inequality in these clusters: most of the students at these schools come from wealthy and stable households and perform exceptionally, but quite a few students come from very-low-income and unstable households that do not value education and "drag down" the school's overall performance; this inequity between rich and poor results in artificially low GreatSchools ratings. Since you and your kids fall into the former category (wealthy, stable household, value education), your kids would fare well at these schools. US News and World Report's school ratings offer a different methodology and should also be consulted; personally, I find their ratings to be more reflective of actual school performance than the ratings from GreatSchools.

Most of the difference between the highly-rated suburban schools OTP (Outside the Perimeter, I-285) that receive ratings of "10", "9", or "8" from GreatSchools and schools ITP that receive ratings of "7", "6", and "5" from GreatSchools can be explained by a noticeable lack of low-income students at those suburban schools. The schools in Buford, Alpharetta, East Cobb, and Johns Creek, and similar have few low-income students, and IMO, there really isn't a significant difference in instructional quality or student support between these suburban schools and the good schools intown.

For this reason, I would not completely dismiss the idea of living ITP.

Now, to answer your question...

We both aren't familiar with the city as much as yall- so I wanted to get ideas on where to live. Here are some details:

-2 Kids (1 & 3 yrs old)- great public schools is a priority
-General budget for a home- $1.5million USD
-General home requirements- garage, 4+ bedrooms. Not interested in townhomes- only in single family homes.
-Proximity to grocery/wholesale stores/park and ride (if it exists)
-Don't want to commute for more than 45mins (office in downtown)

So I looked into a few of the suburbs and my thoughts (Note that this is all Googled, so I could be way off):

-Buford- Heard that this area has the best schools, but thats it. Not a whole lot happening around here
-Alpharetta- Great schools, but extremely expensive homes ($/sqft wise), unless I go way up north
-Marietta/East Cobb- looking like a good balance of good homes and great schools
-Johns Creek- Good schools, but pretty isolated place to live(?).

Any thoughts you guys can provide would help us a lot! Thank you!

Given that your wife will only go into her office in Downtown twice a week, y'all can afford to expand your search area just a little bit. That being said, this is Atlanta, and we have traffic, so it's advisable to live near your work regardless of how infrequently one has to go into the office.

For this reason, y'all should eliminate Buford (and nearby areas of North Gwinnett with good schools such as Suwanee) from consideration. Trust me, your wife DOES NOT want to commute from Buford to Downtown on I-85 during rush hour. Especially at your budget, you can do better than Buford.

Alpharetta and Johns Creek are both upscale, thoroughly upper-middle-class and wealthy suburban communities in North Fulton County. Alpharetta has more amenities and is arguably the best suburb of Atlanta (especially near Avalon/City Center) but you're correct that you'll pay more on a $/sq. ft. basis. Johns Creek has fewer amenities and is indeed kind of isolating (but not terrible), but is a bit less costly than Alpharetta per sq. ft. However, these North Fulton cities are still quite far from Downtown, and the commute on Highway 400 would be less than ideal (especially considering the ongoing construction of the 400 and 285 interchange). I wouldn't completely rule them out, though.

Of the suburbs you named, I would definitely pick East Cobb, and in particular, the Walton High School attendance zone. This area:

- Has arguably the best public schools in Georgia
- Is extremely family-friendly
- Plenty of suitable SFHs in budget
- Close to lots of grocery stores: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's in immediate area and 3 Costcos not far away.
- Acceptable commute: probably 30 to 50 minutes by car depending on specific locations and traffic.

If you and your family would prefer to be closer to the city (and your wife's office in Downtown), or if you value a bit more diversity, an alternative I would consider is Brookhaven, and in particular, the Chamblee High School attendance zone. This area:

- Has good public schools despite the GreatSchools ratings of "7" and "6". The reduced ratings can mostly be explained by a significant population of students from low-income immigrant families who speak Spanish as a first language. For elementary schools, choose Montgomery ES or Ashford Park ES.
- Very family-friendly, lots of kids
- A lot of suitable SFHs in budget, but unfortunately much more expensive per sq. ft.
- Tons of amenities. Costco and Whole Foods in immediate area. 2 Trader Joes not far away. Hundreds of good restaurants in Brookhaven and nearby Buckhead, Perimeter, and Chamblee. Great Asian and Latin American food along nearby Buford Highway.
- Flexible and relatively short commute: Typically 20 to 40 minutes by car depending on specific locations and traffic. But more importantly, Brookhaven has a station on the MARTA Gold Line train with free parking, and her office in Downtown is likely within walking distance of a MARTA station. Once on the train, it's a 15 minute ride between Brookhaven and Downtown with no transfers.
- If you or your wife wants or needs a job change, Brookhaven is within commuting distance of several of the Atlanta area's biggest office submarkets: Buckhead, Perimeter, Midtown, Downtown, North Decatur/Emory/CDC, and Peachtree Corners.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

Hello everyone. My family and I are planning to move to Atlanta. My wife's job is going to relocate us to your beautiful city. I work remotely- My wife will have to go to downtown 2/week. Ideally, we would move to Atlanta, rent for a year, and then buy a home. But with 2 kids and lots of stuff to move, I don't see this being feasible. So we intend to purchase a home and then move in. We've been in Houston, TX for 14+ years, so this will be quite the change!

