Moving to atlanta soon? Read this first

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

1. Budget Ideally buying a house in the $600k-800k range. Can go a bit higher, if needed.

2. House/Condo/Townhome? House (4-5 bedrooms, prefer newer or nicely renovated)
3. Employment Status(commute/work from home)Likely commuting. Considering job opportunity in the Duluth/Suwanee area. In my wife's field (Tech), she'd likely land a job in that area, Alpharetta or Buckhead, but that is TBD
4. Children(public school vs. private) Would prefer good public schools. Can afford private if the home is on the lower end of the range
5. Suburban or Urban lifestyle preference or a mix of the two Mix would be preferred.
Like the space afforded with suburbia, but also like a somewhat walkable downtown area
6. Easy access to public transit, important or not? Would be nice, but not a requirement.
My job may require frequent flying, so am a little concerned about being so far from the airport
7. Preferable demographics of desired neighborhood. Do like to expose our children to other races (we are white). However, like to be in an upper middle class area with low crime and high achieving peers for our kids to hang out with. We also tend to be socially liberal, fiscally moderate/conservative and agnostic. Don't want to live anywhere that is just ardent Trump supporters/religious zealots.

Yours is complicated. You seem like a good fit for one of the higher end neighborhoods in the city - your price range works, you get good public schools, diversity, lower crime, public transit, and definitely a very liberal Trump hating population. However, you would be commuting to Duluth and Alpharetta. If you choose to live out there, it would mean a more conservative and less diverse population, and commuting into the city for amenities, but not commuting in for work. Hard decision. You seem like a good match for Candler Park, Virginia Highland, Lake Claire neighborhoods, or City of Decatur.

[roadwarrior101]

Originally Posted by Forhall

Yours is complicated. You seem like a good fit for one of the higher end neighborhoods in the city - your price range works, you get good public schools, diversity, lower crime, public transit, and definitely a very liberal Trump hating population. However, you would be commuting to Duluth and Alpharetta. If you choose to live out there, it would mean a more conservative and less diverse population, and commuting into the city for amenities, but not commuting in for work. Hard decision. You seem like a good match for Candler Park, Virginia Highland, Lake Claire neighborhoods, or City of Decatur.

Looking at the demographics for those areas, they look predominately white, but with a fairly sizeable Asian population (Indian, Chinese, Korean). I get that those areas lean red, as evidenced by the voting patterns. But, I've also read that this has been changing. Will I stick out for my political views and lack of religion or will there be a lot of others in our situation?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Forhall

Yours is complicated. You seem like a good fit for one of the higher end neighborhoods in the city - your price range works, you get good public schools, diversity, lower crime, public transit, and definitely a very liberal Trump hating population. However, you would be commuting to Duluth and Alpharetta. If you choose to live out there, it would mean a more conservative and less diverse population, and commuting into the city for amenities, but not commuting in for work. Hard decision. You seem like a good match for Candler Park, Virginia Highland, Lake Claire neighborhoods, or City of Decatur.

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Looking at the demographics for those areas, they look predominately white, but with a fairly sizeable Asian population (Indian, Chinese, Korean). I get that those areas lean red, as evidenced by the voting patterns. But, I've also read that this has been changing. Will I stick out for my political views and lack of religion or will there be a lot of others in our situation?

I agree with Forhall that the OP would be a good fit for one of the higher-end neighborhoods in the city.

But Northside suburban areas like Duluth and Alpharetta are not exactly the epitome of doctrinaire conservatism in this day and age and those areas are not exactly the kinds of areas where Trumpism (Trump Republicanism/conservatism) thrives.

Duluth is an ultra-diverse suburban community with a majority-minority population in a large and fast-growing suburban county (Gwinnett) with one of the absolute most diverse majority-minority populations in the entire Southeastern U.S.

Gwinnett County (where Duluth and Suwanee are located) is a traditionally Republican-dominated county that is on the verge of becoming a Democratic-dominated county in the very near future on the strength of the fast-changing demographics of the county where non-Hispanic whites now make up only less than 39% of the population.

Alpharetta is one of Atlanta's most-progressive and forward-looking outer suburbs with a thriving Tech industry scene and an increasingly diverse and affluent population.

To relate to you in terms that a Southern Californian might be able to better understand, Atlanta may have about one-third of the metropolitan/regional population of Los Angeles and Southern California, but many observers think of Atlanta as a Southeastern U.S. version of Los Angeles (a 'pocket L.A.' if you will) because of the parallels of a very politically, culturally and socially dominant suburban culture, an extremely car-oriented culture and a Hollywood-like characteristic of the area that has emerged with the improbable and stunning rise of Georgia's Atlanta-based TV and Film Production scene which is now only second to L.A. in its size and production.

In that vein, think of Gwinnett County and North/Northeast suburban metro Atlanta (including Alpharetta and North Fulton County) as a Southeastern U.S. version of sorts of an outlying Southern California suburban/post-suburban area like a San Gabriel Valley or a San Fernando Valley.

The North Atlanta suburbs may generally be more conservative than you might used to after living in Southern California, especially as one gets farther out into outlying outer-suburban areas like Forsyth and Hall counties and beyond.

But by Georgia and Southeastern U.S. standards, the North Atlanta suburbs are very progressive, diverse, tolerant and inclusive where one will find top-notch public schools (some of the absolute best public schools in the Southeastern U.S. can be found in North Fulton, South Forsyth and Gwinnett counties) and many, many, MANY transplanted residents from other parts of the country (like the West Coast and ESPECIALLY the Midwestern and Northeastern parts of the U.S.) and the world (Asia, Latin America and Africa).

Though you may encounter a few more conservatives (and even quite a few 'super-conservatives') than you might encounter in Southern California, you will not stick out for your political views and lack of religion and will find many, many others in a similar situation in this area in the cosmopolitan North Atlanta suburbs where you will find an extremely diverse range of political views and religious and non-religious practices.

You will generally find an environment that, while traditionally conservative, is trending heavily towards political, social and cultural moderation and progressiveness in the extremely affluent and increasingly diverse North Atlanta suburbs.

With that said, Need4Camaro's recommendations of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Suwanee and/or Buford are excellent recommendations for the areas that you are looking at.

Since you are considering a job in the Duluth/Suwanee area, you can also add areas like Duluth, Sugar Hill and Cumming to that list of areas to consider.

Like Forhall mentioned, living in an upscale Intown neighborhood while working in an Intown business district like Buckhead or reverse-commuting out to areas like Alpharetta and/or Duluth/Suwanee are also a viable option. Though suburban communities (like Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Suwanee, Buford, Duluth and Cumming) will offer the type of suburban lifestyle that you are looking for in areas with excellent/exceptional public schools, moderate/progressive politics and an increasingly very-diverse (ultra-diverse) population north/northeast of Atlanta.