Don't know jack about it from a residential standpoint. Any locals have any thoughts? Keef here anymore?
So we're thinking about moving to Athens.
- Thread starter GwinnettDawg
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Athens just keeps getting better. Loads of parks, shows, great restaurants, events .. Little to no traffic and unreal service. Not sure where the hot part of town to live is anymore. If I had to do it all over again I would live closer to Oconee county or Winterville.
I would go out near normal town...very residential and pretty quiet...but close to the action
Depends on what you're looking for. Walking distance to shops, restaurants, UGA, etc? 5 pts. area.
Need good schools? Oconee County. First class recreational facilities, art and sports? Oconee. Lots of new subdivisions in Oconee. Bishop, Watkinsville. Would stay away from Bogart side, but that's me because I wouldn't want to deal with Atl Hwy, 316 or 78 everyday.
Eclectic vibe with restaurants, etc.? Normaltown.
Nice houses with land? East side out Morton Rd. area. East side near Cedar Shoals, etc. wouldn't go there.
West side..........there's some nice places out Tallasee Rd.......way on out.
If I had the $$ and did it over again (live in Watkinsville), I'd be somewhere on University Dr. in 5 pts. Love that hood. Or Milledge Circle. On the other hand, at our age now, love Whitehall Mill lofts on Whitehall right on the river and there's a few very reasonable for sale right now.
Need good schools? Oconee County. First class recreational facilities, art and sports? Oconee. Lots of new subdivisions in Oconee. Bishop, Watkinsville. Would stay away from Bogart side, but that's me because I wouldn't want to deal with Atl Hwy, 316 or 78 everyday.
Eclectic vibe with restaurants, etc.? Normaltown.
Nice houses with land? East side out Morton Rd. area. East side near Cedar Shoals, etc. wouldn't go there.
West side..........there's some nice places out Tallasee Rd.......way on out.
If I had the $$ and did it over again (live in Watkinsville), I'd be somewhere on University Dr. in 5 pts. Love that hood. Or Milledge Circle. On the other hand, at our age now, love Whitehall Mill lofts on Whitehall right on the river and there's a few very reasonable for sale right now.
You're welcome. We moved from L'ville to Watkinsville 18 yrs ago and never looked back. We knew NOTHING really. Always wanted to live in Athens, but after Gwinnett, Oconee seemed much more peaceful and quiet and was only 15 mins from campus. Since then, Oconee's really grown, almost scary like Gwinnett was doing when we left. Lots of permanent Athens residents have moved here. Very vibrant leaders and making sure this county has the best of everything. If you should do Watkinsville city limits, very diverse crowd and artist friendly. Christian Lakes is a newer subdivision in town with decent size lots and sidewalks. Otherwise, some of the streets in the city limits will have 300,000 homes sitting next to 100,000 homes. Hard to explain, but it works. Many things going on all the time. In the county, much more traditional newer subdivisions.
I gave you my opinions on Clarke Cty in a "do over again" type thinking. If I couldn't live in 5 pts, I'd live in Whitehall's lofts. One extreme to the other. Go figure. : )
I gave you my opinions on Clarke Cty in a "do over again" type thinking. If I couldn't live in 5 pts, I'd live in Whitehall's lofts. One extreme to the other. Go figure. : )
We really like Suwanee, but it's getting surrounded on all sides, so as I was putting together a list of where we might go, Athens was one. I'm from SOWEGA, but honestly have no desire to live there again. We are accustomed to the shopping, we love the Suwanee parks and trails, but in general we are pretty easy to please. Don't want to be rural, but not looking for a downtown eclectic life either. We are late 40's with the kid about to start his junior year at UGA. Athens is biog enough without being too big, it seems.
We're SOWEGA too! And NO, never want to go back there!
Oconee really sounds like could be a good fit. It's a whole different world than Gwinnett, that's for sure. And we're slowly getting stuff along 316 from almost n othing that we had when we moved here. (theatre, shops, restaurants, etc) If you need a good realtor, recommend Sam Williamson. First of all, Sam is a native Athenian and Dawg. He knows anything/everything about neighborhoods and trends. 2nd, I like to pass his name around because he auctions a charity auction for me for nothing. That's his other business. Auctioneer. But he can far understand what you're looking for better than I can on a message board. : )
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Sam-Williamson/31333626
Oconee really sounds like could be a good fit. It's a whole different world than Gwinnett, that's for sure. And we're slowly getting stuff along 316 from almost n othing that we had when we moved here. (theatre, shops, restaurants, etc) If you need a good realtor, recommend Sam Williamson. First of all, Sam is a native Athenian and Dawg. He knows anything/everything about neighborhoods and trends. 2nd, I like to pass his name around because he auctions a charity auction for me for nothing. That's his other business. Auctioneer. But he can far understand what you're looking for better than I can on a message board. : )
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Sam-Williamson/31333626
I'm native to Watkinsville, lived in Atlanta for almost ten years post college and moved back to Oconee 10 years ago.
Bottom line, if you have kids and don't want to do private school, I'd heavily consider Oconee. It's hard to beat five points though.
We lived in Christian lake for a couple of years when we first moved back, young family neighborhood. Lots to choose from in Oconee, they are doing a good job of keeping the growth in the 316/epps bridge corridor. Downtown Watkinsville is great and there are lots of choices for housing.
Main issue Oconee will have is to not be Gwinnett 2.0, they are doing ok now, but they seem to let whatever housing development (non-apartments) pop up. There are a few house pastures.
I still highly recommend it. It's changed a lot in the 40 years, but still a great place to live.
Bottom line, if you have kids and don't want to do private school, I'd heavily consider Oconee. It's hard to beat five points though.
We lived in Christian lake for a couple of years when we first moved back, young family neighborhood. Lots to choose from in Oconee, they are doing a good job of keeping the growth in the 316/epps bridge corridor. Downtown Watkinsville is great and there are lots of choices for housing.
Main issue Oconee will have is to not be Gwinnett 2.0, they are doing ok now, but they seem to let whatever housing development (non-apartments) pop up. There are a few house pastures.
I still highly recommend it. It's changed a lot in the 40 years, but still a great place to live.
My sister has been in Athens since she graduated in '93 and she likes it quite a bit. There are a number of good churches there. My nice and nephew started in private school but it became too expensive and ended up at Cedar Shoals. It was actually not a bad school. There were bad kids, but they decided to get involved with activities(nephew ROTC; niece - langauge club) and they both are going to UGA now. The bad for her is her and her husband are teachers and home prices are not cheap relative to a small city. I have a friend that lives in Winterville and likes it. I like visiting for football games but I'm of the opinion that Athens was rocking in the 90's and has become too corporate - just my opinion. A lot of the artist and musicians I knew moved to Austin or California. I guess it all depends on where you are moving from and what type of work you do. My folks live further towards Augusta and love it - it's really quite and you can buy a Victorian mansion for 120 thousand.
thanks for all the info, although it was for someone else, been thinking about moving back for quite a while, will definitely be checking it out, any Christian Schools in Oconee??
