Cumming, Canton, Cartersville area info needed! (Atlanta, Alpharetta: low crime, lawyer, houses)

[MovingASAP]

Hey everybody, I've accepted a new position with my company that involves relocating to Atlanta area. I'll be traveling 4-5 days a week so location doesn't matter too much. With that said, we're looking for newer (or new) homes in the $350k range in areas with low crime and great schools and close to all the stores we're used to (Home Depot, Target, etc). We've narrowed our search down to really Cumming, Canton, and Carter Grove in Cartersville because we'd like to stay north of Atlanta. I've searched this forum and gotten some info but not really enough. We have several children (all ages) and want to make sure we relocate so a safe area. So any info would be greatly appreciated including specific neighborhoods to check out or areas to avoid (for instance avoid Cumming area near Tyson plant because of smell or avoid this area because of crime or poverty, etc). I've heard the crime is high in Cumming, which seems shocking to me considering the smaller population but I have not seen anyone confirming that. We're headed up in a couple weeks to stay and check out the area but I'm hoping to have a better understanding ahead of time. Any and all information is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[flyonpa]

The City of Cumming (A very small part of Forsyth County), Depends on where you are living in the city limits. Some area are great, some not so.

The school are very good (Schools are county based),

For 350K you would probably need to be outside the Cumming City Limits, In Unincorporated Forsyth.

The Crime rate is low, (Cumming is pushed up some due to retail areas, and some lower income demographics).

Where do you Travel to: Driving all over the SE, or going to ATL and flying out?

[JayFromCT]

I moved to Cumming from CT. You might want to stick to the area of Cumming around exits 12 and 13 on GA 400. Closer to the Alpharetta line. Check out West Oaks sub-division, though you might struggle to find anything under 400K...houses in this sub-division was going for low 300s only a year and a half ago are now over close to or over $400K.

The West oaks subdivision is literally a mile and a half away from Alpharetta amenities...Publix about 2 miles away, Walmart 3 miles, Target about 4 miles and windward Parkway restaurants, about 2 miles further down. The collections at Forsyth is another 6 miles from the sub-division in the opposite direction.

Vickery Creek elementary and middle schools, West Forsyth, Midway elementary school are all great schools ranked 8/10 or above.

Aside from the occasional confederate flag on the back of trucks driven by the native southerners, you will feel right at home in Cumming.

[Need4Camaro]

I actually never knew Cumming had a crime issue, I personally consider it to be a fairly up right suburb and probably about as good as you can get cost of living versus what you get off of GA-400.

If you are going to be DRIVING out of Atlanta and location is important to you in that regard, I wouldn't recommend cumming because it's not near an actual interstate, it's near GA-400 (freeway) which you will need to take to I-285 and then to another Interstate before you can leave Atlanta, HOWEVER; It IS near Lake Lanier and Lake Lanier Islands which is great for recreation purposes.

For Cartersville I wouldn't recommend, sorry but thats just me, I have heard some pretty bad stuff up there and I could be wrong but I personally wouldn't move there.

Canton isn't too bad but carries the same disposiiton as Cumming that its kind of off centered so its hard to leave the metro area from there. If going north to TN then take GA-20 to I-75, if going south use I-575 to I-75 and then onward to your destination. Canton also offers mountain front property and beautiful views from that region. It would be a tie between Cumming and Canton in that regard. Have you considered Kennesaw or Woodstock ? I think those would be better options given your criteria. There's also Buford and Gainesville.

[English Ivy]

I agree with the advice given so far. I'm familiar with all three cities, and between them, would recommend Cumming (specifically South Forsyth county bordering Johns Creek and Alpharetta) because of the great schools, safety, and all the suburban amenities you want. If housing is too expensive for you in Cumming, second choice would be Canton, but the schools aren't quite as good. Cartersville is most affordable, and mostly blue-collar, people with less education working factory jobs. Schools aren't as great.

But why have you narrowed it down to those three? What about Johns Creek, East Cobb, Kennesaw? These are also very family-friendly suburbs with great schools and shopping.

