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Old 11-01-2008, 12:21 PM
 
61 posts, read 321,415 times
Reputation: 31

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Quote:
Originally Posted by LovinDecatur View Post
The largest number of transplants in GA come from FL; second largest, NY.
If the OP hails from Westchester County, the following Atlanta neighborhoods should feel rather familiar:
Druid Hills
Decatur
Morningside
Virginia-Highland
Buckhead
Inman Park
THANK YOU. EXACTLY WHAT I needed. I will definitely check out these locations when i visit.
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Old 11-01-2008, 12:34 PM
 
61 posts, read 321,415 times
Reputation: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by trelane View Post
I'm a NYer who moved to the Fort Lauderdale area and after 11 years took a promotion to move to Atlanta. I've been here two years. Let me answer your pros and cons directly. Depending on where you buy, potentially bigger, older homes in Atlanta. However, the building codes in SoFla are better thanks to Andrew, a home built after 1994 is more solid than one built the same year in ATL. There are more job prospects in my field (software), you're surrounded by many interesting communities and cities, and within three hours of NoCa, SoCa, Ala, and Tenn. Definitely lower cost of living than NY, not necessarily true compared to Florida.

I also have no family here, no friends when we moved. Some schools are better than the best of Broward county (I lived in Weston). Traffic sucks, you learn to stagger your work hours or telecommute. Weather is definitely better in SoFla. I have asthma; it's only slightly worse in ATL. Lots of character in ATL, and LOTS more history. SoFla history begins with Flagler and the railroad. There's nothing of historical interest before 100 years ago. Forget the Bling factor, that's TV. Yes, this is the first time I"ve been landlocked. It takes some getting used to.

Outdoor activities year round. No state income tax.

Here's my big one: the spanish population has a large contingent that is uninterested in interacting with english-speaking Americans. Before I get attacked, let me add my mom's colombian, I've lived there, and I speak Spanish. My wife, however, doesn't. Small lots, no basements, little interior storage, HOAs everywhere. Hurricanes aren't a real problem, you know when they're coming. Folks in SoFla don't own guns as often, drivers are very aggressive. Thanks for calling my former home ugly!

You haven't stated which part of Westchester you're in, that will help us compare. Palm Beach county is nice, I have friends in Wellington who are very happy.

My bottom line: My home in ATL is 2 1/2 times larger than my SoFla home, my income is higher but so are my taxes. I miss the weather and my friends terribly, but the real estate market and overall financial condition are very shaky in SoFla (Of course, that will help you pick up real estate bargains). We made a logical decision to leave SoFla, but our hearts are still there.

Good luck!
Thanks very much for your informative post. No pun intended about the home but you can consider coming from the northeast that the homes would take some getting used to. And again this was just MY opinion based on the homes that I saw. the ones that were under 500k had such small lots that you can spit on your neighbor.

I live in Eastchester, NY. We have a great school system, and my son attends the French American Academy, in Mamaroneck NY which he received a scholarship for. Wherever we move, being able to find an equally strong school system will be key and i would LOVE for him to get into a french American schools systerm as it has also proven to keep him challenged. BUT we also wish to get away from the stress of $1200 heating bills and 17k property taxes. Yes i understand that the cost of AC can be just as high but AC is a CHOICE, you can use a ceiling fan or a have a pool whereas in the North you HAVE to warm your house for 6mths out the year so that your pipes dont freeze.

Can you provide me some neighborhoods that I should check out when we visit at the end of the year?? I wanna get away from the high mortgage bills so I would look for somehting in the 300-400k. Even if i live in a Townhomes in an awesome neighborhood with GREAT schools, i would prefer that to a big Mcmansion with bad school system.
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Old 11-01-2008, 12:45 PM
 
61 posts, read 321,415 times
Reputation: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by crisp444 View Post
Don't take this as an "attack" - I'm just going to disagree. Choosing to speak Spanish with family members and friends doesn't readily equate to being "uninterested in interacting with English-speaking Americans." Most Hispanics - and virtually all Hispanic under the age of 30 - seem to be fairly assimilated to the mainstream culture. I grew up in South Florida and really saw no divide in the "Hispanic" population and "English-speaking American" population; in fact, if there was any divide at all, it was between these two groups and the black population. Lots of Anglo/Latin mixing but not a lot of these two groups mixing with the black population. This is different in Atlanta. Besides certain areas northeast of the city with good Latin American and Asian presence, Atlanta really doesn't have large areas of people who speak a language other than English. Atlanta is largely, and in the most traditional sense, a "black and white" city.



