After living in California all of my life, we moved to Georgia in September of 2021. We had moved up and down the state of California, so we figured we could handle a move across the country, right?! Oh, and with two toddlers, and a new promotion that my husband was hopefully going to like! It turned out to be a really great time for our family, and I am sharing all of my highlights (as well as a few not so great things) below. But, let it be said, that the good far outweigh the bad.
(For reference, we moved to Fayetteville, a cute little town about 45 minutes southwest of Atlanta.)
Table of Contents
13 Reasons Why You Should Move to Georgia
The People
Although about half of the people I have encountered are not from here originally, they have all been really nice. It is common for women to be referred to as “Ms.,” and my kids love to hear people say “Ms. Megan.” It is also common for people to say “have a blessed day!,” which I love.
The greatest example I have is of the people in our neighborhood.
- One set of our neighbors came over and introduced themselves with an entire bag of Easter eggs filled for my kids to do an Easter egg hunt with. Another set of neighbors that we had never met stopped by on Christmas to carol for us, and then returned each year thereafter!
- Everyone waves when they pass by us, and everyone smiles and talks to us if we walk past them. This is stuff I’m used to from growing up in a small town, but haven’t experienced since I moved away from home 15 years and 6 moves later!
- They have block parties and gatherings to get to know and enjoy the other neighbors. Since the land plots are a little bit bigger here, you don’t run into your neighbors that often, so this is a really fun thing.
I prayed for community before we moved here, and that is exactly what I got!
The Greenery
I have never seen anything so green as Georgia (except for during the wintertime)! There are trees everywhere (as long as you aren’t in the middle of Atlanta), including along all of the side roads and interstates, and the grass is green in the summertime! In the fall, all of the millions of trees change colors, and it is so pretty! The only time it gets a little funky is when all of the trees lose their leaves in the wintertime, and you will see a lot of bare trees. There are also some grasses that go dormant in the winter and turn brown, to prevent any frost damage. (So, the brown grass I am used to seeing in California during the summer months is what I see here during the winter months!)
The Cost of Living / Buying a Home
When we moved to Georgia, I think half of the country was also moving here because remote jobs were becoming more popular, and everyone recognized that you could live a lot more comfortably here, and could buy a house for significantly less than other places. When we moved here, we bought a home that looks like a house straight out of the fancy Sweet Home Alabama houses, with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms on a half of an acre for almost the same amount of money that we purchased a 1-bedroom condo just outside of the Bay Area in California a few years prior. Not to mention, our annual HOA fee for a large neighborhood with a park, pool, lake and tennis courts is only ~$700/year (approximately 2 months’ worth of the HOA payment at the previously mentioned condo).
The rent outside of Atlanta is cheaper in comparison to California as well, but not as much as the houses. Also, the housing prices have increased since we moved here due to the market boom and is still increasing due to the fact that a lot of the movie industry is moving to this area, along with other large companies setting up shop here, and all of those remote employees mentioned previously.
The Library
We have had the most incredible library experience here. Having been from California, I can remember maybe going to my local library once as a kid. Here, the libraries are designed to bring kids in and to get them excited about reading and about participating. I cannot even begin to tell you how great our library experience has been here, but here are some highlights:
- Baby Time/Story Time – There are designated mornings for baby time and story time that covers children up to 5 years old. And this isn’t any ordinary thing, this is where there is a magical woman that was born to work with young children that sings and dances with them for 45 minutes. (There are also age appropriate programs for older kids as well.)
- Summer Programs – The entire summer is dedicated to a certain theme and there are programs for days. Just going for programs, I can take my kids 2-3 days per week for a super fun, exciting and free program! They also have summer reading programs to encourage and incentivize children to read. It is really just mind blowing what they do here.
- Open-ended Play – Even when there are no programs, there are toys set out for kids to play with. It is kind of like when you take your kids to the book store and they can play with all of the toys, but here, they can also socialize with other kids, and read some books.