Will you need regular access to the airport when traveling for work, or just driving?

[MovingASAP]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I'd like to stay around the 350k range but could go up depending. I'll be traveling all over the southeast but mostly all around Atlanta area so as long as I'm near Atlanta is what's important. We narrowed it down to those cities because we wanted to be north of Atlanta and closer to the mountains as well as in a more affordable and newer area. We currently live in a home we built an we'd like to build again, even though we would consider an older home. I think Alpharetta and John's Creek might be just too expensive for what we're looking to spend. We need a lot of space and are looking at 3000+ sqft homes and the dollar doesn't go as far down there. We've seen what appears to be some decent neighborhoods with new construction but they're mostly in the coal mountain area of North cumming or towards the free home area between cumming and canton. Looks like they'd still be within a short drive of everything we'd want but we just aren't familiar enough with the area to know if we should avoid them.

[MovingASAP]

Also we did visit the Kennesaw and Woodstock areas and although beautiful, they seemed to be heavily congested. We don't care too much about restaurants and bars and nightlife and would rather be in a less populated area.

[flyonpa]

If you are doing alot of driving, I would try to stay as closer to GA400 or I575.

GA20 can be slow both east and west. But Free Home is good if your travels will be taking you down both GA400/I575 equally

Traffic is HEAVY/SLOW on all the interstates during rush hour, (6am-9am 3p-7p)

The Forsyth and Cherokee County schools are both very good systems, But Some of the school, do serve a more transient population, and tend to lag behind the other schools in the system.

[plan84]

You may want to look at the Coal Mountain neighborhood north of Cumming (but in Forsyth County)(North Forsyth High School). That is where a lot of the growth is for folks looking just north of $300k. Anything south of there is $400+. Coal Mountain is near SR400, which though it is a state road, for all intents and purposes is the same as an I-85.

The "exit" off SR400 for Coal Mountain is currently an intersection but will soon be a fully functioning interchange. The area is planned for a lot of infrastructure improvements in the next two years. Including the new 400 overpass/interchange at SR369/400, finishing the 400 road widening, SR369 road widening...

You are a couple minutes from a brand new Wal Mart, a couple minutes from a new publix, a couple more minutes from Costco/Kohls/Target/BJ's, etc.

Also you are 15 minutes from the N GA Outlets to the north, which has developed significantly including new groceries like Publix & Kroger, and about 15 minutes to Alpharetta.

The schools in Forsyth are by far the best in the Atlanta Metro also (top 3 in the state).

Forsyth also is the fastest growing county in the state and top ten in the nation with significantly lower property taxes than Fulton/Gwinnett which it borders.

Cartersville is barely metro. Canton is also on the way out, but more affordable homes, way up I-575 rather than SR400.

Also, there are two Cummings, Cumming proper, which is a small town (5,000) with government services/lawyer offices/couple of industrial plants/ and car lots, and then you have all of the neighborhoods that surround it and for post office purposes are also considered "Cumming." That is the Cumming you think of. But they are very different.

In terms of getting to work, traffic is bad going south anywhere north of 285 (75/575/400/985/85) in the morning and reverse in the afternoon.

South Forsyth might start around $400, Alpharetta and Johns Creek are the pinnacle of the burbs and probably start at at least $550 or more.

[MovingASAP]

We're going to check out a couple of new construction neighborhoods around the coal mountain area next week actually. I think we've probably gathered enough info about Cartersville to steer clear of there. Canton is on its way out also I believe. We've pretty much narrowed it down to Rivergreen in Canton but Pulte only has 2 lots left that we'd even be interested in and possibly Cherokee Reserve near Hickory Flat. Based on pricing I'm finding that everyone is exactly right. It's nearly impossible to get anything reasonable in the south Forsyth county for $400k or under. Not a huge deal but I also don't want to be in an undesirable area or somewhere less likely to see growth or home values increase. Hopefully we never move again lol but value is something to consider for sure.