Outside of school districts, retail is a very close second to what drives property values in metro Atlanta's suburbs. Once you get past that your commute will suck no matter where you live (sad but true), how you much time you spend driving to do errands will become the lesser of two evils.
Alpharetta started the trend when Northpoint mall was created. This mall anchored out parcels and blocks of retail which turned into streets of bustling retail. The housing market around it benefited and still does to this day. It lessens the blow of how GA-400 is the only way in & out of Alpharetta because there isn't much you need to leave the city for outside of a museum or the fox theater. Gwinnett piggy backed on that idea by adding 2 malls (Discover mills & the behemoth Mall of Georgia) to compliment Gwinnett Place mall. Gwinnett took it a step further adding the Gwinnett arena, Braves minor league stadium and the Park of Suwanee which rivals Centennial Olympic Park. This retail growth has brought both counties other big box retailers (best buy, WalMart, home depot, etc.) that add to the surrounding retail.
Douglas & Clayton counties never quite grasped that idea. In the boom of 2000-2004 a lot of new construction went up in these counties. Lower prices & property taxes began to lure potential home buyers as values began to rise in the competing counties. The problem came when the buyers flocked to Clayton, Henry, & Douglas county, they soon discovered a simple Saturday of running errands involved a lot more driving than they were used to. Coupling that with buyers noticing that they were shopping where the moved away from!
With gas not being your wallets best friend right now, it's definitely a factor to consider when thinking about moving to a certain county to get more for your money. You could be giving that money back in gas and patience with every trip to the store!
