Don’t Move To Atlanta Unless You Can Handle These 10 Things

Don't move to Atlanta unless you can handle these 10 things. First thing you should know is that the crime in Atlanta kind of varies block by block. You can be in one part of Atlanta and it have a very low crime rate. And then you can be across the street and in a different part of Atlanta and it have a completely different crime rate. And so these different parts of Atlanta are obviously something you want to be very aware of. This is something that we help out our clients with understanding the different areas. What area is right for them? If you are a family with young kids then maybe you want to be in a safer part of town farther away from the middle of Atlanta. Or maybe you're a younger person and you don't necessarily have kids and so you're not really worried about that and you're willing to be closer to work closer to the middle of Atlanta. And so these different areas of Atlanta are certainly important in understanding the crime rates in the different parts of Atlanta are obviously something that you want to be aware of. What's up y'all my name is Victor with Atlanta Suburban Living. We put out videos every week about what it's like to live in Atlanta and the suburbs of Atlanta. Another reason why you might not want to move here unless you can handle this is the suburban sprawl in Atlanta. There is the city of Atlanta but then there's also the suburbs that are outside of Atlanta. And as more and more people move to Metro Atlanta this kind of sprawl is just spreading out more and more. Really I would say that the Metro Atlanta area reaches as far north as maybe Canton or maybe even Ellijay. And while you can get a lot of land for your home in these areas and while there's a lot less crime in these areas that are farther away from the center of Atlanta this does mean that you have a long commute. This is one of the biggest challenges that I find with many people who are moving to the Metro Atlanta area is that they want a newer home with lots of land and low crime but they also want that commute to work to be not an hour and a half. And so if you lived in Canton and you were driving to Atlanta for work your commute would legit be like an hour and a half. And so that's obviously a hard pill to swallow for many people but this is what happens in Metro Atlanta. As more and more people are moving here we're really starting to spread out that Metro area wider and wider. And so facing that challenge is not something that you can handle then you might not want to choose Metro Atlanta as your new home. Number three on the list of the things that you might not want to move here unless you can handle is the issue of driving on ice. While we don't get a whole lot of snow here in Atlanta what we do get is sometimes ice on the road. What happens is very often in the wintertime the afternoon temperature is above freezing and then maybe we get some rain and then come evening that temperature dips down below freezing so all of that water that has been on the roads is now turned to ice. And so this was the big factor the big thing that led to what we in Atlanta refer to as snowmageddon. Like 10 years ago or so there was snowmageddon or snowpocalypse as some people call it where there was a traffic jam in Atlanta that lasted for like one or two days. My father-in-law was on the road for about two days 48 hours something crazy like that because the water the rain turned to ice that evening and it really didn't melt and so then we had this like sheet of ice along the roads that made it impossible for anyone to get around and all of these cars that were on the road were stuck on the road. Add to that the fact that we have so many hills here in Atlanta and it was impossible to get around going up the hill on the ice or sliding down the hill. In fact 10 years ago I worked on the ambulance I was an EMT and during snowpocalypse I was driving an ambulance on the ice going up and down those hills. It was craziness. We were like trying to literally push the ambulance like getting out and like on our feet trying to push the ambulance. It was nuts. The whole city of Atlanta was having to deal with this and all of this has to do with the fact that we get so much ice during the wintertime because of where we are geographically and how we get that rain in the afternoon and turns to ice in the evening. Certainly something to think about if you plan on moving here. Number four on the list of the things you need to be able to handle if you plan on moving here is the heat and humidity of the Atlanta area. No question that we have like crazy high humidity here 95% humidity during the summertime and then you add to that 95 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit and you have kind of an unbearable temperature during the summertime. Not only do we have that humidity but that also leads to like humidity even within the homes. The homes really need to have an effective way of taking the humidity out of the air. Obviously you don't want the inside of your home to be humid. That would lead to a lot of problems from moisture to mold to all kinds of things and so this is actually a regular part of living