Relocating to Tucker area, help with community choice please! (Atlanta: real estate, rent)

[Markman]

My wife and I are in the process of relocating to the Atlanta metro area from the Chicago suburbs. My wife will be working in Tucker and I will be pursuing employment in the same "general" area. We are looking to purchase a home in the $200-300k range, preferably a ranch style with basement. We are early 40's with no kids planned and are fairly active. We both ride bikes so access to decent roads for that is a definite plus. We would like to find a neighborhood that is diverse and has easy access to biking, etc while not having a nasty commute to Tucker (Our self imposed limit is 1 hour).

Any suggestions on specific cities/areas we should start looking in. We will be moving by Sept-October and should be down for house-hunting in Early August.

Thanks!

[mbo]

We moved to Lawrenceville, right on the Grayson line. My husband works in Tucker, he has about a 25 minute commute which is nothing here. The area has lots to do, lots of nice parks, etc. You could easily find an affordable home here in your price range, either in a new/newer planned subdivision or an older home with some land.

[southernguyGA]

I liked the Tucker area, have good friends out there. I think you like the quietness of the area. The drive into Atlanta is very rough during rush hour ( this is true from all areas though). Be prepared for this.

Since the drive to work seems important, rent a car, or drive on there, and try the commute first later at night like 8pm to find your way, or like 10 am, the rush hour both going and coming to see what you think, really you should do this it is worth the time.

[Markman]

Thanks for the input so far.

My wife will be down in Tucker this week and will be taking an afternoon to drive around with a real estate agent just to get a feel for the area. We'll both be down there mid to late August (once our house in Chicago is on the market) to spend 5-6.

A couple of areas we noticed while searching listings on the 'net are Decatur, Clarkston, Dunwwody and Norcross. What about those? Do they offer some decent areas to consider? What are the pros/cons of each?

[Tdiddy0027]

DEcatur is very quaint and arsty and has the advantage of being just a 10 minute marta ride to the city, but not all of the area is nice and it can be expensive. Dunwoody is one of favorite places because of its posh and upscale atmosphere, beautiful houses, great shopping a ton of culture, but it can be expensive and the people can be fake (according to my mom, who lived there )

Norcross has great diversity but also has increasing crime and declining infrastructure

I'm not sure about Clarkston, I know that it's very diverse