We both aren't familiar with the city as much as yall- so I wanted to get ideas on where to live. Here are some details:

-2 Kids (1 & 3 yrs old)- great public schools is a priority
-General budget for a home- $1.5million USD
-General home requirements- garage, 4+ bedrooms. Not interested in townhomes- only in single family homes.
-Proximity to grocery/wholesale stores/park and ride (if it exists)
-Don't want to commute for more than 45mins (office in downtown)

Well, I’ve got some really good news and maybe a little bit of not-so-good news for you:

The really good news is that your housing budget of $1.5M should go pretty far (really far) towards getting you and your family into the highest-rated public school districts in the North Atlanta suburbs.

The maybe not-so-good news is that most of the areas with the absolute highest-rated public schools often may be located outside of the 45-minute one-way commute window that you desire to stay within regarding your wife’s daily commute to and from her job in Downtown Atlanta.

With maybe the exception of the Walton High School cluster in East Cobb (eastern Cobb County) on many days, most of the attendance zones for the highest-rated public schools are unfortunately located in areas that are more than a 45-minute drive each way from Downtown Atlanta, particularly during peak traffic hours. That’s just the way that the greater Atlanta metropolitan area has been developed and built out.

If one can have a peak-hour commute that is less than about 1 to 1.5 hours each way between an area of excellent schools and a major employment hub like Downtown Atlanta, they often are doing pretty well from a commuting standpoint in metro Atlanta.

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

From what I have explored in Zillow, getting a home in the metro area with good schools is out of the question. So I looked into a few of the suburbs and my thoughts (Note that this is all Googled, so I could be way off):

-Buford- Heard that this area has the best schools, but thats it. Not a whole lot happening around here

Buford does indeed have some of the best public schools in the entire Southeastern U.S., particularly in the attendance zone for the Buford City Schools system.

Extremely highly-rated excellent public schools can also be found in the nearby attendance zone for the North Gwinnett High School cluster of the Gwinnett County Public Schools system.

(The North Gwinnett HS cluster of the GCPS system serves the Gwinnett County side of the Suwanee mailing area.)

But the Buford area also has quite a bit of activity going on with an active and adorable historic walkable downtown village area with numerous storefront shops and restaurants in Downtown Buford, a large retail district anchored by the Mall of Georgia (which is one of the largest regional shopping malls on the entire Eastern Seaboard), and the outdoor recreational areas for the upper part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area and Lake Lanier, which is a man made body of water that is very popular with landlocked metro Atlantans.

Buford is also not far away from very active downtown village and community gathering and event areas in Suwanee (Suwanee Town Center), Duluth (Duluth Town Green), Lawrenceville (Lawrenceville Lawn) and Norcross (historic Downtown Norcross).

And Buford also provides excellent direct access to the scenic and greatly beloved Blue Ridge Mountains outdoor recreational amenities and mountain wilderness areas of North Georgia, Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee by way of radial spur routes like Interstate 985 and Georgia 400.

(Interstate 985 runs directly through the Buford area and takes you north to popular Blue Ridge Mountains spots like:

> Scenic 4,784-foot-high Brasstown Bald mountain, the highest point in the state of Georgia...

> The scenic Tallulah Falls/Tallulah Gorge State Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northeast Georgia...

> The town of Helen, Georgia, a Bavarian-themed tourist-oriented village area full of shops, restaurants and resorts that is an extremely popular getaway spot with metro Atlantans...

> Nanathala National Forest mountain wilderness area in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina...

> Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most popular and most visited national park in the U.S. which straddles the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee and includes several of the tallest mountain peaks in the Eastern U.S...

> The Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge/Sevierville area of Eastern Tennessee, a family-oriented resort and vacation area on the north edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park that is an extremely popular tourist destination in the Southeastern U.S.)

(Georgia 400 runs through the Cumming area in neighboring Forsyth County and provides access to popular Blue Ridge Mountains and foothills spots like:

> The North Georgia Premium Outlets mall in Dawsonville, an outlet mall which is a very popular retail destination for metro Atlantans...

> Amicalola Falls/Amicalola Falls State Park, site of a beautiful waterfall that is one of the three-tallest waterfalls in the Eastern U.S...

> The Southern Terminus of the famous Appalachian Trail hiking trail that runs roughly 2,200 miles through mountain wilderness areas along the Eastern Seaboard between Georgia and Maine...

> The town of Dahlonega, Georgia, which is a touristy high foothills college town that is famous for being the site of the first gold rush in the U.S. in 1828...

> The Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest mountains wilderness area...

> The popular mountain town of Blue Ridge, Georgia with its unique shops, boutiques, restaurants and community festivals.)

