5 best and 5 worst places to live in GA? (Atlanta, Columbus: private school, university)

[cmcclone]

as a parent you need to access the family's needs, but as a homeowner you need to access the potential sellability of the home you will be purchasing. i have been working in real estate for over 9 years now. sometimes your needs are not always met 100% of the time. the best way to find an area suited to your needs is to 1. visit the schools in the area(s) you are considering, 2. drive by some subdivisions, 3. talk to the neighbors - most are very open and friendly, 4. check out the local grocery stores - they are an indication of the people in the area, 5. Georgia is comprised of a mish-mash of all kinds of people, 7. divisity is a good thing, 8. if you are religious, get in touch with some of the local churches, the leaders of the church are full of a wealth of good and valuable information, 9. when you visit the schools - ask the principal, administrative staff, teachers, and counselors where THEY live - that is a great indicator as to how they feel about the area you are investigating. Please be aware that ALL Georgia real estate agents are by law representing the seller.

In answer to your specific question - I have lived in Cobb County (8 years), Dekalb (2 years) and Gwinnett (20 years) Counties. Each has its pros and cons. I happen to be partial to the Dacula area of Gwinnett County. I live in a small, friendly subdivision with 41 1/2 acre+ homesites. Within 3 days of moving in, we had met all the neighbors! I still miss my old neighbors - nothing can replace 15 years of friendship, but it is nice to know that people are still willing to try, even in a large metropolis!

[augga706]

AUGUSTA GA IS VERY NICE METRO AUGUSTA IS HOME TO MORE THAN 500,000 PPL. Augusta will recieve more expansion and construction than any other city in ga next to atlanta but only have half its traffic problems. Richmond county augusta is the 2nd largest city in ga and evans columbia county not a city but if was would automatically become the 4th largest in the whole state. Augusta has 1 of the 2 largest malls in ga outside the atlanta metro area with augusta mall recently expanding with a new grand opening in summer 2007. We are getting a new mall by early 08 even bigger than the augusta mall. Lifestyle centers are being built at walton way and 4 in evans. There is a new starbucks on every corner in west augusta, martinez, and evans first signs of becoming a major city. I-2O is adding 6 lanes instead of 4 plus a spaghetti junction one of the biggest projects ever in ga. 520 is also adding more lanes all the way to North Augusta. Augusta regional is on phase 3 of 4 on the new airport and downtown is getting a stadium by the ga golf hall of fame overlooking the savannah river, condos, lofts, hotels, library, convention center, construction on the canal has begun and a new 20ft judicial building in the next few years. Richmond county has two of the top high schools in all of ga(Davidson, A.R. Johnson). The outskirst like North Augusta, Evans, Martinez, Hephzibah, Thomson, Aiken, Grovetown all have nice areas of their own. I would pick North Augusta, Grovetown, or Martinez if u dont want to live directly in the city of augusta. Hephzibah, Thomson, and Aiken are kind of further out a longer way since you are going to have to drive to augusta to do most things. Evans is very beautiful but with too many greedy and corrupt realtors and plans to become like sandy springs outside of atlanta(traffic for hours) it doesnt have enough streets as augusta and almost just as much commercial development & construction taking place but all in a smaller area.

[andy8010]

The city of Lafayette is 3 hours from any major city in the southeast ? The only 3 cities within 3 hours of Lafayette are Knoxville, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Nashville. Cities in the southeast such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville are much further away.

[rochelle robinson]

I have lived in Georgia for 25 years or more. I am originally from Boston,Mass and my parents moved our family down here so that their children could have a better opportunity, and believe me we have had a wonderful opportunity all of my five siblings are homeowners not renters and we all have at least an acre of my fathers land. We all have college degrees, we never had to stay overnight in the hospital or bury any memeber of my immediate family in the graveyard and I have three brothers. You can come to Georgia with nothing and still live like a King or Queen if you have common senses enough to get all of what you need and some of what you want. What I mean is why rent when you can buy a home or condo. There are so many shopping malls and outlets that you can't help but save money. There are some many dealership that if you some your money and look around you can have transportation. There are many free events and activities going on for children as well as teen if you are an active and concern parent in your child's life. As far as the schools, the schools are not a babysitting service. When there a PTA or a parent teacher conference. You need to get off your but and go. Its not the schools job to raise your kids. No I'm not a teacher but I am a parent. If you're not showing interest in your child's education don't expect no one else to. Now I admit there are some very lazy parents with horrible kids in school, so my suggest is do your research and go through the proper channels of getting your child out of that school.

Still, I say Georgia is wonderful. It has lots of great quite communities with low crime. You have to do your research. I don't know a place with no crime, but what anyone should look for when moving here is low crime. Make a visit and while here watch the news just see what county or community pops up the most that night for breaking story or whatever and you will have your answer in an instant.

