Possibly Moving to Atlanta

[pjtoadie]

Mainly the weather. It isn't called Hotlanta for nothing, very humid and it rains a lot. I don't like the city itself, turning into a traffic nightmare. I live in LA and know traffic well but it is a different animal there.

Check out NC or Knoxville before ya make a decision.

Thanks! Not sure if you read one of my earlier posts but my brother in law and his family live near Charlotte and love it. I'll also look into Knoxville...thanks!

 

[Denim Chicken]

Here are some of the pics I took hiking around ALT:

 

[pjtoadie]

Here are some of the pics I took hiking around ALT:

Nice!

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Yeah Texas is great but it is a little too far from Ohio. We'd like to still be within 10 hours or so driving distance to visit family. I shouldn't have made a big deal about Cowboys bars being a factor because it's not lol. I thought it was cool that Atlanta has so many of them.

you should also check out Virginia. It's beautiful country, very historic and you still get seasons. Job market is very healthy. Arlington is a great town, visited many times for business. I'm not from VA but I'm sure others can give more/better input. And being your so in to the bar scene (lol)....... https://www.meetup.com/topics/dallascowboys/us/va/arlington/

 

[Denim Chicken]

Thanks! Not sure if you read one of my earlier posts but my brother in law and his family live near Charlotte and love it. I'll also look into Knoxville...thanks!

Knoxville is cool (I visited about 10 time or so during my time in ATL). It's a collage town with not much going on, but It has a certain appeal if you don't like big cities.

 

[Denim Chicken]

you should also check out Virginia. It's beautiful country, very historic and you still get seasons. Job market is very healthy. Arlington is a great town, visited many times for business. I'm not from VA but I'm sure others can give more/better input. And being your so in to the bar scene (lol)....... https://www.meetup.com/topics/dallascowboys/us/va/arlington/

I concur, but not Arlington. You might as well move to DC.

I live in the Virginia Beach area.

 

[pjtoadie]

you should also check out Virginia. It's beautiful country, very historic and you still get seasons. Job market is very healthy. Arlington is a great town, visited many times for business. I'm not from VA but I'm sure others can give more/better input. And being your so in to the bar scene (lol)....... https://www.meetup.com/topics/dallascowboys/us/va/arlington/

Will do, thanks! I think Virgina gets a decent amount of snow, right?

 

[pjtoadie]

Knoxville is cool (I visited about 10 time or so during my time in ATL). It's a collage town with not much going on, but It has a certain appeal if you don't like big cities.

Hmm I'm thinking for what my wife and I are looking for we would want to be in a suburb of a larger city.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Will do, thanks! I think Virgina gets a decent amount of snow, right?

certainly in the mountains. Coastal VA I believe gets maybe 6-12"/yr

 

[Denim Chicken]

Hmm I'm thinking for what my wife and I are looking for we would want to be in a suburb of a larger city.

Than Knoxville would probably not work for you. It's pretty small and nothing really larger around. Its about 4 and a half hours from ALT or 3 from Nashville.

If you haven't considered Nashville, though; that place is great.

 

[pjtoadie]

certainly in the mountains. Coastal VA I believe gets maybe 6-12"/yr

Good to know, thanks!

 

[pjtoadie]

Than Knoxville would probably not work for you. It's pretty small and nothing really larger around. Its about 4 and a half hours from ALT or 3 from Nashville.

If you haven't considered Nashville, though; that place is great.

I've heard a lot of great things about Nashville. How does it compare to Atlanta?

 

[Denim Chicken]

I've heard a lot of great things about Nashville. How does it compare to Atlanta?

It's more laid back and it has a small city feel for a big city. Really pretty too and lots to do.

I got the best of both world bc I lived in ATL, but traveled to Tennessee every other week. But I would have lived in Nashville over Atlanta if I did it over.

Funny, I just realized started the same thread when I was moving:

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/anyone-live-in-atlanta.292747/

 

[pjtoadie]

It's more laid back and it has a small city feel for a big city. Really pretty too and lots to do.

I got the best of both world bc I lived in ATL, but traveled to Tennessee every other week. But I would have lived in Nashville over Atlanta if I did it over.

