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I'm self-employed working outdoors, looking to move to either an Atlanta suburb or Orlando suburb. I've read a lot of Atlanta vs. Orlando comparison threads, but unfortunately I haven't found information that's completely relevant to my situation so I'm still very torn on the pros and cons of each city!
Overall important bullets:
* Self-employed, so overall job market and commute time isn't important, but work is outdoors (I've read about Florida's humidity)
* Want to have at least 3 but preferably 5+ acres of land for < $700k (want to have bees, chickens, goats, garden)
* Not completely rural, still enjoy typical suburban living where normal shopping would be a short drive away
* Don't care about nightlife and don't expect to drive into downtown much
* Hoping to be in a nice, relatively safe part of town
I'm currently looking at the north side of Atlanta (around Cumming) and the west side of Orlando (around Clermont). No state income tax in Florida is nice, but I'm concerned about the humidity working outdoors in the summer and the lesser infrastructure. It seems Atlanta is more thoroughly developed, and I like the mountains to the north, but the land in Atlanta seems to be more sloped and unusable for things like agriculture; I'm not sure if I just didn't drive through the right areas.
I go back and forth on the pros and cons of each city and would really appreciate assistance in nailing this down. Thanks for any help!
Orlando is warmer and more humid, but you'll get nicer winter weather if that matters. Have you looked at Canton, GA? Do you need close proximity to Atlanta? If you can go out a bit further, North Hall county would have a lot of nice properties that would fit your needs.
Here are some options in Canton that are in your range (all 5+ acres).
You can always bundle up and add layers, but you can't do much about the heat and humidity- which will affect you in North Georgia as well, but will limit your desire to work outside at all in Central FL for much of the year, say April to October. It's also a little worse in inland FL, which doesn't benefit from coastal breezes. There are plenty of good places to garden in North GA, by the way. And definitely more of a diversity of weather and landforms.
Just my $.02, though. I've done my time in FL and only go back to visit friends and family in the winter.
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