Though, one unfortunate downside of an area like Buford would be that it would provide your wife with a longer rush hour commute than you all might prefer on many days, particularly because she would have to use a delay-prone route like I-85 Northeast.

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

-Alpharetta- Great schools, but extremely expensive homes ($/sqft wise), unless I go way up north

People who can’t find homes in Alpharetta (often because of a shortage of supply in such a high-demand area) often will expand their home search to neighboring Cumming, because Cumming provides very good access to the employment opportunities and very high-quality amenities of the Alpharetta area.

Though, areas like Alpharetta and Cumming unfortunately will provide your wife with some longer commute times to and from her job in Downtown Atlanta than might be preferred on many days.

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

-Marietta/East Cobb- looking like a good balance of good homes and great schools

East Cobb (which is part of an area with Marietta mailing addresses) indeed is an area that is a good balance of good homes and great/excellent public schools.

The schools of Walton HS, Pope HS and Lassiter HS clusters of the Cobb County School District are some of highest rated public schools in the entire Southeastern U.S.

East Cobb may also feature home prices that are at least slightly lower (and even noticeably lower) than home prices in an extremely hot and high-demand area like Alpharetta.

East Cobb also likely provides your wife with the shortest possible commute times to and from her job in Downtown Atlanta of all of the areas with highly rated schools that you are looking at.

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

-Johns Creek- Good schools, but pretty isolated place to live(?).

Johns Creek features excellent schools and is not at all an isolated area. Johns Creek is a heavily developed area that features many quality suburban amenities. Johns Creek is also a very highly affluent suburban community.

Johns Creek is located immediately next to (east of) Alpharetta and is almost completely out of buildable land because of its location immediately next to one of the hottest and fastest-growing tech hubs in the country in neighboring Alpharetta.

Johns Creek also features three highest-rated clusters of public schools in the Chattahoochee HS, Northview HS and Johns Creek HS clusters of the Fulton County Schools system... These are three of the best clusters of public schools in the entire Southeastern U.S. which should not be overlooked during any home search of the North Fulton County area.

Unfortunately, Johns Creek may also provide your wife with commute times of 1 hour or more each way to and from her job in Downtown Atlanta on many days.

There are some park-and-ride transit options between each of the aforementioned Northside suburbs and Downtown Atlanta (including GRTA Xpress commuter buses and your wife just driving to the outermost MARTA Heavy Rail Transit station, parking and riding the train part of the way to and from her job in Downtown Atlanta on many days).

But park-and-ride options admittedly can be hit-and-miss and sometimes even embarrassingly limited in many areas outside of the I-285 Perimeter.

[aus10]

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

Thank you so much for the response! It appears that East Cobb might be the best fit for us. It's definitely a challenge to find a place where all 3 schools (elementary/middle/high) are great, but this might be the perfect compromise.

How would you say East Cobb is as a place to live- in terms of ease of access/amenities/shopping?



Thanks for the info! While the commute might not factor in every day of the week, it's still pretty important- so we might look into East Cobb area.



Haha, well if Bucee's is making its way, then it'll be bringing kolaches too! Would you say that the elementary/middle schools in that area (East Cobb) are also as good as the high schools?



Agree it's about finding a good balance between academics and not rigorous to the point of breaking. Thankfully with my older kid being around 3, I have some time to decide. For now, I need to make sure elementary/middle schools are good. Thank you!

Son and D-I-L live in Pope district. There is a publix, Kroger, Walmart, Home Depot, BOA, Walgreen's, CVS, Pike Nursery, very close.... Everything they need is either off Shallowford or Johnson Ferry. Granddaughter's pre-school was up on 92 (Alabama Rd if I remember correctly). Very happy with elementary school, and they came from highly regarded Montgomery County Maryland (Silver Springs/Bethesda/DC area) schools. Grandchild is thriving with gymnastics, piano, girl scouts and a host of other activities and friends.

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by BoltJam3s

Thank you so much for the response! It appears that East Cobb might be the best fit for us. It's definitely a challenge to find a place where all 3 schools (elementary/middle/high) are great, but this might be the perfect compromise.

How would you say East Cobb is as a place to live- in terms of ease of access/amenities/shopping?



Thanks for the info! While the commute might not factor in every day of the week, it's still pretty important- so we might look into East Cobb area.



Haha, well if Bucee's is making its way, then it'll be bringing kolaches too! Would you say that the elementary/middle schools in that area (East Cobb) are also as good as the high schools?



Agree it's about finding a good balance between academics and not rigorous to the point of breaking. Thankfully with my older kid being around 3, I have some time to decide. For now, I need to make sure elementary/middle schools are good. Thank you!

East Cobb is a great place to live. Elementary/middle/high school are all 10/10. Great shopping and amenities, peaceful, friendly, equidistant to all the places in the metro you’d want to go.

On the downside, it lacks a city identity as it’s basically an area with a Marietta address and 200k people. I think some may find it a bit squeaky clean/sterile.