Birmingham to atlanta (Lawrenceville, Duluth, Buford: apartments, townhomes, elementary school)

[LWheat]

I Live in Birmingham currently, I am a wife and mother with small children. We are relocating to the Atlanta. Our jobs are going to be in the Duluth/ Johns Creek area. We are looking for some advice on towns with good school systems, amenities based communities, racially diverse like our family, relatively close to shopping etc. We like Cumming and Buford, as well as Suwanee. Can anyone give us some feedback on these areas what you like and don't like. As well as feedback about subdivision/builders you like. thanks.

[JoeTarheel]

Is there any reason for not locating in John's Creek/Duluth area? They are both nice areas, and I always advise people moving here to live as near to work as possible.

Most Atlanta commutes are not fun. I definitely recommend you limit yours as much as possible.

[cittic10]

I think this will be the first time I have completely agreed with Joe Tarheel on anything in this forum.

It may look on a map like cumming and buford are close to that area, and frankly they're really not ALL THAT far, but it's a matter of having no limited access roads that lead into that area.

Buford to J/C is 45 minutes in NO traffic when you know exactly where you're going and taking the quickest route.
Cumming has 141 you can take but they put all this stuff on that road, lots of new red lights you'll end up having to stop at each one. That will be a long commute too and you want to avoid Forsyth County if you're looking for racially diverse. That county is not only not diverse, it has a pretty rough recent history when it comes to race. Buford is much better in that regard but the duluth area would be fine too.

[cwkimbro]

I'm not going to agree or disagree... except that I'm just going to add...

That depends...

We need to remember people searching houses are looking at zip codes and not town centers and johns Creek/Duluth is a little vague to where work is located.

The OP needs to look where they are going to specifically and then map their house hunt.

Much of lower Forsyth Co. is a Cumming address, but is right across the street from some Johns Creek business offices located at Medlock and McGinniss Ferry.

The short answer to the OP... That whole region is a new up and coming suburban business area full of white collar workers and is generally more middle class affluent than most places.

Any of these places will be good places, good schools. If you can find the house at the right price close to work... there is no reason to drive further away than you need to.

If you look in the Duluth zip codes... do research on the elementary school. Things get a touch more hit or miss in parts. Not because Duluth isn't really nice, it is, but near the old Gwinnett Place Mall area there are tons of apartments and townhomes. You might want to avoid schools zoned to those areas.

Any School cluster in North Fulton Co and S. Forsyth will be great. Most in Gwinnett Co. will be be great too. (If you were looking more towards Lawrenceville or closer to Atlanta parts of Gwinnett you might need to use more caution and get specific opinion...but your not/dont need to.) The Peachtree Ridge Cluster is excellent. The Duluth Cluster has the Mall area in it. It is a good school, but choose the area/elementary school carefully. (search past threads on this part of Gwinnett and we have Discussed it in great detail in the past).

The only thing I might consider... is if you think you might stay in the area but switch jobs... consider your commute routes to other parts of the region...

[cwkimbro]

Oh and do this thread in the Atlanta forum and mention Jogns Creek Duluth in the title! You will get much more feedback! It is a very active forum.