Newnan vs. Villa Rica

[cool_mommy]

Originally Posted by pomartini

There are a ton of airline employees in Peachtree City, Sharpsburg, and Newnan. If you stay in Coweta County, I would make sure you are in the Canongate/Madras/Northgate catchment. If you are looking for a small town feel, I would suggest Sharpsburg as you will only have to travel a few minutes to shopping in Newnan and PTC.

Christian schools in the area: Heritage, Landmark, Trinity, as well as many other smaller schools.

While Canongate has a great reputation, there are other elementary schools in Newnan that are just as great or even better. Madras is touted as the best middle school (I agree) but I have heard some wonderful things about some of the other middle schools in Newnan as well. Northgate is considered to be the best high school but Newnan scores a close second. Research and word of mouth are surely the best ways to research schools and that is where asking on this forum is a great move! My favorite school research sites are schoolmatters.com, greatschools.net and GA's Board of Ed. web site.

We relocated to Newnan about one year ago and couldn't be happier. We live in a subdivision that is located in a rural setting with nice big lots. Every store and restaurant you can imagine are just minutes away. It really is the best of both worlds. The community is very nice, as are the people. We found a wonderful church and consider the congregation there are extended family. Newnan has a lovely historic downtown that is straight out of a picture book. (they film scenes for "October Road" there). Believe me, I could go on and on about Newnan, you can search my previous posts on Newnan to see what I mean.

The airport is about 25 minutes from Newnan without traffic. I have never travelled 85 during rush hour. I can tell you that a LOT of my neighbors work at the airport.

We looked at Villa Rica in the beginning of our relo research and quickly ruled it out. From everything I had found the schools there have a lot to be desired. Since moving to GA we have met people who live there and are moving out of Villa Rica because of the schools. That is just what I found on the internet and hearsay. Hopefully someone from the Villa Rica school district will reply to your post.

Bremen is a little west of Villa Rica and a wonderful choice. I'm not sure how much of a commute it would be to the airport. The schools are fantastic in Bremen and there are many wonderful subdivisions. We didn't choose Bremen because the lots we found were just too small for our liking.

We also looked at Peachtree City. The only problem we found with Peachtree City was the inability to easily access the highway. You have to go through many traffic lights to access the highway in the next town. If you hit each light as red your commute can become greatly increased!

Good luck with your relo and feel free to send me a DM with any questions I might be able to answer.

[boogiejb]

My husband works for World Airways and is starting a charter company. We have lots of pilot friends, and most of them live in Newnan or Peachtree City.

Newnan is in Coweta County and has great christian schools (Landmark), private schools (Heritiage) and public schools.

We LOVE Newnan, and live close to the historic downtown square (the West side of I-85), and it is like living in another time. The square has two great upscale resturants (Andre's off the Square and 10 East Washington) and also adorable upscale shops and more casual dining places.

Newnan was the wealthiest town per capita in the early 1900's, so there are some really beautiful homes. It was also one of the few towns in Georgia that was not burned in Civil War times, because it was a hospital for Confederate and Union Armies.

Interesting history, and a great small town feel. There are really two sides to the town: downtown where the true Newnaites live (west of I-85) and the newer developed area east of I-85 (towards Sharpsburg and Peachtree City). The east side of town has some nice affordable newer homes and planned communities (Summergrove, White Oak, Braburn, Olmstead, Sweetwater).

Also, there are two really nice communities on the west side, but north of town closer to the airport, they are Lake Redwine and Arbor Springs), both have really nice newer homes, trees, a 300-acre lake @ Redwine, and golf at Arbor Springs).

Newnan has a new shopping development that is quite nice called Ashley Park, it has Dillards, DSW, Joseph A. Banks, Best Buy, Ulta, Barns and Nobel, etc.

Peachtree City is a planned community, that has a high percentage of airline people. There are lots of trees and bike/run paths through out the town, as well as golf cart paths (popular mode of transportation there). All of the buildings and signs are below tree level, and the public schools are good.

