jjunk wrote:
Thank you for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of Newnan before today. In looking at one of the sites we use for our "formula" Newnan gets an F in crime (
http://www.areavibes.com/newnan-ga/crime/) but it's starting to make me wonder if there's an inaccuracy in their data or if it's something else.
The data may not be inaccurate. Newnan is one of the few cities in the area that takes up most of the county in which it is located (at least for postal codes). There are definitely good sides of the track and bad in the town. The two do not mingle that much. The point is not necessarily that Newnan is your pick, but that outlying areas of Atlanta are something to look into, as the city of Atlanta is actually very small. A list of cities in the same county as Atlanta is long (Roswell, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Dunwoody, Alpharetta, Union City, East Point, College Park, Atlanta, Chattahoochee Hills, Fairburn, Hapeville, Milton, Mountain Park, and Palmetto). Many of the counties around it have a lot of cities, as well.
Kennesaw (in neighboring Cobb County) is a college town with lots to do. It meets your crime criteria, but is a little higher on the price scale. (It will be difficult to find low, low price and low crime).
If you wanted to peruse the Atlanta area, you can use Wikipedia to find the cities in each county. Atlanta is in Fulton. You can click on adjacent counties to go through the neighboring counties. You may want to also consider Paulding County, as well as the cities of Covington and Conyers in your search. (I have not looked them up, but they are considered metro-Atlanta).
Many people do not realize how many cities there are in the area, and that moving to Atlanta usually means moving to a city in the metro area. (There are also sought out sections of Atlanta such as cabbage town, little five, and the east Atlanta village, but many of these sought out areas in Atlanta proper are undergoing revitalization/gentrification, and still have crime issues.)
Some of the cities that are further out (Newnan, Carrollton, Douglasville, Dallas in Paulding County) are going to cover large parts of the county, as much of the county is unincorporated and will therefore be under the umbrella of the county seat. This will mean that statistics are skewed for things like crime. As an example, if you can find a site that shows the crime in the SummerGrove area (a massive development of newer homes) of Newnan, I think you will find it to be much, much lower. I do not know where to find such data, however.
I hope that helps!
I'm not a financial professional. Post is info only & not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship exists with reader. Scrutinize my ideas as if you spoke with a guy at a bar. I may be wrong.