Thanks for the info. All of this is preliminary for me. I have a potential opportunity to move to Atlanta working for a company that I worked with 7 years ago. I don't have a family and I'm single. The job was very demanding when I was there and I was working 12-14 hour days atleast 3 days a week and 10 hour days the other days. Because of that I don't want much of a commute. Public transportation is out of the question because throughout the work day I have to travel with my car to various places. I used to rent an apartment in Midtown mear Piesmont Park and it was like a 10 minute drive to work. I rarely ever hit traffic and it was great. I looked into the same place to rent again and the prices increased like $400 a month. I definitely don't want to be paying like $1400 a month and not own. I'd much rather be putting the money towards owning the place and I feel like a mortgage payment would be cheaper. I haven't talked numbers yet, so I don't know exactly what my budget will be. I'm not a big bar/party guy but I also won't know many people if I move so I'd like to be in an area that has restaurants and some kind of night life so I could make myself go out more and meet people. Commute and being in a "good nice/safe" area are definitely the most important things to me though.
My biggest issue is I don't know the area so I have no clue where to look.
Okay, lets go through some general options.
Downtown: There are a good bit of condos here to take a look at. A fair share are near Centennial Park I believe, which is next to the CNN center, so your commute would arguably be the shortest from here. But downtown is by far the least residential amongst these options. I know a guy who lives on a condo right on peachtree street across the SunTrust building. It's a solid view and I'm sure if he worked near CNN he would love the commute, but I felt the street level atmosphere was dead usually as it's mainly a commercial district.
West of Downtown: Stay away.
South of Downtown: Stay away.
East of Downtown: This area consists of a good bit of neighborhoods including Edgewood, Candler Park, Kirkwood, Old Fourth Ward, Inman Park. This is a solid part of town that you should look into. Very residential and there are a good bit of restaurants and bars scattered around. Also, anywhere near the beltline like Inman Park and Old Fourth Ward would be a treat. The beltline is a gem. The southern part of this area such as Grant Park is okay and is getting gentrified, but the area to the south of that can get rough.
Midtown: I personally find this a great option. It would be slightly farther than downtown, but is much more residential and lively after dark in comparison to its downtown counterpart. The area has been absolutely booming with residential development recently so the area is gradually turning into a more walkable and lively urban athmosphere, which is something Atlanta has notoriously
been lacking.
West Midtown: This consists the majority of the area west of 85/75 near Georgina Tech and Atlantic Station. It's become more developed in recent years and has become a solid area. The area has a decent bit of bars and restaurants. The commute would be rather quick considering you could just take Marietta street down to your job. A con would be that while I wouldn't say this area is dangerous, I do consider it to be on the fringe of good and bad. Stumbling too far west of this area can turn incredibly ugly incredibly quick. I would avoid anywhere too far west of Marietta Street.
East of Midtown: This region includes areas like
Virginia Highland, Morningside, Druid Hills, North Decatur, etc. This is a solid area and Virginia Highland provides a lot of great nightlife options. I personally consider most of these areas to be pretty safe.
Buckhead: When people say Atlanta tries too hard to be like LA, this is what they are talking about." The Shops Buckhead Atlanta" (whatever name they're calling it) is essentially a rodeo drive replicate. The place is nice, but overpriced. Plenty of nightlife. Lots of good restaurants too. Not nearly as walkable as Midtown. The commute would probably be a good bit farther from here than from the other parts of Atlanta.
So that's a quick generalization of the areas in and around the city of Atlanta. It shouldn't take more than 25 minutes to get to work from most of these places, and it could potentially take you less than 5 minutes depending on the location.
