Need Insiders Perspective (Acworth, Kennesaw, Powder Springs, Murrieta) (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: condo, townhome)

[zippyskippy1]

Hello everyone. My family and myself will be moving to Northern Georgia at the end of May this year and would like to get some earnest opinions of local residents (past/present) as to where we should settle. We have narrowed our choices to Acworth, Kennesaw, Murrieta and Powder Springs. Below is the information from the sticky.

1. Budget - 300,000
2. House/Condo/Townhome - House
3. Employment Status - Work from home, wife commutes
4. Children - Prefer Public but Private not out of question
5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle - Surburban
6. Easy access to public transit, important or not - Not important
7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood - Young families with children

Honestly any of the communities will work into our housing budget. Quality of education for my children is an obvious priority as well as prevalence of crime. Part of this move to GA from where we live now is to reduce exposure to criminal elements. This particular region of Georgia is of interest to us because of proximity to family and also access to some urban niceties in nearby ATL (fine dining, theater and museums) without having to live in an urban environment.

So what say you local residents? To me they all look inviting. Thanks.

[neil0311]

Your criteria and budget would fit any of those areas, with the following exceptions:

- Cobb County (the county that contains Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta, and Powder Springs) is a suburban county much like you'll find outside any major city. There are some semi-urban areas in the southern part of the county near Cumberland Mall, but the areas you mention are typical suburbs with some areas of Acworth and Powder Springs even being semi-rural.

- There is some intra-county and inter-county bus service in Cobb County, but nothing else. "Easy access to public transit" is a relative term. If you need to go downtown, then you can drive to MARTA, but many people find that you can drive all the way downtown in the same time as driving to the MARTA station, and save yourself the ride and fare. Of course it depends on exactly where you live, as some parts of East Cobb are fairly close to MARTA in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.

[ecuresident]

Marietta, Kennesaw and Acworth typically have better regarded schools (in that order, of course depending on the school districts also). Acworth is a little farther away from the city so I would take that into account. It really comes down to what you are looking for in a house- as well as where your wife will have to commute to? You can typcially get more for your money, as well as larger yards in the Kennesaw and Acworth areas, as the highest demand school districts are the ones in Marietta (East Cobb, not the City of Marrietta) - Walton, Lassiter, Pope- most of the houses here are being built on 1/3 if an acre unless you want an older 70's-80's home. But there are very good school districts in the rest of East Cobb, Sprayberry, Kell, etc, as well as Kennesaw- but I dont know much about these or Acworth and Powder Springs so someone else is going to have to chime in.

[neil0311]

The East Cobb schools (Walton, Pope, Lassiter) are very good, but the West Cobb schools (Harrison, Kennesaw Mtn, Hillgrove, and Allatoona) are also very good. Kell, Sprayberry, and North Cobb are OK, but lagging the others.

Stay with the Cobb County School District which supports the unincorporated parts of the county, and the cities other than Marietta. The City of Marietta has its own school system, which generally lags behind the county's.

You can review test scores and feedback online on sites such as here:
GreatSchools.org Search: cobb county

[Born 2 Roll]

Um, before you get completely fixated on (and infatuated with) Cobb County, there is but just one small, tiny very, critically-important detail that you need to consider:

***WHERE WILL YOUR WIFE BE COMMUTING TO IN METRO ATLANTA???***

This is critically-important because you don't want to end burdening your wife with a miserable rush hour commute to another part of Metro Atlanta by living too far away from where she will be working.

[zippyskippy1]

I appreciate all the responses. After spending some time "on the ground" in various areas of interest we found exactly what we were looking for in Acworth. We are situated in the southwestern part of the city which falls into Paulding county. Worked out well as we have some family working in the high school that my oldest daughter would be attending hehe. Commute looks good as my better half will be working in Kennesaw. Thanks again everyone.