Others areas near Atlanta besides PTC for Families (Roswell, Alpharetta: rental, low crime)

[kad1974]

Hello!

My husband and I are looking to relocate around the Atlanta area (his office is there and needs to commute a few days a week). We are looking for a family friendly, great schools, safe area to live. We have liked alot about PTC and just didn't know if we may be missing another place??

We also may consider renting first, due to not knowing the area at all. Our price range for buying is up to $290,000 and renting $2200/month. We have 2 dogs and this may be an issue with renting, if anybody knows of a great place to rent that allows dogs please let me know.

We'd really like to have our own pool, or a community that has a pool for the kids. I have considered Homeschooling but, I'm scared to take that plunge so I really want to find a safe, well educated, disciplined school for our children. They are 7 and 13 and I haven't enjoyed the rude, crazy behavior of the children here in CT. I'm hoping to find a much calmer atmosphere for our children to grow with.

Thank you in advance!!!

[RainyRainyDay]

Peachtree City is said to be very nice, but metro Atlanta has over 5 million people, and it certainly includes many other very nice, family-friendly areas with good schools.

Where in the metro is your husband's office? Even if he doesn't need to go in to the office every day, if it's "a few days a week" as you wrote, a terrible office commute is really going to undermine his and the family's quality of life. Atlanta traffic is bad, so you do need to take it into account. If you say where the office is, people here will likely have good suggestions about where you should look for housing.

About renting with dogs - we rented with two large dogs when we first moved to metro Atlanta. I was apprehensive about being able to find a rental which would take them, but it wasn't actually much of a problem. With the current state of the housing market, I think landlords can't afford to be too selective, so I suspect you won't have too much trouble finding a rental that will accept your pets.

[kad1974]

My husbands office is in Norcross,I hope this helps with his location. I'm not familar with the area at all
Thanks again !

[BobKovacs]

You can look up in Cherokee County if he's only going to the office a few times a week- not sure I'd want to do the trip to Norcross every day from there. You'll find great schools, affordable homes, low crime, and pretty laid back family-friendly folks.

PTC to Norcross is not a great idea, btw- you'll be driving through Atlanta, and looking at an easy hour+ commute on a good day.

[RainyRainyDay]

Norcross is well on the north side of metro Atlanta, while PTC is far south. Commuting between the two even one day a week would just make no sense at all, if the only reason you're looking at PTC is because you heard it's nice.

The northern suburbs of Atlanta are considered very desirable, with lots of very family-friendly areas with excellent schools. I'm not really familiar with the north-east side, where Norcross is, but from the look of the map, it's close to some parts of Gwinnett County that might meet your criteria. Hopefully somebody who knows the area better will chime in on this thread.

[kad1974]

Thank you! any further advice from others would be great!

[Iconographer]

There are several communities in the northern Gwinnett County area that should give you what you want, as well as proximity to Norcross:

Welcome to Suwanee, Georgia

City of Buford - Home Page

Peachtree Corners, Georgia - Peachtree Corners

City of Duluth, Georgia

City of Sugar Hill, Georgia - Welcome to Sugar Hill, Georgia

In DeKalb County, the city of Dunwoody is also very convenient to Norcross:

City of Dunwoody, Georgia

[kaabye]

Originally Posted by kad1974

Thank you! any further advice from others would be great!

Do not move to peachtree city if working in norcross, ga with the average Atlanta area traffic you would have a few hours a day commute and very high blood pressure. On your way north to Norcross you would have to go through down town and then back again every day (not good).

Duluth is nice or Alpharetta (they are both suburbs) and in the same area as Norcross. I would check the schools online to see which score the best. Atlanta schools are hit and miss and you can't assume that just because the area you are looking in is expensive=good school. In Atlanta you want to move to an area that is close to your work or (and this one is critical) going against the flow of traffic (on many highways the traffic is bad one way and fine the other).

I would suggest renting for a year to get a feeling for Atlanta and then buy.

That way you can check out the many different areas and feeling of each before making a huge commitment.

Lastly I would also recommend intown areas in Atlanta but your budget needs to be more flexible as they tend to be more expensive (morningside, vahighlands, buckhead, decatur).

[CHL208]

alpharetta is close to norcross and my family loves it! They have fantastic schools as well.

[roxyrn]

We moved from New York/CT (New Canaan) area last month and have been living in corporate housing in Alpharetta until our house closing this week in Roswell. The more time I spend in Roswell, the happier I am that we will be living there. Love the sense of community from Alive After Five to the bike races on Sunday and the variety of shops and restaurants in the historic district.