But do you really prefer living in such a huge home? Different strokes for different folks, but I would much rather be living in a 1500 square foot house in Coral Gables than a 3300 square foot house in Alpharetta. I don't really see getting a bigger house as a major positive factor; it's just more space to fill with furniture and to heat (generating higher energy bills). I think amenities matter more than size, so that's why I would much more readily fork over $400,000 for a 1500 square foot bungalow in Virginia/Highland than the same money for a 3300 square foot house somewhere 30 miles from downtown/midtown.
I agree with this post. Where i live in lower Westchester county i do not have to commute to manhattan to work or play. I work in CT, or I could work in White Plains if necessary. I can also go to the nightclubs, see a play etc.. without having to travel out of westchester county. Hence my comment about ATL being just ATL and the lack of the outer "boroughs" having enough to sustain a nightlife. I HOPE i am wrong about this but I will check out the neighborhoods suggested and see for myself.
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Old 11-01-2008, 12:53 PM
 
61 posts, read 321,415 times
Reputation: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by crisp444 View Post
This is a very good post. I grew up in South Florida too, and have lived in Madrid, Boston, and New York. South Florida is much more dense than Atlanta. Many people like the sylvan (forest-like) feeling of Atlanta, even in neighborhoods less than a mile from Midtown or Downtown. I personally prefer a more urban setting and much desner suburbs. Though Midtown is fairly urban and you could stretch to call Buckhead urban, you go a block or two from "the main drag" in those neighborhoods and it feels like you're out in the suburbs. Though Inman Park, Druid Hills, Virginia/Highland, Decatur, and other "in-town" areas are denser than the suburbs and you can walk to some amenities living in them, they are far from urban. My point is that if you like to spend a lot of time in an urban area for dining and nightlife, Atlanta may be a let down for you. If you like to spend 90% of your time in a spread out place that feels like you are in the middle of a green forest, you might really like Atlanta. Many people really do like it because they say it feels "less crowded" than South Florida, Southern California, or metro New York. I personally LIKE what many others describe as "crowded."

One of Atlanta's positive aspects is the fairly low cost of living. However, other forumers are right when they say that certain "in-town" neighborhoods are just as expensive (when speaking of detached, single family homes - condos are still comparatively cheap, even in Midtown) as desired areas of South Florida. With that said, it isn't true that you get a small home with a zero lot line in South Florida for $500,000. In many of South Florida's suburbs, you can get a VERY large home (2500-3000 square feet) in a gated community for under $500,000. Now that the real estate market has cooled off, you can find decent-sized 1500-2000 square feet homes in middle class suburban areas with decent schools for $300,000-$350,000. In communities such as this in South Florida, you will often have access to nightlife, dining, and cultural/recreation amenities within a 30 minute drive. In Atlanta, a $300,000 home in the suburbs (excepting Decatur) tends to be much larger, but you'll have to drive further for pretty much anything. Also, from what I have both seen and heard, traffic in Atlanta (especially on the expressways!) is worse than traffic in South Florida. It absolutely blew my mind one time when I was in Atlanta to be sitting in 10 lanes of traffic barely moving and looking to the side and seeing a thick, canopy of green trees. It literally felt like a traffic jam in the forest, and we were only about 7-8 miles from the central city!

Direct message me if you want to consider South Florida neighborhoods. I'm sure that people on the Atlanta forum can provide you with more detailed information about schools, traffic etc. for Atlanta neighborhoods. However, from the top of my head I would endorse the list that LovinDecatur has given below. Those neighborhoods aren't nearly as "sprawly" as the ones outside of the perimeter. Parts of Decatur are dense enough to feel like a Lower Westchester suburb!

