I am from Atlanta. North of Atlanta is a good place to raise kids. Alpharetta is home of many hollywood stars. It's beautiful and weather is never extreme. South Carolina is also good and cheap too. Although I have just vistited once. Florida would get extreme in summers.

I lived for many years in Atlanta.
It is a great city to be in.
I second picaso's comment about North of Atlanta - there are nice suburban communities there.

Couple of things to remember when choosing Atlanta - high[er] cost of living, traffic/over-crowding, and volatile job market.

The Carolinas are great too - nice, friendly, comfortable Southern living.
Limited job opportunites, though.
Mostly university and public sector jobs.

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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

I have lived in Houston, TX, Tampa, FL , Edison NJ, Miwaukee WI
and currently in Canton OH and have visited more often to Missouri, MA, CT. PA, IN and IL states.

Of all the southern states ( since warm weather is key), consider the other advanatage No state Income Tax in TX, FL also I guess, and between these two TX is better, since threat of hurricanes is less.