Funny, I just realized started the same thread when I was moving:

http://cowboyszone.com/threads/anyone-live-in-atlanta.292747/

That sounds promising! I'm definitely going to check out Nashville.

That's funny...see us Zoners like to get opinions of other Zoners

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Atlanta > Florida, for me. I have lived in both. Of course, I had a job when I moved to ATL, so I didn't have to look for one. However, I found most everyone I met to be genuine and gracious. Most people I met were transplants.

Atlanta is very clique-ish. Esssentially, the transplants are mostly from the south and they only want to hang out with people that went to whatever SEC/ACC school they went to and that's it. Florida is very family oriented, especially if your kids are into sports. And I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had people in Atlanta try to pull scams on people, people that literally lead double lives, etc. And I think the weather there is about as bad as it gets.

My friends and I came up with a theory in Atlanta and we dubbed it 'The Varsity Principle.' It was named after The Varsity. Essentially, the more something is hyped up in Atlanta you will find that it will suck in a diametrically opposite direction...just like The Varsity.

Like I said, if you're really into SEC football, religion and have a wife that loves to shop, then it's a good place to live.

But also remember that Atlanta roughly has 47% of the population with 4-year degrees while the national average is about 30%. Atlanta has the highest rate in the country. That means the employers have a lot more leverage to pay you less, treat you like crap and just get rid of you and hire the next person who will take a lower salary.

Glad I got out of there, should have done it sooner.




YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Back in 2005 I did my own research for jobs in my position, what the salaries were and what the total cost of living was for every mid size or larger city in the country. At that time, only San Francisco, Honolulu and Manhattan were worse than Atlanta. And Honolulu was dependent on what company you worked for as the deviation in salary was so large and Manhattan was worse than Atlanta if you lived in Manhattan. If you lived in one of the 5 burroughs, New Jersey, CT or in NY north of Manhattan it was better salary vs. cost of living than Atlanta. Again, Atlanta has the highest rate of 4-year grads per capita and it is not that booming of a city to make up for it. In fact, jobs are declining in Atlanta because of the overpopulation as companies know that if they try to move there that the traffic will affect their productivity. So now you have less jobs and still the highest rate of 4-year grads per capita.

I was out of work for 2 years due to being laid off during the housing crisis and then having surgery that I needed time off for. I came close to getting some jobs, but kept missing out in the last interview. Finally, I got fed up and moved to Orlando and got a 30% pay raise with a $10k signing bonus for the same position even though I had not worked in 2 years. I was laid off back in June and found a job in 4 weeks that paid 40% more than I was making and then quit that job after 6 months because I found a job that paid more and has a lower cost of living. In 5 years removed from Atlanta I am making more than double what I made there for essentially the same type of work.

I would recommend Raleigh because so many people I know that lived there really love it. I know a lot of people that lived in Raleigh and moved to Atlanta and keep wanting to go back to Raleigh. I wasn't impressed with Charlotte years ago, but the past 10 years or so I think it's a pretty good city. A lot of people I know like Charleston, SC, but the job market isn't very good there. Nashville is a pretty good place to live, I'm just not into mountainous areas like Tennessee.




YR

 

[Denim Chicken]

Atlanta is very clique-ish. Esssentially, the transplants are mostly from the south and they only want to hang out with people that went to whatever SEC/ACC school they went to and that's it. Florida is very family oriented, especially if your kids are into sports. And I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had people in Atlanta try to pull scams on people, people that literally lead double lives, etc. And I think the weather there is about as bad as it gets.

My friends and I came up with a theory in Atlanta and we dubbed it 'The Varsity Principle.' It was named after The Varsity. Essentially, the more something is hyped up in Atlanta you will find that it will suck in a diametrically opposite direction...just like The Varsity.

Like I said, if you're really into SEC football, religion and have a wife that loves to shop, then it's a good place to live.

But also remember that Atlanta roughly has 47% of the population with 4-year degrees while the national average is about 30%. Atlanta has the highest rate in the country. That means the employers have a lot more leverage to pay you less, treat you like crap and just get rid of you and hire the next person who will take a lower salary.

Glad I got out of there, should have done it sooner.




YR

I'm glad you found a place that you like. I was really young when I lived in Florida.

 

[pjtoadie]

So there's no one out there that would reccomemd Atlanta? Very interesting...

