Housing Search (Atlanta, North Atlanta, Alpharetta: theater, camps, cabinets)

[Born 2 Roll]

Congratulations on finally being able to find a home in a hotly competitive real estate market in the South Forsyth County swath of the North Atlanta outer suburbs.

I’m sorry that you were not able to find a home in an active swim-tennis community. That’s obviously a major disappointment.

But it is a very good thing that you were able to find the kind of home in which you and your family will feel comfortable living in an increasingly diverse area of extremely highly rated schools in the South Forsyth High School cluster in an area that provides access to loads of high quality amenities in South Forsyth County.

[aries4118]

Congratulations!

[suzy_q2010]

Welcome to Georgia!

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by hereticiam

We gave up the need for an active swim-tennis community. We would have loved to live in Laurel Springs, Windermere, Edinburg, or Three Chimneys. We saw 4-5 homes in Laurel Springs but they were old, dated, and had no yard.

The home is located in a community that has large 1-2 acre lot sizes but there are no shared amenities.
Our kids will participate in sports and other activities at school so we are hopeful that they will make friends.

To increase the chances of you and your family quickly meeting new people and making lots of new friends after moving to South Forsyth County and the Atlanta suburbs, you and your family could engage in such activities as:

> Inquiring to see if a nearby robustly active swim/tennis community might be willing to let your family participate in recreational clubs and activities and use their pool and/or tennis facilities…

> Taking advantage of the numerous community recreation and athletic programs available through the Forsyth County Parks & Recreation department…

Forsyth County Parks & Recreation - Activities, Camps & Programs

> Participating and becoming active with the Parents Teachers Students Organization at your kids’ schools, including at South Forsyth High School…

South Forsyth High School PTSO

South Forsyth High School PTSO | Cumming, GA | Facebook

> Participating and becoming active with the South Forsyth High School Touchdown Club (booster club) in a part of the country (in the South) where football is the dominant sport that generates the most attention from all quarters of the community. Being active in the football touchdown club/booster club is an excellent way to meet and network with people from all walks of life in the community, including with people at the highest levels of the community like local and state leaders, businesspeople, other power brokers, etc. Much of Southern community social life revolves around the action on the gridiron on high school football Friday nights and college football Saturdays…

South Forsyth Touchdown Club (SFTDC)

Originally Posted by hereticiam

Now that 15 months of home search is over we are switching to planning the move. We already had movers lined up. They were ready to move us to Atlanta or Dallas.
We will move in the week of June 25.

It was very difficult to buy a home in Atlanta. I would have easily given up and moved to another state were it not for your wealth of knowledge and willingness to help us.

A significant bit of irony is that it was not anywhere near this difficult to buy a home in the Atlanta suburbs before about the year 2015 when the level of competitiveness really began to ramp up to the current levels of high (and at times even extreme) competitiveness that we see today in the North metro Atlanta housing market, particularly in a very high demand area like North Fulton and South Forsyth counties.

Before the year 2015, purchasing a home in the Atlanta suburbs generally has been exceedingly easy to the point that Atlanta historically has had a reputation for being one of the least expensive and least competitive large major metropolitan areas in which to buy a home. Historically, Atlanta has often been recognized as a market where a lot of overbuilding has occurred during economic expansions, particularly during the decades of the 1980’s, the 1990’s and the 2000’s.

[beach43ofus]

You chose well going for Forsyth County instead of Gwinnett...much lower property taxes, and better county amenities.

We LOVED Edinburgh in Gwinnett & North Gwinnett High School's cluster, & lived there 15 yrs., but its past its prime...now in decline & overcrowded.

If I had to move back, I'd move to North Forsyth county, or even further North.

Traffic is rough there, but I think you'll think its worth it, and competitive swimming there is 2nd to none if you join Swim Atlanta's team.

Our Son played travel baseball w/ kids who attended South Forsyth & Lambert, and every one of those families were A+.

Keep us posted as to how its going. If you run in to any issues, we might be able to help. I'm very excited for you all.

[DoubleZ OTP]

Congrats, hereticiam, on your new home!

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

You chose well going for Forsyth County instead of Gwinnett...much lower property taxes, and better county amenities.

We LOVED Edinburgh in Gwinnett & North Gwinnett High School's cluster, & lived there 15 yrs., but its past its prime...now in decline & overcrowded.

As someone who was raised in South Forsyth County, someone who visits Forsyth County often (to see family and friends mostly), and as someone who has spent some time in Suwanee and Duluth recently... I cannot agree with this assessment at all as it pertains to that area of Gwinnett County -- except for the taxes, which are indeed much lower in Forsyth County (though it should be noted that Forsyth County is slowly losing its tax advantages).

Of course, this is mostly subjective.

