It has only been a city since 2006, but a report by 24/7 Wall Street names Sandy Springs as “one of the best cities to live in the South.” The independent financial news and opinion website used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a weighted index of 25 measures across four categories: affordability, economy, quality of life and community.
The Atlanta suburb was ranked 11th in the report. It has a median household income of $78,613 and a five-year unemployment rate of 3 percent. Its current population is 107,072, which grew by 8.7 percent over the past five years. It is also home to many fine schools and about as many Fortune 500 companies as neighboring Atlanta.
While Atlanta is wracked by rising violent crime, it’s a different story in Sandy Springs. Overall crime has been reduced since the police department was established, and a lot of this is due to strict law enforcement coupled with a lot of community support for the police. Police Chief Ken DeSimone, in fact, recently told James magazine that there is only one unsolved homicide in the city going back to when the department began.
Milton, a small Atlanta-area suburb, was ranked right after Sandy Springs at 12th. The only other Georgia cities that ranked after Sandy Springs and Milton on the lengthy list were Alpharetta, Suwanee, Braselton and Rincon.
