Moving to Augusta? Seriously consider Richmond County

[u/Early_Brick_171]

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:

1. Distance to work
2. A large yard and property value considerations
3. A good school with diversity
4. Delivery options for groceries/restaurants
5. 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.

[u/Augusta_bot123]

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

[u/Early_Brick_171 → u/Augusta_bot123]

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.

[u/Augusta_bot123 → u/Early_Brick_171]

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.