Peachtree City has a shopping area called The Avenues and it has Williams-Sonoma, the Gap, Talbots, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic, etc. There is also a great smaller airport there and they have a non-profit that restores and flies WWII airplanes, and lots of privite pilots.

In PTC, there are a wide range of home prices starting in the $250's to 1mill+ and the taxes are higher because of the overall lifestyle and schools.

In Newnan and Sharpsburg the taxes are lower and the houses are a bit less expensive in comparison, but we prefer the less "planned community" feel of Newnan.

Roswell would not be a good option for traveling to the airport, and Villa Rica does not have as much to offer and is not as easy to get to as PTC or Newnan.

One more option is Brookhaven, a really nice community in north Atlanta, just outside of Buckhead and close to Virginia-Highlands (both the best shopping and dining areas in ATL). It is closer than Roswell, and has a Marta station right there. This area is more affluent community, with a mix of really nice older homes and newer homes in older established neighborhoods. The neighborhoods include (Brookhaven, Ashford Park, and many others). Much more expensive, but a great area to live.

Anything too north on I-85, I-75, or 400 would not be a good bet for your family. Lots of great places, but to get to the airport frequently would not be fun.

Also, I am grew up in Houston, TX and in the nice area (but, originally from Louisiana) and there is no contest, the Atlanta area is so much better. There are TREES and HILLS!! Yes HILLS!!! There is also prettier architecture, and I like the people better. My family never got used to the ways of Texas. Austin is not included, great town!

Happy House Hunting!

[barbijone]

villa rica on the lake, is that fairfield plantation? I figure that is pretty far from even I20

[crux]

Roswell is too far. McDonough (Lake Dow), Stockbridge (around Eagles Landing), Peachtree city, Fayetteville, Newnan, and Douglasville(Tributary) would be your better for those frequent commutes.

[travelingtrainer]

I just moved to Newnan (from Pensacola and Texas prior that) and like it here very much. I find the people to be exceptionally nice. The downtown area is great but I know nothing about schools. Good luck!

[kayrob]

Originally Posted by jananathan

We both fly for Delta so we will be going to and from the airport a lot. I know that our areas are all over the place but, we just don't know what side of town to live on. We figured that if we live on the North side, we could just take Marta in. I like the small town feel but I also like to have shops, malls etc. We found a house that I like in Newnan as well as in Villa Rica. The one in Villa Rica is on the lake, which is also nice, I just don't know about the town. I don't know anything about Roswell or any other areas to the North or East. So confusing to move to a new place. Please keep your comments coming. Thank you so much for all of your help.

Welcome. The first rude awakening is that mass transit here is not very convenient. For instance in none of the 3 towns that you mentioned can you catch a train without travellling a fairly good distance in bad traffic.

[brbarlow5]

i think Fayette County (peachtree city, fayetteville, or tyrone) is a great place to check out too because it's closer to the airport then newnan is and has everything newnans has. The commute is like 15-20 minutes and the newnan cummute is more like 25-30 minutes. Honestly i think fayette county schools are as good as coweta's if not better.

[todd hayes]

ptc might be closer to the airport than newnan but you cant get there any faster because the interstate doesnt run through ptc or even fayette county newnan you hoop right on the interstate

[sjuraud]

There are a few intown Marta stations that have a park and ride. One problem with that is that some of them have are free to park in but have a time limit of 24 hours or less. There are also some paid park and ride stations that are marked on their website as $5 - $8 a day parking. So if you wanted to find an intown neighborhood it could be an option also. MARTA > Using MARTA > Parking Information

[gtjared]

I commute to Atlanta daily from Newnan and up to the airport traffic is not to much of an issue unless theres an accident or something. Coming from Peachtree city takes much longer because you have that long stretch of hwy 74 with traffic lights before you even hit the interstate. I think Newnan would be a great choice