[hereticiam]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

To increase the chances of you and your family quickly meeting new people and making lots of new friends after moving to South Forsyth County and the Atlanta suburbs, you and your family could engage in such activities as:

> Inquiring to see if a nearby robustly active swim/tennis community might be willing to let your family participate in recreational clubs and activities and use their pool and/or tennis facilities…

> Taking advantage of the numerous community recreation and athletic programs available through the Forsyth County Parks & Recreation department…

Forsyth County Parks & Recreation - Activities, Camps & Programs

> Participating and becoming active with the Parents Teachers Students Organization at your kids’ schools, including at South Forsyth High School…

South Forsyth High School PTSO

South Forsyth High School PTSO | Cumming, GA | Facebook

> Participating and becoming active with the South Forsyth High School Touchdown Club (booster club) in a part of the country (in the South) where football is the dominant sport that generates the most attention from all quarters of the community. Being active in the football touchdown club/booster club is an excellent way to meet and network with people from all walks of life in the community, including with people at the highest levels of the community like local and state leaders, businesspeople, other power brokers, etc. Much of Southern community social life revolves around the action on the gridiron on high school football Friday nights and college football Saturdays…

South Forsyth Touchdown Club (SFTDC)




A significant bit of irony is that it was not anywhere near this difficult to buy a home in the Atlanta suburbs before about the year 2015 when the level of competitiveness really began to ramp up to the current levels of high (and at times even extreme) competitiveness that we see today in the North metro Atlanta housing market, particularly in a very high demand area like North Fulton and South Forsyth counties.

Before the year 2015, purchasing a home in the Atlanta suburbs generally has been exceedingly easy to the point that Atlanta historically has had a reputation for being one of the least expensive and least competitive large major metropolitan areas in which to buy a home. Historically, Atlanta has often been recognized as a market where a lot of overbuilding has occurred during economic expansions, particularly during the decades of the 1980’s, the 1990’s and the 2000’s.

Thanks for sharing all the resources I can leverage to keep my kids busy. I don't know how full some of these camps are but they look awesome to me.

We were closely looking at both Atlanta and Dallas. One of the reasons why I like Atlanta over Dallas was its excellent swim/tennis communities. It is too bad we were unable to find a home of our liking in any of the swim/tennis communities. I could not spend 1.2-1.4 for dated homes with small yards in St. Marlo or 1.1 to 1.3 for dated homes with small yards in Laurel Springs. This month only 1 home in Windermere was listed. We made the appointment on the very first day but it was sold even before we could see it.

The home we are buying is in Balmoral Community which is not too far from Windermere.

I already looked into purchasing a membership at Windermere but that is not possible.
We will see if other options exist. As long as it is not too far from where we live we will explore other membership options.

When I purchased my home in MN in mid-2000's at the time I had friends in Atlanta who told me that homes are less expensive in Atlanta. I spent 900K on my home in the mid-2000s. It was built but a smaller builder and the build quality was excellent. We had Brazillian cherry floors, sold core cherry doors, cherry cabinets, Brazilian hardwood IPE deck, we had 3 Home Theaters, it had Crestron audio distribution with speakers in 11 rooms, two full kitchens, and modern lighting. The problem is that we bought at the top of the market and paid too much. The home prices went down and when we sold this year barely broke even. As I was looking for homes in Atlanta in the price range of 1-1.3 million the build quality was lower than my current home. Initially, this was a surprise. When I looked a bit closer the reason was the housing prices went up significantly in Atlanta in the past 5-7 years. So if I wanted to buy a home with a similar build quality as mine I would have had to pay between 1.5-1.8 million.

The home I am buying was built in 2011 and was purchased for 482K. They added a pool in 2016. Now the same home is 1.2 million. Obviously, a 482K home cannot compare in build quality with the 900K home I purchased in mid-2000s. The home has engineered wood floors. We plan to replace them. We will redo the kitchen and build a nice outdoor kitchen. Our new home already has beautiful outdoors and that was the primary reason to move south I am fine with paying more and getting lesser build quality. I should have moved here in 2006. I could have lived in the Manor in Milton for a 900K home and it would be over 2 million now :-)

Sharing all this detail so others who are in a similar situation can learn from my experience.

Thank you all for your suggestions they will go a long way in getting settled and making new friends.

[ShenardL]

Congratulations!

[Go Blue 99]

Originally Posted by roxyrn

I am glad that my children spent much of their early lives in Minnesota. Yes, it took a lot to get them bundled and unbundled, sometimes several times a day. But, they got to play in the snow, building snowmen and forts, making snow angels, having snowball fights and then warming up inside with hot cocoa. By the time they were three, they could ski and ice-skate.

As an adult, I'm happy to be out of the extreme cold and snow.

I feel the same way! I grew up in Boston and some of my happiest childhood memories are in the snow. I feel sad at times that my kids won't get to experience that. But hey, at least I don't need to shovel or drive in it as an adult

[Go Blue 99]

Congrats OP on finding the new home! It's good timing as you will be settled in for the new school year.