- Book Availability – I can look up books in their online portal and if my local library does not have what I want, I can request it from another library branch and it will be sent to my local library (all for free)!
- Online Programs for Kids – In addition to everything else, they also have online challenges for kids, such as getting to 1,000 books before kindergarten. In addition to that, they also have online programs, such as, the equivalent of ABC Mouse, that your kids can access and use online for free.
It is all unreal to me, and I am so thankful that I came to this place at this point in my children’s lives, so that we could fully embrace and enjoy all that the library here has to offer for small children!
Free Resources / Events for Families
There are so many outdoor events here that are family friendly and are free, such as:
- Massive Parades – For 4th of July, Christmas, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and more!
- Outdoor Fairs/Markets – Where people can set up booths to sell, where there are also big blow up slides and fun games for kids. (We always talk about how we would have to pay to go to events like this in California.)
- Playgrounds Everywhere – There is an abundance of really nice playgrounds, most of which are shaded, and splash pads that are open during the summer months.
Religious Freedom
I cannot even begin to tell you how many churches there are here, of all denominations and religions! When we first got here, I always explained it to people as feeling as though there was a church on every block! The great thing about being here is that religion is not some taboo thing that you are not supposed to talk about around others (even of differing religion), but is something that is celebrated. Even when you go to get your license plate at the DMV, you can put a sticker on it with the county in which your vehicle is registered, or you can put a sticker on it that says “In God We Trust.”
Church Preschool
Although I never utilized this, I always thought about how great it was for all of the others that did. A lot of the Christian churches offered half-day preschool, where the cost for sending your kid for 5 days/week for 4 hours/day would be $200/month. Unreal, right?! So, the parents could work during that time or just get a little break, and they would still be able to afford it. And, quite often, they would start around 18 months and go up until the kids transferred into kindergarten.
Slower Pace of Life
This could also be referred to as a better quality of life! Life is fun here, but it is a lot slower. People work, but work is not the most important thing. I had so much pressure (of which, I’m sure was mainly from myself) to be able to raise my kids and work after having them, but here, it is really common to see stay at home moms out “just” being mom’s (although we all know there is no such thing!). There is also a large group of people around here that homeschool their kids. So, work is important, but family is prioritized and with the cost of living being significantly lower than other parts, while the salaries are not so much, families are more likely to be able to live comfortably like that here compared to other places.
Farms that are Open to the Public
There are all kinds of really small farms around here that are open to the public. For fruit, there are U-pick farms, where you can find strawberries (and other types of berries), peaches, and apples.
Then, during the holiday seasons, these small farms get even more exciting! There are all kinds of farms that pop up in October (with or without pumpkins growing), where you can buy pumpkins, but mainly, where kids can enjoy attractions. These include bounce houses, tractor rides, etc. Then, during December, all of the Christmas tree farms open up, where you can actually go and cut down your own Christmas tree! You can either find these with attractions or just free to enter, and then you pay for your Christmas tree. The funniest part of this is that we can cut down our own Christmas tree here and pay significantly less for it than what you would pay for one already cut and ready to transport in California.
If you are interested in this topic, you can read more about the U-pick farms we frequented in the area here.
Lots of Outdoor Nature Spots
If you are into the outdoors and doing stuff outside, there are a lot of options around here. There are places to fish, hike, walk, go for bike rides and just enjoy nature. Even near Atlanta, you can find really large parks that allow you the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. Just make sure, as they say, to bring the bug spray!
Proximity to Other Hot Spots & Small Towns
Although Georgia seems like it might be in the middle of nowhere, the Atlanta area is actually in the middle of a lot of places! Within two to six hours of Atlanta (in all different directions), you can find: Chattanooga, TN, Nashville, TN, Birmingham, AL, Destin, FL, Orlando, FL, Asheville, NC, Charleston, SC, Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN, Savannah, GA, and Jekyll Island, GA, among many other places. There are also a lot of cute, local little towns that you can stumble upon throughout Georgia as well.
