ATLANTA and the surrounding area

[JIM_C]

Let's say, for example, a person works downtown and wants to live in an established neighborhood (one where they didn't rip out all the trees when they built it).
Is that feasible? Does this person have to live in the burbs to find a decent house? If so, which town or suburb? This person has a young family too, so schools, parks, neighborhood associations, etc. are important.
Comments from personal experience is most welcome. ..........JIM

 

[drchris1024]

Yes you will prolly have to live in the burbs, unless you have a arm and a leg to spend for something in the Buckhead area. You are prolly looking at some travel time to and from work. Sandy Springs / Perimeter Mall area is a nice area pricey but not too pricey. Let me know what if this helps or you need more info. I' m down in Columbus( 1hr. South) but my partner is from that area and I have spent splenty of time in Atlanta.

 

[BJS]

I'm on the southside of atlanta in the suburbs, the hole I live in is Peachtree city there is a mix of the clear cut developments and the older neighborhoods that were built leaving trees in the lot. Depending on what time of the morning my commute to downtown which is 38 miles each way takes as little as 35 min or as long as an hour and a half typically it'll take right around an hour.

In all honesty it depends on what you do and where you get a job as to where you will really want to look for housing. The neighborhoods like you've described to exist though housing prices here are rediculous especially for anything inside the I285 loop.

Fortunately most of the areas I can think of don't have HOA's, there are some exceptions though. Most of the regulation in terms of what you can and can't build is regulated by the city or county codes. I've heard too many stories about folks with PITA home owner's associations where they have coniption fits due to stupid things like what color a house was painted or a change in landscaping or grass too high.

There are good and bad places to live near everywhere in the city so once agian where you work really determines where you want to live because a rush hour commute across atlanta will run you in the 2hour neighborhood on a day of "good" traffic.

As far as good places to live Alpharetta, Buckhead, Marietta, Douglasville, Conyers, SandySprings, Decatur, Tucker, Smyrna, Peachtree City, but like I said there are good and bad in all of those.

 

[JIM_C]

I appreciate the replies. The job would be on Peachtree street, smack in the heart of downtown. So if this person wants to restrict his commute to 30 minutes or less, should he look inside the loop? What about the burbs that pop up on Yahoo maps just outside the loop (e.g., Smyrna, Lildale, Tucker, Redan, Riverdale, Lithia Springs, Mableton, Stone Mountain, etc.) ? Are they priced sky high?

 

[BJS]

Depending on where on peachtree it is you may want to look other directions. Smyrna, Tucker are good options areas of stone mountian are good. Take a look around Avondale Estates, Decatur & Druid Hills. I can't really say where you call outrageoulsy expensive for housing. In my brain it's all quite expensive.

As far as traffic goes the heaviest traffic is coming in from the north side of town down I85, I75 or GA400(US19) after that would be comming in from I20 west of atlanta, then I75 from southeast of atlanta, and the last two are I85 southwest of atlanta and I-20 to the east of atlanta.

Riverdale is what I commonly call reeferdale and it's not the best area right now there is quite a bit of political and social turmoil in clayton county (riverdale) shootings etc. so I'd stay away from there.

For an idea of what houses are going to run visit realtor.com and be rather specific about what size house you want and price range and you can get some good options. In general a 1500-2000 Sqft house will range from 200-500k depending on area. In the area's you're talking about.

Quite frankly a 30 min or less commute unless you're running flex hours comming in before 7 and leaving by 3 you're going to be within about 15-20 miles of work which is highly abnormal for around here. Depending on what area you move to the same mileage will yield very different dive times. Barring any major catastropic accidents and only dealing with volume congestion I expect an hour drive @ peak hours for 40 miles, 35 of that is interstate/4lane driving. My boss comes in with a 22 mile drive and he refuses to leave during peak hours simply because he can get here 20 min later if he leaves an hour later. During peak traffic times he says his drive time runs right around an hour to an hour and fifteen min.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I'd love to have a sub 30 min commute the average for atlanta is realisitically somewhere around 45-50 min. I know it's rediculous hence one of the many reasons I'm trying to get the heck out of dodge.

The heart of atlanta has a growing population of young career oriented singles though many are moving to the suburbs to trade the short commute and ready accessability for a yard & space when they start building families.

 

[JIM_C]

He tells me the address is 1201 W Peachtree. Said he'd been looking around a little at Stone Mountain already; I'll pass the info about "reeferdale" along. Also sounds like he can count on approximately 30 miles per hour for commuting.

 

[BJS]

FWIW 1201 W Peachtree is what is referred to as midtown don't ask me why.

If he's interested they are building w/ the new aquarium a shop live work setup and that's rather close about 10 blocks.

My drive is 65 for the first 12 (55 speed limit) 75+ up to the last 3-5 miles which is stop and go generally not making out of 2nd gear (15-20 mph) typically idling along in first.

 

[JIM_C]

Thanks. Well, downtown Charlotte is actually called "uptown." Another thing, this guy has a truck just like mine. Coincidence, huh? Will it be impossible to drive/park a CC long bed in the city? He's REALLY attached to the truck.

 

[BJS]

well driving a CC long bed is not going to be a good thing, I see some driving to work but parking them is going to be a bear and he'll have to watch clearance issues as the clearance in the decks varies from 6-7 feet with quite a few right around 6.5 I have to have 7' clearance for my truck and then I only clear with less than 1/4" My truck is about 4-5 feet shorter than yours and I can say that I have had to do multi point turns to get in and out of spaces if I cant' get one @ the top of the ramp.

If he's commuting to into town I'd suggest he plan on picking up some sort of commuter vehicle or swapping w/ the wife during the week. I have a ranger that serves the position of commuter vehicle pulls me about 22 mpg w/ a 5 speed and v6 so there's a reasonable amount of go power. Insurance costs me an extra 20 every 6 months for having the 2nd vehicle and registration runs about $50 and WHEN someone hits me it's not my baby that's been hit.

 

[JIM_C]

Thanks again for your input. He's driving down Sunday for a Monday interview.