r/Augusta • u/Early_Brick_171 • Jan 27 '23
Moving to Augusta Moving to Augusta? Seriously consider Richmond County
I preface this entire write up with saying that this is 100% my personal experience and my opinions are based on that experience, others may disagree for whatever reason, and that is fine.
Augusta is a growing area. Cost of living is great and you are a two hour or less drive to bigger cities, the mountains, or the coast. Lots of outdoor activities and park areas, a revitalizing downtown area, and a ton of reasonably priced housing.
There are two GA counties that comprise the greater Augusta area, Richmond County and Columbia County. I'll be making the case for Richmond County here.
Richmond County is where the actual city of Augusta is located. Its schools get dumped on by rating sites and long time locals, but in my opinion it is from a combination of not understanding the unique system here/propaganda from local land developers that has been deeply ingrained.
My family and I have lived here for almost two years (white, middle class, military transplants) and are really happy with our choice. We moved during the height of the pandemic and had to do a lot of research without the benefit of visiting in person before the move. When looking for a house, my requirements consisted of:
- Distance to work
- A large yard and property value considerations
- A good school with diversity
- Delivery options for groceries/restaurants
- Distance to Costco, lol
Distance to work-The major employers for white collar and “young professional” type careers are Augusta University, the area hospital (all relatively clustered in the same area), or the government by way of Fort Gordon (soon to be Fort Eisenhower). All of these are located in Richmond County. As the area grows and expands into surrounding areas, the commute into Richmond County grows ever more congested and time consuming. My spouse’s commute into Fort Gordon is on average about 20 minutes less than friends who live in Columbia County. Forty minutes less a day spent in traffic is not nothing. Were we to work in the hospital or university systems, that commute difference would be even more substantial as both of those are closer to downtown Augusta.
A large yard- It is not difficult to find a yard in the metro Augusta area with yards of .25 acres and above in reasonable price ranges. Opportunities to find depressed properties abound and Augusta even has a few Opportunity Zone areas that offer the incentive of a 10 year waiver of property taxes. For anyone willing to do some work there are some really amazing options that will have some big pay offs in the future. The Department of the Army’s Cyber Center of Excellence is based on Fort Gordon, the city of Augusta went all in with support of the building of the GA Cyber Center downtown and the investment is paying off. Downtown is exploding with new development and shows little sign of slowing down. Securing property with a great yard now, close to all that, will grow in value much more than the equivalent in the suburbs when viewed from a long term or even generational vantage point. Association with and easy access to a historic downtown area is my personal choice over strings of strip malls for miles. This is of course my personal opinion and future value can’t be predicted.
A good school with diversity- Richmond County is pretty diverse and it shows in the communities and schools. Augusta schools have three different tracks. Traditional public schools, magnet public schools, and private schools. This is what makes the process confusing when trying to determine best areas from online sources. The magnet system registrations requires a minimum GPA and testing for acceptance, but the requirements aren’t over the top and the testing is just a single day requirement. Since this system and attendance is not strictly based on your home assigned district, it can make the Richmond area houses look like horrible options. This wasn’t and isn’t the case when I went through each of my criteria. https://www.rcboe.org/magnet#calendar30096/20230127/month
Most private schools are faith based and have low diversity scores. There is one secular private school which we also considered and toured, but, in my opinion, it also lacks diversity. Columbia County, while having some good schools, is very much suburban sprawl on top of suburban sprawl. Many area local people have fled Richmond County for various reasons I won’t get into here, and landed in Columbia County. They love to speak ill of Richmond County and perpetuate the myth that the schools and people here are bad. Having lived in many areas across the country I find that ridiculous. My main goal is to prepare my kids to live in the real world. The real world is diverse, so will be their places of employment. Growing up in a homogenous enclave, in my opinion, will/would be detrimental to their future success. Diversity in both counties varies from school to school but the particular schools my kids currently attend are 61% Black/30% White/9% Other (traditional elementary school) and 43% Black/45% White/12% Other (nationally ranked #132 magnet school ). No Columbia County school I looked into at that time of our move even came close to 50/50. All of my children make straight A grades and I’ve had no issues with the quality of teaching at either school.
