Relocating from California to Atlanta/Lockheed Martin (Kennesaw, Harrison: 2015, elementary schools)

[Rubberduc]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Hi Rubberduc

Welcome to Atlanta. I was in the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton and spent much time in San Diego. Atlanta is our Lajolla. Very affluent and mixed of the significantly older population in large, expensive homes and younger in expensive apartment settings, you will spend up your housing budget quickly.

Virginia Highland would be an excellent choice for the age group you're looking for. It will be a beast trying with the traffic, but doable if you leave before 6:30 in the morning. Virginia Highland would be like your Balboa Park/Hillcrest Area. Great budget for housing, but your money will go further in Cobb County.

We lived a block away from Balboa in North Park and loved it. We walked there with our 1 year old daily. We’ve been monitoring traffic during normal commute times which seem to track with info provided here.


Thank you all for such detailed information. We’ve been looking in East Cobb as well as Buckhead/VH areas. Hopefully inventory picks up soon. Thanks again!

[DoubleZ OTP]

Originally Posted by Rubberduc

Thank you so much for this information - we really appreciate it! It sounds like East Cobb might be a good landing spot for us.

One question: You mentioned many of the other options are more outer-suburban. Our family is used to a more urban lifestyle, with restaurants, shops, and walkability. We’ve heard the Buckhead area and Virginia Highlands are nice areas of the city, but are not sure about schools or traffic patterns. Do you have any thoughts?

Originally Posted by Rubberduc

We lived a block away from Balboa in North Park and loved it. We walked there with our 1 year old daily. We’ve been monitoring traffic during normal commute times which seem to track with info provided here.


Thank you all for such detailed information. We’ve been looking in East Cobb as well as Buckhead/VH areas. Hopefully inventory picks up soon. Thanks again!

Buckhead and Virginia-Highland are indeed nice areas of the city (though some may not agree regarding Buckhead... long story).



However, I do not believe that Buckhead would be a good fit, even though the commute would be a rather-straightforward 15 to 30 minute reverse commute. This is why:

- The residential, single-family home neighborhoods in Buckhead which you are likely to consider -- while very nice -- do not typically offer the walkable, convenient, active lifestyle you may be envisioning. The residential areas of Buckhead are, for the most part, very suburban, sprawled-out, and automobile-oriented. Think Rancho Santa Fe or Fairbanks Ranch... I don't think that's what you're going for. The more walkable, convenient, active neighborhoods near Buckhead Village (Peachtree Park, Garden Hills, Peachtree Heights East) are zoned for Garden Hills ES, which is not very highly-regarded.

- Buckhead is very expensive... your money will go much further in Cobb County.

- The public schools (North Atlanta cluster) -- while rated decently -- are not rated as highly as those in East Cobb and West Cobb.



Virginia-Highland would be a much better fit than Buckhead as far as I can tell... the North Park neighborhood of San Diego appears to be quite similar to Virginia-Highland in many respects. The public schools (Midtown cluster) are rated well, though not quite as well as those in East Cobb/West Cobb. However...

- The commute would be -- at a minimum -- about 30 minutes. I think you can expect up to 45 minutes much of the time (particularly on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday afternoons). I'd consider it if you'll be working a hybrid schedule, but I'd think twice if you'll be going in 5 days a week.

- Your money will go much further in Cobb County. Also, Va-Hi (and similar adjacent neighborhoods like Morningside and Poncey-Highland) are very in-demand: inventory is very low, and good homes (especially those priced below $1 million) move very quickly.



I guess that whether Virginia-Highland (and Morningside or Poncey-Highland) or East Cobb/West Cobb is the right choice is up to you.

You can live like a king or queen in a 6-bedroom, 5k square foot new-construction house on an acre lot with a pool in West Cobb... but you would have to drive 15 minutes or more to nearly everything, and you would not be able to enjoy the walkable, convenient, active lifestyle you may desire.

Or you can live the life you want in Virginia-Highland: walk or bike to the Beltline, Piedmont Park, Ponce City Market, schools, several restaurants and bars, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Kroger, Publix, and more. However, you would have to fight for a "regular" house at the top of your price range, you would have to commute at least half an hour each way (most of the time), and the schools are rated somewhat less well than those in East Cobb/West Cobb.

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by Rubberduc

We lived a block away from Balboa in North Park and loved it. We walked there with our 1 year old daily. We’ve been monitoring traffic during normal commute times which seem to track with info provided here.


Thank you all for such detailed information. We’ve been looking in East Cobb as well as Buckhead/VH areas. Hopefully inventory picks up soon. Thanks again!

You're welcome, and correction to my post. I meant Buckhead is similar to your Lajolla in terms of affluence.

