Relocating to Georgia from Nevada (Atlanta, Columbus: apartments, low crime, how much)

[teelaann]

Hey everyone I am going to be moving to Georgia in 6 months to a year from Reno, Nevada.

I am wanting to live somewhere with about 100,000-200,000 people. Hoping for a relatively low crime rate and low cost of living. I work from home, so jobs in my industry aren't really relevant. Also, I am in my 20s and have a 2 year old son, so I'd like to live somewhere with nice schools (public and private)
I'm looking to buy a home for around $200,000 which I know is low, but I don't need a ton of space and wouldn't mind a fixer upper.

I'm not really interested in the Atlanta area, its too big for me, but I do want to live somewhere that is still a "Southern" town, I love the culture and historic feel to those kind of towns.

I'd like to live somewhere pretty (although anything other than the sagebrush and casinos I'm used to would be beautiful by my standards!) where fishing and camping would be a nearby option.


Other than that, I'm pretty easy going, not too picky and I'm neither conservative nor liberal, kinda just down the middle. I would like to have a change of scenery and raise my son somewhere with friendly people and famous Southern hospitality.


Thanks and I hope that was enough general info to get a few responses.

[Brian_M]

You need to narrow in on some more specific details because right now you've only really excluded the Atlanta metro area. There are 5 100~200k cities in GA, Columbus, Macon, Athens, Augusta, and Savannah. They cover the state from inland farm to northern hills and coastal.

All have good areas and bad, ditto with schools and both the good and bad of "southern" culture and feel.

"Pretty" is in the eye of the beholder.

How about practical things like, you work from home so you probably need Quality high speed internet. Do you drive or use public transportation? Want to live "urban", "sub-urban" or "rural" to those main geographical areas... how far out from each of those places is too far?

The more details you give, the better suggestions you'll get. There are trade-offs... for instance, $200,000k could buy you a custom built home of pretty high standards in the rural parts of the state. Or take an existing home (something old, with outstanding curb appeal) and completely renovate it inside... but then you're driving ~40 minutes to the above 5 2nd tier cities.

[teelaann]

Hi Brian_M thanks for the response.
I've been looking into the Macon, Augusta and Columbus areas and like what I see in them. I read that Augusta has pretty bad crime, but I have a friend who lives there so its kind of a trade off.
I do drive, but don't really want to commute very far. I'm used to the conveniences of having grocery stores within a few miles of my home, as well as parks to take my son.
My son has lived in apartments his whole life, so I want to live far enough out that I could have a nice sized yard, and I want to have a garden, if that helps any.

[Newsboy]

Augusta, Savannah, Columbus and Macon are all metros with regional populations in the 500,000 range. Not sure that's what you're looking for? Although of the four of them, Savannah is the one that best fits your idea of a "Southern" town, with lots of history and culture.

Sounds like you might be interested in slightly smaller cities like Rome, Gainesville, Athens, Dalton, etc. These cities are all in the North Georgia area and close enough to Metro ATL to take advantage of big-city amenities, but far enough away to have their own

[Brian_M]

Current statistics show none of them over 200k (looking at numbers from 1991~2012) ~ I agree with the rest though. Maybe not N. GA if she's looking for more of an "authentic Southern feel", though that's very much perspective dependent.

Teelaann, it's not like living in a smaller town would mean you didn't have a (or several) parks, a couple grocery stores, etc... Drive 10 miles and you're in another town. Lot sizes vary all over the place, but in/around the 2nd tier cities you won't have an issue finding a lot with enough yard for everything you want... up to and including actual acres instead of partials (yes, for $200k or less). You still have a Really big net though. If this is a long-term stay and not the national average of ~5 years then maybe dig into school rankings. I don't have kids, don't care about schools (other than being annoyed at the low quality of schools for how much taxes are collected for them around here), but have heard that Harris County (just north of Columbus) is supposed to be good as well as one of the counties around Athens. Planning for your child may be the specific you need to really narrow down your search.

Good luck.

[teelaann]

Thank you both so much, you're really giving me a lot of insight.
One other thing that is pretty important ha, the west coast has hardly ANY natural disasters, aside from the rare earth quake that you sleep through and the wild fires in the summer. Other than that, I have never experienced a tornado, hurricane or flood that the southern states are known for. Are there areas I should really avoid for safety reasons or are they kind of like the norm? I just don't really know what to expect as far as that goes.

and yes Brian_M, I am planning on this being a very long term move, I want my son to go to school in the same town all his life, and be involved in sports and music and all that good jazz.

[ellie]

Why Georgia and not some other state? I get very confused by these seemingly arbitrary choices based on geographic boundaries. Georgia is a big state but not known for its quality of education, particularly in smaller towns.