How do I direct message you?
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Old 11-01-2008, 01:53 PM
 
3,368 posts, read 11,635,590 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Newyorker2 View Post
How do I direct message you?
Click on my name in the upper left hand corner of this post and then click "Send a direct message to crisp444"
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Old 11-01-2008, 01:56 PM
 
727 posts, read 1,830,285 times
Reputation: 144
"the ones that were under 500k had such small lots that you can spit on your neighbor."


^^^Welcome to South FL.
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Old 11-02-2008, 08:41 PM
 
15 posts, read 43,165 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Newyorker2 View Post
Thanks very much for your informative post. No pun intended about the home but you can consider coming from the northeast that the homes would take some getting used to. And again this was just MY opinion based on the homes that I saw. the ones that were under 500k had such small lots that you can spit on your neighbor.

I live in Eastchester, NY. We have a great school system, and my son attends the French American Academy, in Mamaroneck NY which he received a scholarship for. Wherever we move, being able to find an equally strong school system will be key and i would LOVE for him to get into a french American schools systerm as it has also proven to keep him challenged. BUT we also wish to get away from the stress of $1200 heating bills and 17k property taxes. Yes i understand that the cost of AC can be just as high but AC is a CHOICE, you can use a ceiling fan or a have a pool whereas in the North you HAVE to warm your house for 6mths out the year so that your pipes dont freeze.

Can you provide me some neighborhoods that I should check out when we visit at the end of the year?? I wanna get away from the high mortgage bills so I would look for somehting in the 300-400k. Even if i live in a Townhomes in an awesome neighborhood with GREAT schools, i would prefer that to a big Mcmansion with bad school system.
I can only tell you about the neighborhoods and schools I investigated. I had three months from acceptance of my promotion to start date and I based a lot of decisions on what I heard from others in the company.

The best HS in East Cobb, where I live, are Walton, Lassiter, and Pope. My oldest is in Pope, the younger in Hightower Middle. Both good schools, although Pope needs some focus. I bought my home two years ago for $435K; you can find an awful lot for that money nowadays. Check out Harry Norman, Realtors® | Your Best Move in Georgia, North Carolina and International, it's got a great search engine by subdivisions. Everything here runs on subdivisions. Atlantans still haven't figured out they're in a buyer's market, expect to see homes that aren't painted, neat, clean, updated, etc. Lowball your offers, many homes have been on the market for a year or more.

As you've seen in other posts in this thread, different counties have markedly different flavors. I like suburban living, trees, and don't mind sprawl. What you are looking for?
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Old 11-02-2008, 08:47 PM
 
15 posts, read 43,165 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by crisp444 View Post
Don't take this as an "attack" - I'm just going to disagree. Choosing to speak Spanish with family members and friends doesn't readily equate to being "uninterested in interacting with English-speaking Americans." Most Hispanics - and virtually all Hispanic under the age of 30 - seem to be fairly assimilated to the mainstream culture. I grew up in South Florida and really saw no divide in the "Hispanic" population and "English-speaking American" population
You can disagree, but my wife (again, she doesn't speak Spanish) was refused service at a dry cleaner's in our neighborhood because no one spoke English and no one tried.

I'm the first American in my family, I grew up in a household that spoke five languages. I'm aware that people speak to each other in the language they knew when they first communicated, but I'm referring to people who either don't want to learn English or don't want to speak it.

This isn't an indemnification of all native Spanish-speakers in SoFla, but there is a large percentage that are unwilling to assimilate. I've lived in NY and been in SD, LA, and parts of Texas where the number of Hispanics outnumbered the number of Anglos. I've never had a problem and never experienced the same attitude.
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Old 11-03-2008, 08:13 AM
 
Location: St Simons Island, GA
23,319 posts, read 43,787,701 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crisp444 View Post
Why did you take my statement out of context? I literally said as part of the same sentence that "Besides certain areas northeast of the city with good Latin American and Asian presence, Atlanta really doesn't have large areas of people who speak a language other than English." The Buford Highway area is northeast of the city and has a lot of Latin Americans and Asians, so I stand by my statement. I really know of no other such areas in and around Atlanta, so if they exist, please enlighten me.
Yes, you did. Forgive my myopia.
I would add south Cobb and north Clayton to the list.
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Old 11-03-2008, 10:16 AM
 
3,368 posts, read 11,635,590 times
Reputation: 1701
Forgiven!
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