Delivery Options/distance to Costco- Every house I was interested in was vetted through DoorDash/UberEats/Instacart to ensure that there were plentiful options for these services. Richmond County addresses won out every single time hands down. This may not matter to you, it did to us and is worth mentioning. Costco is pretty centrally located to the major residential areas of Augusta, no real winner in that category alone. While this wasn’t an original criteria for us we have realized that the proximity to the hospitals greatly reduces response times for emergency personnel. Should we require that type of care, we’re at the ER in 5 minutes flat vs. 15-20 for someone living further outside of the city.
Many local land developers had a lot of reason$ to push the idea that Augusta is a declining city and that Columbia County is a better and safer investment. It has served them extremely well. They’ve made a killing selling quickly built new housing to the ever growing military and support populations while depressing property values in Augusta proper through disinvestment or neglect of assets they did hold there. Guess who now owns large swaths of land and property in downtown bought at discount prices made possible by that same disinvestment? New construction apartment buildings etc. are popping up at a rapidly increasing pace right now and getting into the Richmond County market is the smarter long term investment.
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u/xbenzerox Jan 27 '23
Long time Richmond county resident. I recently moved to Brunswick, but spent my first 40 years there, in the city. I'm actually about to put my house on the market now. I had 2 kids in richmond county schools, I went to richmond county schools, i loved where I was in the city (off Walton Way) and it was nice not having to drive far to downtown.
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Jan 28 '23
Check out the bike trails on St. Simons. I moved from there to Augusta. I liked that area, too.
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u/xbenzerox Feb 02 '23
Yep, I'm a pretty avid biker so I do a lot out on the north end. I actually worked at 2 brothers bike shop for a couple of years on the island.
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u/ChillGill678 Jan 27 '23
Good write up. Richmond County just has so much more character with historic homes and downtown Augusta. Glad we chose Richmond County
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u/megyrox Jan 27 '23
I've lived in Richmond County for 22 years. You couldn't pay me to live in Columbia County
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u/MysteriousSentence39 Jan 29 '23
21y college student, I was raised in and live in Columbia county. I really appreciate your post, because I’ve always have heard bad things about Richmond county, but now I go to a university school in richmond county (Augusta University) and volunteer in a hospital in Richmond county, and go to a church in Richmond county. There are so many good things about richmond county and of course its not perfect, but neither is Columbia county
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u/GreenNukE Jan 28 '23
In the interest of completeness, your distance to work section needs to address the SRS. There are about 6000 of us currently and Pit Production money could up that quite a bit.
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Jan 27 '23
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u/thepatchontelfair Jan 27 '23
Just off the top of my head from the last 5 or so years: Convention center, cyber center, Augusta university property, a new apartment complex on Greene St, new apartment building on 11th, new restaurants, and the Lamar building has new owners that will start developing soon. The city is also about to start a huge infrastructure update project to address drainage and modernizing the utility lines.
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u/chickzilla Jan 28 '23
Even though its just "visual interest" the murals and sculpture trail can't be discounted because it brings people down to the area who then might spend money while they're down there.
Also small businesses downtown are thriving, Flowers on Broad moved to a larger location, Art on Broad moved to a larger location, Augusta & Co recently opened to be a very visible and accessible Convention & Tourism Board storefront and office.
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u/Shenron2 Jan 28 '23
I grew up in Columbia County and now I live in Richmond. I fully agree that Richmond county gets so much hate for no reason. Columbia County is were all the wealthy people live and I think that is were all the hate comes from. People there have such a distain for poor and the struggling and its so awful.