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I'm glad you found a place that you like. I was really young when I lived in Florida.

I think it depends on where in Florida you live.

I just spent 6 months in Boca Raton. I actually think Boca isn't a bad place to live, but it's very expensive and the traffic really sucks in the winter during rush hour (still nothing like Atlanta traffic). If you live close to where you work, it would be fine...but it's very pricey and your options of living close to where you work are limited. And if you want to do anything really cool, you need to go about 30 minutes north to Palm Beach or 25 minutes south to Ft. Lauderdale.

The Naples area is beautiful, but very pricey. Sarasota is very nice, but it's old people country and if you're a younger person you might get bored with it. Jacksonville is nice, but it's enormous and if you need to get to the other side of the city for something, the sheer travel along may take take you 90 minutes. Daytona Beach is beautiful, but can be very sketchy in some spots and the job market is very small there.

Orlando is a fine place to live, especially if you have a family. But people usually only stay there for 3-5 years and leave because their job transferred them there and then moved them somewhere else. You'll have to get used to the daily rain showers in the summer as well.

Tampa is one of my favorite cities in the country. It has easy access to the beaches, all of the outdoor activities you could imagine, low cost of living, especially if you want to live close to one of their beaches. It has a great history to it between southern history, northeast transplants history and cuban history. But, it also has all of the modern day urban resources.

Where I live is close to Cape Canaveral which I enjoy because there is hardly any traffic out here and it has incredible access to the beaches. Melbourne is a small city with some access to urban type resources, but I can always travel 40 minutes on the Beachline Expressway and head into Orlando. If I want to go to Daytona Beach, it takes me about an hour on I-95. Cost of living is very low and the 4-year grads per capita is extremely low. What I do (statistics) is needed by companies, but most of the 4-year grads out here have a degree in engineering because of the aerospace industry.

The big piece of advice I would give anybody looking to move anywhere is to make sure you try to figure out the job market for what you do and what the % of 4-year grads in your market is. You obviously want a good amount of jobs in you market with a low % of 4-year grads. That provides you with the best leverage not only to find a job, but get the salary you want.






YR

 

[pjtoadie]

I think it depends on where in Florida you live.

I just spent 6 months in Boca Raton. I actually think Boca isn't a bad place to live, but it's very expensive and the traffic really sucks in the winter during rush hour (still nothing like Atlanta traffic). If you live close to where you work, it would be fine...but it's very pricey and your options of living close to where you work are limited. And if you want to do anything really cool, you need to go about 30 minutes north to Palm Beach or 25 minutes south to Ft. Lauderdale.

The Naples area is beautiful, but very pricey. Sarasota is very nice, but it's old people country and if you're a younger person you might get bored with it. Jacksonville is nice, but it's enormous and if you need to get to the other side of the city for something, the sheer travel along may take take you 90 minutes. Daytona Beach is beautiful, but can be very sketchy in some spots and the job market is very small there.

Orlando is a fine place to live, especially if you have a family. But people usually only stay there for 3-5 years and leave because their job transferred them there and then moved them somewhere else. You'll have to get used to the daily rain showers in the summer as well.

Tampa is one of my favorite cities in the country. It has easy access to the beaches, all of the outdoor activities you could imagine, low cost of living, especially if you want to live close to one of their beaches. It has a great history to it between southern history, northeast transplants history and cuban history. But, it also has all of the modern day urban resources.

Where I live is close to Cape Canaveral which I enjoy because there is hardly any traffic out here and it has incredible access to the beaches. Melbourne is a small city with some access to urban type resources, but I can always travel 40 minutes on the Beachline Expressway and head into Orlando. If I want to go to Daytona Beach, it takes me about an hour on I-95. Cost of living is very low and the 4-year grads per capita is extremely low. What I do (statistics) is needed by companies, but most of the 4-year grads out here have a degree in engineering because of the aerospace industry.

The big piece of advice I would give anybody looking to move anywhere is to make sure you try to figure out the job market for what you do and what the % of 4-year grads in your market is. You obviously want a good amount of jobs in you market with a low % of 4-year grads. That provides you with the best leverage not only to find a job, but get the salary you want.






YR

Great info about Florida...thanks!