in Metro Atlanta is making sure that you have some way to take the humidity out of the air in the home. Usually the HVAC can handle that. That is one of the jobs of an HVAC system is to be able to take the humidity out of the air but we often have basements here in Metro Atlanta where the HVAC does not serve the basement and so those people often get dehumidifiers to be able to handle that humidity. Either way this is a regular part of living in Metro Atlanta. Number five on the list of the things you need to be able to handle before moving here is the competition for housing. The housing demand here in Metro Atlanta is very high. Very often people are moving here for to find the lower cost of living or because many employers are moving here and so we have kind of like growing economy and we have that lower cost of living and so all of this means that there are many people very often going for the same area or the same neighborhood or maybe even the same house. There are many things that we do here in Metro Atlanta to be able to beat out that competition. In fact if you're planning on moving here or you just have any questions about what it's like to live in Metro Atlanta feel free to call, text, or email me anytime. I'm a local realtor here. Thank you so much to everybody who has reached out. I'm always happy to help but a few things that we do to get ahead of the buyer competition is first of all putting our clients through underwriting. This gives you a huge leg up against the competition. The other thing is really understanding the market. How much lower than the list price will a seller accept? What are we doing in a multiple offer situation? Or sometimes we're even using a home sale contingency to protect your home that you're selling in one state to be able to buy the new home here in Georgia. Many different things that we can do to beat out that buyer competition but that's really something that you need to be aware of if you're planning on buying a home in Metro Atlanta. And then speaking of homes number six on the list is understanding that many of the homes here have this kind of older style to them. We have a lot of 70s and 80s and 90s homes here in Metro Atlanta. We do certainly have some new construction but it's not nearly as common as some of these older style homes. And fortunately we're finally starting to see that many home sellers are remodeling their 80s homes or their 90s homes with new flooring and more modern kind of layouts. But this is the norm here in Georgia and in Metro Atlanta to have these older style homes. And this really surprises many people who decide to make the move to Metro Atlanta. Number seven on the list is understanding that we've got a lot of pollen here. And so if you can't handle the pollen or you have seasonal allergies this might not be the right place for you. I have seasonal allergies so I take one of those daily like Claritin allergy pills to be able to help out with that allergy. But during the spring it's like we have tons of pollen and tons of different things that cause allergies. In fact during the spring here in Metro Atlanta you can see that like the entire roads will be covered in a layer of like yellow pollen. Or the cars that are parked outside will be covered in that yellow pollen. And so it's very common to have this issue here in Metro Atlanta. Number eight on the list of things you need to be able to handle if you're planning on moving here is that not only do the crime rates vary from block to block but so do the school districts. You can be in one subdivision of Metro Atlanta and half of the subdivision is part of one school district and the other part of the subdivision is not only in a different school district but a different county completely. And so it is kind of weird the way that we do the lines here for the school districts and the cities and the counties. You can be in the same subdivision and be part of a great school district or be part of a sucky school district. So understanding which school district you're in is obviously very important. Number nine on the list is the traffic issue. Of course if you've heard anything about Atlanta it's that we have terrible traffic. But in addition to that you should also know that we are not a very like public transportation friendly kind of city. The majority the overwhelming majority of people who live in Metro Atlanta are car dependent so you pretty much are going to be driving everywhere. And then number 10 on the list is the amount of rain that we get. We get more rainfall here in Metro Atlanta than they do in Seattle. This is a surprising stat for many people but one of the biggest factors that would affect whether or not you would want to move to Metro Atlanta would be the cost of living here. If the cost of living here in Metro Atlanta is much higher than where you already live then it might not be the right place to move to. But if the cost of living here is much lower than where you're coming from then obviously it could be a good fit. So I've made an entire video outlining the monthly expenses that you should expect when living in Metro Atlanta. You can check it out right here. I'll see you in the next one. you