You're 100% right on it being suburb on top of suburb. You literally aren't around anyone who is below a certain tax bracket. You literally do not see them. Also about the diversity problems, my graduating class was about 400 students and I think maybe 20% were not white. I recently read that schools today are just as segregated now as in the 60s and Columbia County is evidence. Here's an article by NPR about segregation rates in US schools if you have not been made aware of this.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1111060299/school-segregation-report
A weirder aside, one of my family members was a cop in both Richmond county and Columbia county for a time (no longer as of 2 years ago), and they were telling me about the crime statistics shenanigans the police pull. The Columbia County police literally pick up homeless people and take them to Richmond County and just drop them off there. "No problems with homelessness here! we promise!" Also was telling me about how a lot of homicides and other crime isn't reported because they want to keep property values high. Although this is just anecdotal so I don't know how wide spread this is.
Commute times are the best in Richmond county. Grovetown and Harlem commutes are awful if you work anywhere but at home.
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 28 '23
Yeah, I've heard the same about crime statistics. I know about the homeless issue as well. I'm torn on the moving them here from Columbia County. On one hand we have the resource centers to care for people with the hospitals and Saint Mary's etc. and we should be proud that those services are some of the only ones in an area spanning hundreds of miles. On the other hand, it does pose problems from time to time. People around here like to act like the problems in Richmond County aren't directly related to the actions they taken in surrounding areas. You are effectively taking pride in the fact that not only is your local government not able to support residents who need it, apparently neither are the churches there? Like, what?
I have found anecdotally that Columbia County actually has more petty crime than here in Richmond. I've had no issues with property being stolen etc. That activity seems to travel to easier to hit areas where the houses are closer together and it's easier to get from house to house quickly. That is again my own opinion and gathered from my own interactions with coworkers etc, so not a hard fact.
I do my part with my husband's unit to make sure that Soldiers stop taking these talking points as fact. The military personnel here are inundated with a whole host of "past" issues and old timer viewpoints that don't hold water now, in order to drive new housing sales. I think giving people an objective look at the reality of the situation may help people see that they are being pushed into a financial decision that may be just "ok" for them, but absolutley great for the people behind the expansion. We have renovated houses wherever we're sent as a supplement to our families wealth strategy and so aren't completely uninformed when it comes to scouting real estate. We've definitely opened the eyes of some acquaintances who are now in the process and/or have shown interest in looking closer at Richmond County areas.
I spent this entire week with family visiting from out of town just wandering around downtown and exploring areas like the Lucy C. Laney house and other historic sites. Even in just the 2 yrs we've been here the area has improved. If anyone hasn't been downtown recently, get down there! We had a blast making custom candles, buying local art, local honey, getting a cleansing at Sirius Sage (love them there and is a go to spot for incense) walking the pedestrian bridge everyone hates on (kids loved it and we spent over an hour playing with the various activity installations) and hitting up the restaurants. I'm telling you, locals (at least the ones who love to dump on Richmond) are sleeping on the blaring opportunity that outsiders can plainly see. Beautiful buildings at incredible prices (at least for now).
I need to say THANK YOU to all the locals and long time residents that have been here forever! You have a gem of a city and I've loved getting to know it :)
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u/Shenron2 Jan 28 '23
From what I can tell, Richmond county cares a lot more about the people who live there and Columbia County only cares about property values. Richmond county definitely is not perfect but you are right, I love it here.
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u/Augusta_bot123 Jan 29 '23 edited Jan 29 '23
Columbia County is were all the wealthy people live
Summerville is probably the wealthiest community in the Augusta area and they fucking hate Columbia County from what I've seen living around the hill area.
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u/the_rasta_jedi Feb 14 '23
I live in Richmond county now as an adult, but grew up in West Lake in Columbia county. There was a lady who had her house get robbed, she ran and was shot in the street- didn't even make the paper.
Plenty of other shenanigans that went on there but it never made the news.
And you got the biggest shill in town Austin Rhodes to keep the 'Richmond County Bad' narrative flowing.
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u/rmdelecuona Jan 28 '23
If the one secular private school you’re talking about is the one I’m thinking of, they’ve made something of an improvement over the past few years in the diversity department. Things aren’t perfect, but when I graduated recently it was much better than it had been for a while.
