Relocating - Carnesville/Mount Airy/Commerce (Atlanta, Gainesville: house, high schools, live)

[Ellymay5]

My husband and I are looking to relocate and seem to be settling on Georgia. We have always been wanting to escape the cold New England winters, and this seems like the perfect time with the market being what it is. I work remotely and will be able to keep my job (definitely need a place with decent cell/internet coverage). Looking for a small town that will have a bigger city not too far away with some job opportunities, should I ever need them (nothing too crazy, right now I work for an IT company as a coordinator). We have one daughter who has one more year of high school so definitely a decent/welcoming school. We are looking in the 200k range. Any thoughts on the above areas?

Thank you for any advice!

[sedimenjerry]

They're all decent areas. Carnesville is a lot smaller. You'd be driving to Lavonia, Royston, or even Commerce for a lot of stuff.
Generally, schools in Georgia have a reputation for not being that great. And it's usually the rural schools that earn that reputation (outside of inner city schools). I don't know how welcoming any school would be for someone with just one year left. That honestly sounds pretty rough no matter where you'd move to. A lot of people from up north move to GA but generally the metro Atlanta suburbs or one of the other main cities in GA, not so much the rural areas I don't think.

We have a lake house on Hartwell so it's also NE GA. Internet speeds are ok. I can't really do my job remotely there, the speeds are too slow. My dad and sister have worked up there at times also and they do just fine. If you look closer to Gainesville or Athens you might be able to stay in a cheaper/more rural area while having access to faster internet but I don't really know without checking. Also more jobs around.

Word of warning. It can get cold here. I know someone who just moved down from Ohio expecting 60s and 70s. We can get really nice days and it's not uncommon to hit 70 even in January, but the average high right now is in the low 50s. In fact, Christmas day was right at freezing for the high. But then a few days later we were in the low 60s. So it definitely will be better than the northeast, and sunnier, but we're not Florida either. Keep your cold weather clothes. Plus that area of the state is ground zero for the cold air "wedge" that sneaks down from the Carolinas along the Blue Ridge. Just the other day it was 60 around downtown Atlanta but at the lake we were stuck with clouds and the upper 40s. I've seen days where it's warmer in Asheville at over 2,000 feet in elevation! I generally like the weather here, but the cold air wedge is the worst feature of NE Georgia to me and the I-85 corridor NE of Atlanta gets the worst of it.

[Patriotic Dissent]

3 VERY different areas. Mt Airy is near Cornelia,Clarkesville and Demorest and is a decent area, I live near there, it has hwy 441 running straight to Commerce and Athens and 365 runs down to Gainesville and changes to 985 and to 85 and goes to Atlanta etc. It has a nice Walmart, Lowes, personally I think of shopping for the normal everyday person. Nice little downtowns etc.

Carnesville, well there is literally nothing there. Other than having interstate 85 running through it well near it, there is nothing really there. My grandparents lived there for 40 years, If you like Franklin County which Carnesville is in I would suggest Lavonia it's growing a lot faster with the new hospital and a steak house is opening next month there as well. It's right on interstate 85 as well and Anderson, SC is just 25 miles or so away which is a decent size town.

Commerce itself is a cute little town not a heck of a lot there but Banks Crossing which I always lump in with Commerce has tanger outlet malls and several places to eat, shopping etc, Athens,Ga is not too far away as well.

Banks County schools are really good that would be Commerce, Franklin County schools my nieces attend and they say they are great, they are all on track to graduate early. I don't know much about Habersham county schools which is Mt Airy.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Patriotic Dissent

3 VERY different areas. Mt Airy is near Cornelia,Clarkesville and Demorest and is a decent area, I live near there, it has hwy 441 running straight to Commerce and Athens and 365 runs down to Gainesville and changes to 985 and to 85 and goes to Atlanta etc. It has a nice Walmart, Lowes, personally I think of shopping for the normal everyday person. Nice little downtowns etc.

Carnesville, well there is literally nothing there. Other than having interstate 85 running through it well near it, there is nothing really there. My grandparents lived there for 40 years, If you like Franklin County which Carnesville is in I would suggest Lavonia it's growing a lot faster with the new hospital and a steak house is opening next month there as well. It's right on interstate 85 as well and Anderson, SC is just 25 miles or so away which is a decent size town.

Commerce itself is a cute little town not a heck of a lot there but Banks Crossing which I always lump in with Commerce has tanger outlet malls and several places to eat, shopping etc, Athens,Ga is not too far away as well.

Banks County schools are really good that would be Commerce, Franklin County schools my nieces attend and they say they are great, they are all on track to graduate early. I don't know much about Habersham county schools which is Mt Airy.

I know of Habersham Central High School from when the GHSA (Georgia High School Association) had placed them in the same athletic region as the Gwinnett County high schools for whatever odd reason.

(I have yet to figure out why the GHSA thought that it was a good idea to place a medium-sized rural school of only about 1,400 students in the same athletic region as a bunch of affluent mega-sized suburban schools with 3,000-4,000 students that were loaded with athletes, but that’s a conversation for another time.)

I know that Habersham County High School opened up a new school building a few years ago and that it appears that the school has been attempting to make some improvements, both to its physical facilities (with the recent opening of the new high school building a few years back) and academically.

It appears that the high school may have improved to slight-upper middle-of-the-pack/just slightly above average from where it may have been in the past.

I also think that the new high school building might only have classes for students in grades 10-12 and that high school freshmen/grade 9 are educated by way of a Ninth Grade Academy in the old high school building.