Fireflies
The fireflies have a very short season in the middle of the summer, but they are still super exciting for someone who had never seen them before! They travel in groups, you can only see them at dusk or when it is dark, and if you blink, you just might miss them! Where we live, in a woodsy area with lots of trees, we have seen them flying over our lawn and in the wooded area amongst the trees.
Chick-fil-A
Yes, I know Chick-fil-A is everywhere at this point, but it seems to be even more exciting in the Atlanta area because this is where Chick-fil-A originated, and there are a lot of Chick-fil-A’s around here!
There are a Few Downsides
I couldn’t tell you about how lovely Georgia is, without telling you about a few major downsides that I have experienced living in Georgia.
The Bugs
Whew, where to begin! You might hear people say that of course there are different bugs in the south because of the different climate, but no one could prepare you for the bugs you will encounter here! And, it is one thing to encounter bugs outside, but it is another thing to encounter large bugs inside of your house and to try to figure out how to get rid of them!
Before we even moved here, we were in touch with the pest control company who treated our house previously just to see what they were treating it for, and it was at that moment that I learned that I would need to look out for flying cockroaches and scorpions. We only had two scorpions get into the house, but the cockroaches and palmetto bugs (large cockroach looking bugs with wings that are in search of water and can even climb up your drains) were the real, big problem!
Some other bugs include granddaddy long legs (like the spiders we are used to in California, but with legs that are three times as long), mosquitos (and if they bite you, they will leave welts that are at least three times bigger than any bite I have ever gotten before), some weird looking larger spiders (from hairy to banana), snakes (we had some of these caught in our garage and had multiple neighbors advise us not to let our kids play in the grass alone), and the cicadas. The cicadas sing for a few months straight during the summer. You can hear them singing all day and all night, but you never see them alive because they are in all of the large trees. Then, once they die, you will find them on the pavement near the trees and they are pretty big and some even have shiny silver bellies!
The bugs here are wild, are huge, and come in some of the craziest colors I have seen. And, as terrible as most of these bugs are, there is a semi-dormant season during the cold winter months where you are not likely (or, less likely) to encounter any of these critters.
The Summer Weather
Everybody warned about the humidity here during the summer, and I will be honest, it can get bad (although not as bad as I was anticipating). One step outside during the summer months and you will already be sweating (or, even one step out of the shower, and you will already be sweating)! But, after living in the California summer heat (without humidity), I would say it is pretty similar because it does not get as hot here, but with the humidity mixed in, it feels about the same. I have also experienced the summer heat with humidity near the Coachella Valley in Southern California and would say that it is pretty similar.
However, the most shocking part about the summer weather is that with the humidity added in, it is also very common to experience thunder and lightning storms in the afternoons. There will be almost an entire month in the summer where the weather forecast will show a chance of storms every afternoon starting at 3pm! And, as the pools are only open here between Memorial Day and Labor Day, you have to make sure you find time in between the thunderstorms to get your pool time in!
The Thunderstorms
I would say that before I moved here, I have maybe experienced thunder and lightning five times in my life. But here, these thunder and lightning storms are insane! There are the thunder and lightning storms that occur on summer afternoons, and then there are thunder and lightning storms that last all night long! They are so powerful that it feels like the whole house is shaking with each new roar of thunder. These really scared me, but to have to pretend like they are not that bad to my small kids, was a whole other feat!
The Food
If you ask anyone in Georgia, their food is the best there is (including the Georgia peaches!), but if you ask me, it is far inferior to the fresh produce and even prepared restaurant food that I am used to in California.
If you are interested further in this topic, you can check out my post all about my search for good produce in Georgia!
Conclusion
I love Georgia, and have loved almost all of my experiences here. I am glad I did not know too much about the cons before I moved here because I am not sure I would have agreed to it, but all in all, the pros far out weigh the cons!
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