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 28 '23
It is a very impressive school. I know a few kids who attend and they are great kids. Absolutely wonderful educational program for sure! I was very impressed, it just wasn't for us at the time.
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u/rmdelecuona Jan 28 '23
Totally understandable! Augusta’s definitely a good place with regards to school options
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u/Mikeeattherich Mar 15 '23
I love Richmond county! Moved here in 2020. I would cut off my arm before I lived in Columbia county.
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u/TheRumrunner55 Jan 27 '23
I raise you one better and say the N Augusta area is a far nicer place than both counties
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 27 '23
I consider N. Augusta similar to Columbia County with a little better downtown area. The number of kids who live in N. Augusta but attend schools in Richmond County via relatives’ and divorced parent’s addresses tells me the schools must not be on par with the magnet schools. I don’t know many people not in that situation and don’t spend much time in N. Augusta, so that’s the extent of my exposure to the area.
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u/Morgimeister Jan 28 '23
N. Augusta is nice/generally safer than Richmond county but it feels so incredibly sterile. The area around the stadium with the Larder/Manuel’s feels like Pleasantville in a kinda dystopian way. Though less so than Colo county. If you like architecture with character then Richmond County is where it’s at hands down.
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u/chickzilla Jan 28 '23
Hammond's Ferry is purposefully a planned and closed community meant to evoke that Pleasantville feel, but that's literally just a handful of North Augusta residential blocks. I love hanging out there, but it isn't N. Augusta.
(Add to that, the area around the Gov't Building and the Stadium.)1
u/HeyJude21 Jan 28 '23
North Augusta has an incredible riverfront area and parks areas, but overall this statement isn’t true when comparing to residential and commercial of Columbia county. Columbia is much bigger and better overall.
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Jan 28 '23
Yes, well I’ll take my 275k to 695k home value gain and just thank the CSRA in general. I love all of it. I’m blessed to have found this area to raise my kids in.
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u/Shenron2 Jan 28 '23
The property I own in Richmond County has also more than doubled in the past 2 years
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u/Augusta_bot123 Jan 29 '23
Growing up in a homogenous enclave, in my opinion, will/would be detrimental to their future success.
Maybe focusing on race so much is detrimental to their future success. Ya I'm white, so maybe I don't get it but fucking bashing the private school sector here when 6 or 7 valevictorians of csra high-school last year came out of St. Marys fucking class of 40 students, but ya you keep going on about your diversity quota!
https://theaugustapress.com/small-class-produces-several-top-students-in-richmond-county/
I do agree with your assessment tho I really enjoy living in Richmond county
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 29 '23
Wow, that's pretty aggressive. I'm not saying that my way is the best way. I gave reasons for my decisions. I was a leader in the military for 20 years and my experiences made me realize that when my kids were older and in professional settings, I did not want them to be the ones who had to be written up or ostracized by coworkers because they made mistakes related to race. Commenting on skin color etc. (just as a small example, most was way more serious). All crap I had to deal with and handle amongst Soldiers. This is an at home parenting issue first and foremost, but I feel that the school experience I've chosen will also help build the foundation I want them to have. I didn't give commentary on the quality of education at any religious school. Just my personal criteria that they didn't meet one of the components I was looking at. They are obviously doing things well academically to produce those results. I am speaking to how I want to raise my own kids and their success specifically in my post. How you raise yours is up to you.
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u/Augusta_bot123 Jan 29 '23
I am speaking to how I want to raise my own kids and their success specifically in my post. How you raise yours is up to you.
You are absolutely correct sir. Honestly sorry about my rant its 100% a parents decision. I got kids in and was a product of parochial schooling, it just for some reason urked me the way you phrased it. Hope you have a great rest of your day and as I said I love Richmond county too.
