Safe Luxury

Moving to Atlanta with 2 children and looking for a safe family friendly neighborhood with excellent schools.?

My family is relocating to Atlanta this summer and we’re wondering which communities we should look at when buying a home. My husband has been transferred through his work and will be working in an office very near the Perimeter Mall. We're looking for a safe, family friendly neighborhood with excellent schools for our two children. We would like to keep the commute reasonable and wouldn't mind paying more for a house in a desirable neighborhood. We’re definitely suburb people and don’t care if we’re far from the city, shopping, etc. Any suggestions?

Public Comments

1. don't move to Decatur theres to much crime but some parts are very nice i like stone mountain that's a very nice family friendly neighborhood and college park nice as well
2. Idk Atlanta really isn't safe at all I'd move to Dville theres a lot of good schools like Mount Carmel elementary and Chapel Hill High School and Harvester Academy. And theres a shopping mall there too. Real family oriented
3. East Cobb County and North Fulton county both have great schools and very nice and friendly neighborhoods. I lived in that area for 16 years, I live in Austin now and hope to go back someday.
4. I researched areas before I moved down to Marietta, Georgia. I think Cobb County is one of the best counties in the Atlanta area. I couldn't stay there because I'm a single female from the west, things did not work out for me, and I had to move back to the west. I lived in a cheap apartment in Marietta, which I would never do again, but since your husband is getting a job transfer, I'm sure that you won't have the problems I had. You will find a lot of decent neighborhoods there. Roswell is also nice, but I think you wouldn't want to move too far from your husband's job because the traffic can get really bad, like it is in any major city.
5. Forsyth County has some of the best schools around. Great place to live, too. Alpharetta is a very nice city, although homes are expensive. Roswell is also a nice place.
6. If you can afford it, Dunwoody (that would be my #1). If not get really close to Dunwoody and live in Chamblee (#2), the schools are pretty good there. If you need further out try Cobb County areas like- Smyrna, canton, mableton, or Gwinnett county- think Lawrenceville, Loganville, Snellville, Duluth, Norcross is good too. Go up GA 400 and look at Alpharetta- great schools, suburban. Roswell - same thing This should help get you started. Traffic is a nasty nightmare, especially on Fridays so give it some consideration and do some test drives before you sign a contract on a home.
7. Academically E. Cobb, N. Fulton, and parts of Dekalb have pretty good schools, but you need to decide what is important to you in a school - test scores, size of school, % free lunch, % non-english, length of bus ride, # of problem kids, etc. In our Roswell neighborhood, many send their kids to private school. Note that house prices vary quite a bit with the quality of school, if private school is an option, you may be able to save a good bit on a house and use the money for private school - better education, smaller class sizes, fewer problem kids. The traffic near Perimeter Mall is famous for gridlock, so keep that in consideration when choosing where to live. The GA public education report card at http://reportcard2006.gaosa.org/k12/default.aspx has a lot of details and comparison information.
8. If you need any help with moving to the Atlanta area, I would check out www.knowatlanta.com. It's a great mag that really helped me out when I moved here!
9. Southern Cherokee County is a nice area and maybe 30 minutes from Atlanta on a good day. I think the East Cobb or Alpharetta area is probably the best bet though