[EC12345]

I would disagree with some on writing off Buckhead. The southern part of Buckhead neighborhoods (Wildwood, springlake, memorial park) have a much more close-suburb feel with some walkability to the northern Howell mill area and Bobby jones golf and trails. Neighborhoods are older with well-maintained homes and newer builds - more character compared to east cobb. Easy access to 75 makes commuting much easier. I reverse commute from this area to Marietta and west cobb area. For Dobbins, it is about 20 min in the morning and no more than 30min in the afternoon. We actually moved to this part of Buckhead, despite slightly longer commute compared to east cobb, for morris Brandon elementary for language immersion and diversity and are planning to continue staying in the public schools into north Atlanta which is on the upswing.

[aslowdodge]

Welcome. I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area. Life changing for the better in my case.
My story is all over this forum, but I don’t think I will ever move back to California. Life is great for me here.
California has only one advantage to me and that’s weather. That said not all of California has great weather.
I also believe you can achieve wealth here by investing what you save on col.
I paid 80 to register my 4 cars. In California it would have been about 4K. That not including smog checks. My friend paid 70 for one car, I paid 54 for 4 cars.
I’m either the edge or in east Cobb close to Lassiter high, very highly rated.

[evannole]

I love Virginia-Highland, but that commute would be pretty lousy. It can be a difficult part of town to get into or out of at rush hour, as 75 and the 75/85 stack up pretty badly heading into the city in the afternoon, and Ponce can be difficult at all hours due to the lack of left turn lanes.

As other posters have said, parts of Buckhead could be viable options and would certainly shave off the worst parts of the VA-HI commute (75 south of Moores Mill or so, 75/85 all the way through Midtown and Downtown, and Ponce). Most of Buckhead doesn't strike me as particularly pedestrian-friendly, though.

Don't write off the Marietta Square area. It is, in fact, highly walkable and has lots of good restaurants, shops, galleries, frequent art festivals, a large weekend farmer's market, two independent theaters that feature live music, plays and classic movies, and so on. It has a real sense of community. Bonus - you'd get a ton of house for your budget - indeed, unless you want one of the historic Church Street or Kennesaw Avenue mansions, you likely could stay well under $1M. (The historic homes are neat, but I wouldn't buy one; I have been in many of them during the holiday homes tour and most of them have awkward layouts and require a ton of upkeep, though there are two or three I would buy in a heartbeat if they came on the market and I could afford them at the time.) Double bonus: your commute might well be under 10 minutes, like that of my neighbor, a test pilot for Lockheed.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by evannole

I love Virginia-Highland, but that commute would be pretty lousy. It can be a difficult part of town to get into or out of at rush hour, as 75 and the 75/85 stack up pretty badly heading into the city in the afternoon, and Ponce can be difficult at all hours due to the lack of left turn lanes.

As other posters have said, parts of Buckhead could be viable options and would certainly shave off the worst parts of the VA-HI commute (75 south of Moores Mill or so, 75/85 all the way through Midtown and Downtown, and Ponce). Most of Buckhead doesn't strike me as particularly pedestrian-friendly, though.

Don't write off the Marietta Square area. It is, in fact, highly walkable and has lots of good restaurants, shops, galleries, frequent art festivals, a large weekend farmer's market, two independent theaters that feature live music, plays and classic movies, and so on. It has a real sense of community. Bonus - you'd get a ton of house for your budget - indeed, unless you want one of the historic Church Street or Kennesaw Avenue mansions, you likely could stay well under $1M. (The historic homes are neat, but I wouldn't buy one; I have been in many of them during the holiday homes tour and most of them have awkward layouts and require a ton of upkeep, though there are two or three I would buy in a heartbeat if they came on the market and I could afford them at the time.) Double bonus: your commute might well be under 10 minutes, like that of my neighbor, a test pilot for Lockheed.

Moreover, almost all of the Marietta Square Area is in West Side Elementary and A.L. Burruss Elementary school districts.

[evannole]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Moreover, almost all of the Marietta Square Area is in West Side Elementary and A.L. Burruss Elementary school districts.

Yes, and on top of that, just about all the elementary schools in Marietta proper have a magnet program of some sort, so you can apply to send your kids to a school outside your attendance zone. Our neighborhood, for instance, is zoned for Park Street, but our neighbors send their kids to West Side. (We don't have kids.)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by evannole

Yes, and on top of that, just about all the elementary schools in Marietta proper have a magnet program of some sort, so you can apply to send your kids to a school outside your attendance zone. Our neighborhood, for instance, is zoned for Park Street, but our neighbors send their kids to West Side. (We don't have kids.)

[Vv19]

The information and wisdom that this forum’s OGs share never ceases to amaze me.

While we are talking about Cobb county, curious to know what do people think of the following HS clusters and how do they compare with Lassiter, Pope & Walton HS (which I know are top rated in SE US not just GA).

Harrison HS
Kennesaw Mountain HS
Hillgrove HS
Allatoona HS

Thanks!