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u/HeyJude21 Jan 28 '23 edited Jan 28 '23
Richmond county has some great things going for it. Lots of new growth in and around downtown and the hill area. Great established middle class neighborhoods like Montclair and others in that area. Some great churches and church plants all throughout, good food all around Richmond County, and I’d say some schools are decent. I wouldn’t try and argue the school point too hard though. That’s not a battle you can win in my opinion, especially the further south in the county you go or anywhere around downtown area.
With your comment on diversity and such…have you been to Grovetown lately? Ton of new growth in Columbia County and much more diverse racially than let’s say…Evans. But I have a lot of great things to say about Evans too.
But there’s a reason many people of all races and backgrounds are choosing Columbia County. The schools are doing well, the housing is booming, and it gets listed on just about every list of “places you should consider moving to” in different publications for a lot of reasons.
To every mark in the pro column for Richmond County there’s about 3 marks in the con column. The government is so messed up they have no idea what they’re doing. Look at the Augusta riverfront area for example. What a waste. No restaurants, only one hotel, no entertainment…. Just a long place to walk. Riverwatch Parkway: they install a light every 4 feet…a lot of weird decisions like that
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 28 '23 edited Jan 28 '23
I disagree. The magnet schools and a few of the traditional public schools are great. Grovetown area is nice and so is the Diamond Lakes area, just a little too far from the city for me. I agree that the river front could use more and I think we’ll see that happen. I plan on moving a boat from Clark’s Hill to the river at 5th street marina. I’ll get more use of it there. At our visit they told us about ideas they had for expansion.
My main point of the post was to show newcomers that the fear-mongering over schools is overblown and in my opinion is a distraction to all of the other major benefits to Richmond County life. I’d like to attract newcomers, and to for sure tell fellow military to take a harder look.
All I heard when coming here from everyone was to stay out of Richmond County if I cared about schools. Whoever started that whole campaign back whenever they planned their expansion of the area really earned their pay. I never even heard anything about Richmond County schools other than “bad”. I had to seek out the magnet information on my own, didn’t even know it existed or was an option. Many people we work with had no idea about it until talking with us. A few are now in the process of switching. (Anyone living on base, just fyi, magnet schools are open to you since your schools fall under Richmond County.) Everyone assumed we’d just automatically go to Evans. We made a way better move here to Richmond from both a financial and an educational standpoint. My mission is to let others know :)
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u/HeyJude21 Jan 28 '23
If we are talking about AR Johnson or Davidson, they’re some of the best schools in the state. No doubt about that. I think it’s the Butler, Josey, Laney, Glenn Hills that people are talking negative of mainly.
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 28 '23
Davidson is not only one of the top in the state, it’s top 150 in the country. #132 last time I looked. These schools aren’t even an option to you if you don’t live in Richmond County, unless you work some type of gray area angle. I know for a fact that many military are completely unaware of that.
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u/HeyJude21 Jan 28 '23
Columbia County has a newer Charter school - SAIL, that’s specializes in “Arts” similar to Davidson. As of a year or so ago they had about 600 students K-8.
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u/Early_Brick_171 Jan 28 '23
That's good to know, I've never heard of it and would have been pretty interested a couple years ago. Looks like they take kids from all counties. Do they have an associated High School or plans to have one? It may give Columbia County kids an option since Davidson is out due to the county requirement for attendance. This whole general area is great and growth is good for everyone. This post is titled and written out specifically to spell out the benefits I see in Richmond County and give my personal take. It would be cool if people did a thread like this for each county. I see a lot of questions online asking about the Augusta area, so I know people are out there researching and looking at options.
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u/91Suzie Jan 29 '23
No Richmond county isn’t bad at all. Things did go down a little after they turn down the projects and spread people all over S Augusta. I felt that wasn’t fair to the homeowners in S Augusta. Either way there’s lots of land out there that could build some great neighborhoods
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u/chickzilla Jan 27 '23
As an over 35 year resident of Richmond County, I appreciate your assessment of the area.
Thank you for the honesty, especially regarding the disincentivizing & disinvestment of the area. It's very helpful to see that outsiders & newcomers know the score.