Looking at the Atlanta area

[vibelife]

Hello all,

my wife and I are thinking that eventually, we would like to live in the Atlanta area. Our daughter is moving there and we would like to be close to her(and yes she would like that).

We have been there a couple of times, but are not familiar with the area. We know that we probably do not want to live in downtown Atlanta, but what are the nicer 'burbs in the area?

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Tedd

[MichelleRoze]

Coming from a small town myself, I do not enjoy the Atlanta area. I'm out on the very edge of Gwinnett County, almost Barrow County, and I LOVE it. It's starting to grow a bit, but not too much. Check out Mineral Springs Crossings housing community. Everyone says it's own in the boonies (There is a Cow Crossing sign just down the road, but no cows), but it's not that bad. Like 15 mins from I85. Very little to no crime here (yet). Now, I'm not sure what laws are required for your cars where you are, but in Gwinnett County you are REQUIRED to pass an emissions test to register your gasoline vehicle. But, if you live like 5 mins from my house in Barrow County, you are not required to pass an emissions test. Granted a test is only like $25 but I hear a lot of people complain about it because it's a long wait sometimes and if it fails, you HAVE to fix your car until it passes. Hence why I own a diesel! And would love to have you guys near by!

Now if you wanted more activities and to be closer to a lot of things, especially Atlanta, then you have Duluth which is pretty busy and becoming heavily influenced with Asian culture. Norcross which is right next to the perimeter, which is heavily influenced by Mexican culture. But a little further north, still south of me, is Suwannee and Buford. Two areas that are still busy, but has nice little housing communities. Those are all along I85 which is the most popular route to Atlanta.

If you need more information let me know. I've only lived here about 2 1/2 years, but I feel like I've seen it all! lol

[mrchaotica]

Michelle lives way out there, in my opinion. Unless your job was also in Gwinnett County, you'd regret the hour-plus-each-way commute.

When moving to Atlanta, the first choice you need to make is whether you want to live inside or outside of the Perimeter (aka Interstate 285). I realize you say you don't want to live "downtown," but there are quite a few inside-the-Perimeter neighborhoods with more of a suburban feel (some of them are inside the Atlanta city limits, and others genuinely are suburbs).

If you choose to live outside the Perimeter, you need to first figure out where your job is going to be. Commuting into downtown is bad enough, but commuting across or around (e.g. from Gwinnnett to Cobb and back) is even worse!

Good inside-the-perimeter neighborhoods include:

• Druid Hills
• Vinings
• Buckhead
• Northeast Atlanta (Morningside, Virginia Highlands, Inman Park, Candler Park, etc.)

Good outside-the-perimeter neighborhoods include:

• Alpharetta
• Roswell
• Sandy Springs

These neighborhoods I've listed are really the best ones, which means they're also the most expensive ones. There are plenty of slightly-less-nice-but-still good ones, but I'd need to know what side of town you want to be on before I could choose which to recommend.

One last thing: Atlanta's reputation as "the city too busy to hate" is, I'm sorry to say, a big fat lie. As Michelle noted, certain parts of the metro area are fairly heavily segregated, so if you have a preference about that sort of thing, let us know.