[info please]

how's cumming gaAND CANTON TKS

[grantvillekim]

Georgia has so many different kinds of places it is hard to compare them all to eachother.

You've got your pick geographically (mountains v. coast v. rolling hills v. middle of nowhere flat lands); you've got college towns (eg Athens, LaGrange) and tourism towns (Savannah, Dahlognega...hmm...which is also a college town, come to think of it) and everything from the Monster That's Eating Georgia (also known as Atlanta) to itty bitty towns that make Mayberry look busy.

With 66 counties, all varying wildly in terms of money, population, and development, you have to look really closely to compare school systems, recreational opportunities, government/political climate (Georgia used to be hard core Democrat but it is increasingly conservative Republicanish) and public services (in some places, the city provides police/fire etc, and in others, it is the county, and in some places - like Columbus - you have consolidated a city/county government doing it all.

Generally speaking, I find Gwinnett County and northeastern metro Atlanta to be very bland - lots of chain stores and subdivisions because it kinda turned from rural to 'the city' overnight.

Also, when people say there is too much crime in Atlanta, I think they are over-generalizing. The city of Atlanta straddles two counties (Fulton and Dekalb) each of which have a wide variety of communities - from the very wealthy northern Atlanta areas (Sandy Springs just defected to become it's own city and I think Roswell and/or Dunwoody are in the process of doing so, but the Buckhead area is as upper crust as you can get)...to neglected and lower income (usually formerly industrial) areas. And when it comes to crime you have to consider "what kind of crime" and how the numbers were calculated because one household with repeated domestic calls could skew the numbers and make that neighborhood look worse than another neighborhood that has had six different houses broken into.

I personally think the best places to live outside of Atlanta are probably western Georgia (Coweta and Carroll counties) and the northwest Georgia mountains. I am not too fond of northeastern Georgia but I am sure there are people who love their cities there, too. Oh! Tifton, Georgia in the southwest is also a very nice place to consider and someone mentioned Augusta/North Augusta. The coast is always a winner for me, but some folks might have issues with the humidity and what they perceive to be the 'bad smell' of the port traffic.

The person who said ALL of Georgia is grand basically had it right!

Of course, my very favorite place is here: www.grantville.net (also www.accesscoweta.com).

[brodave1916]

Originally Posted by ASCHAEDLER

Please tell me the top five and worst five placed to live in your opinion.
I expect this will send me enough info to narrow my search for a home in Georgia. Any and all information always welcome.
Thank you
Angela

Avoid southwest Georgia like the plague. Education is near the lowest in the south. Literacy is extremely low. Independent thinking is prohibited by law. Public schools worse than a bad joke. So-called "higher" education might, MIGHT POSSIBLY (meaning it has only the slightest chance) of
being called education. If you don't own a gun, don't bother.
Sole possible exception: between Thomasville, GA and Tallahassee, FL.

[peachtreecity2003]

Peachtree City was nationally recogized as one of the top 100 places to live in the U.S. Definitely worth checking out.

[rant913]

We are looking to possible relocate to Hephzibah, Ga. We live in Oh & absolutely hate the cold weather here. We lived in Florida & loved the weather there but the hurricanes have scarred the life out of us so moving back there is out. Please can anyone give us some information on places in either Hephzibah, Ga or anywhere in Ga where it is nice weather, LOW crime rate, great place to raise a family (we have 5 kids...3 still at home) and great employment. Thank you.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by rant913

We are looking to possible relocate to Hephzibah, Ga. We live in Oh & absolutely hate the cold weather here. We lived in Florida & loved the weather there but the hurricanes have scarred the life out of us so moving back there is out. Please can anyone give us some information on places in either Hephzibah, Ga or anywhere in Ga where it is nice weather, LOW crime rate, great place to raise a family (we have 5 kids...3 still at home) and great employment. Thank you.

In general the state of GA has a moderate climate and 4 seasons. The winters do not seem to be as cold as they once were--Dec--Feb. Hot during June-Aug/Sept and a nice fall from Oct to Dec--spring is lovely Mar-May.

Some snow and ice in the northern part of the state --perhaps 3/4 times per winter--usually a day or two.

Tornadoes come from the west/Alabama --maybe the eastern side would be better for you?

I don't know of a particular area that might be ideal for you. What sort of employment do you seek? Do you want to live in a smaller town?

Many posters say that Smyrna, Acworth, Woodstock--NW of metro Atlanta are family-oriented, have reasonably priced housing and a number of good schools.

Go to City-data Homepage and review the FYI on those cities or others of interest to you.

good luck.

sls