Living at Lake Oconee: Community and Neighborhood FAQs

Is Lake Oconee a good place to live?

Yes, and we chose it for ourselves. Lake Oconee covers about 19,000 acres with 374 miles of shoreline, roughly 75 miles east of Atlanta off I-20. Georgia Power manages the shoreline and permits every dock, and the water level stays close to full pool all year.

People move here for the water, the golf and a slower pace. Daily life runs along the Highway 44 corridor, with Publix, restaurants and St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro. There is no big-city shopping or nightlife, and Hartsfield-Jackson airport is about an hour and a half to two hours away depending on traffic.

A lot of people buy here as weekenders and end up living here full time.

Which county should I live in at Lake Oconee?

The lake touches four counties, but its neighborhoods sit in three: Greene, Putnam and Morgan. The county decides your property tax bill, your school district and your short-term rental rules.

Those tax figures come from my estimate of the cost of owning a home on Lake Oconee as a second home. A full-time resident’s homestead exemption brings the number down, and millage rates move a little every year.

What is the best neighborhood for families at Lake Oconee?

The Landing at Reynolds Lake Oconee if you want gated, and Traditions at Carey Station if you do not. Both draw relocating families for the same reasons: amenities the kids will actually use, and proximity to the schools.

• The Landing, inside Reynolds. The Landing complex has recreational fields, basketball, tennis and pickleball courts, a playground, and a backyard waterpark with a thirty-foot slide and a zero-entry pool. It works as a social hub where older kids and teenagers can meet up on their own.
• Traditions at Carey Station, ungated. It sits next door to Lake Oconee Academy, so children can bike to school and parents can skip the drop-off line. Golf-cart friendly, with a community pool and pavilion.

Our own children have a lot of friends in Traditions, so we are over there often. It feels like a neighborhood from the 1980s, with groups of kids playing pickup games out in the street. Since their pool opened it has become the place local kids spend the summer.

Can my children attend Lake Oconee Academy?

Only if you live in Greene County. Lake Oconee Academy is a tuition-free public charter school from Pre-K through 12th grade, and its attendance zone is all of Greene County. Families on the Putnam or Morgan side are not eligible, even if the house is close to the campus.

When a grade has more applicants than seats, the seats are filled by lottery. Applications for the next school year have closed around the end of March, so a family moving in over the summer may find the grade they need is full and go on the waiting list.

Greene County students who do not attend the Academy go to Greene County public schools. Putnam County students attend Putnam County schools in Eatonton, and Morgan County students attend Morgan County schools in Madison. We raised our three children in the Lake Oconee Academy system. For families with school-age kids, the school usually decides which county they buy in.

Which Lake Oconee communities are gated?

Fifteen of the neighborhoods in my Lake Oconee guides are gated, though several of them, including Forest Glen, Chapel Springs and Oconee Landing, have gates that often stand open. Most of the fifteen are not golf communities. Only three are built around a course: Reynolds, Harbor Club and Cuscowilla. Those three, plus Del Webb and Camp Buckhead, are the Lake Oconee gated golf and resort communities most buyers have heard of. The other twelve range from townhomes and condos to custom-home neighborhoods, and most carry far lower dues than the golf resorts.

Can I play golf at Lake Oconee if I am not a club member?

Yes, on one course. Possibly more, depending on where you are staying.

Harbor Club is semi-private and open to the public. Anyone can book a tee time on the Weiskopf and Morrish course, member or not. Green fees are higher than a municipal course and the conditioning reflects that. It is the course most people miss, because Harbor Club is a gated residential community and everyone assumes the golf is gated too. The course is fantastic, and I do not get to play it nearly as much as I want to.

Cuscowilla has gone the other direction. It operated for years as a resort with lodge-guest play, and a good many golf directories still list it as semi-private. Their own contact page now says plainly that Cuscowilla is a private club, that all tee times must be booked and accompanied by a golf member, and that tee time requests are not accepted.

At Reynolds, the published information and what I see on the ground do not match. The Ritz-Carlton’s own site, Reynolds’ website and the golf tour operators all describe resort guests having access to five championship courses: The Landing, The Preserve, Great Waters, The National and The Oconee. But the only course I have actually run into Ritz-Carlton guests playing is The Oconee. If you are booking a trip around a specific course, confirm it when you reserve the room. The Reynolds membership tiers decide which courses owners can play.

The Creek Club, Richland and Fenmoor within Reynolds are members only, and The Hideaway is a private equity-ownership golf retreat with no residential real estate attached.

Where are the best ungated lakefront neighborhoods at Lake Oconee?

The Richland side of Lake Oconee is my pick. By car, it sits almost exactly between the commercial district anchored by the Publix at Lake Oconee Village and the growing hub at the Interstate 20 interchange. These eastern neighborhoods are quiet, convenient and in the Lake Oconee Academy zone. By water, the Richland side is the front door to the Ritz-Carlton, and it has the cove at Sandy Creek for watersports and gathering at the sandbar.

Granite Cove, Deerfield, Richland and Beaverdam are the ones to look at in this district. They have large wooded lots, no architectural review board and none of the fees a golf resort carries.

The ungated Richland neighborhoods are not Richland Pointe, which is a village section inside Reynolds Lake Oconee. The ungated Richland homes are the ones you are looking at across the water from the pool deck at the Ritz-Carlton.

This is my favorite part of the lake, and it is where we chose to live.

Is there a 55-and-over community at Lake Oconee?

Yes. Del Webb at Lake Oconee, in Greene County, is the lake’s only fully amenitized 55-and-over community. It is an active adult community under the federal Housing for Older Persons Act, which means at least 80 percent of occupied homes must have a resident who is 55 or older. It is gated and guarded, planned for roughly 800 to 870 homes when it is finished, and since 2022 most homes there have sold between the low $300,000s and the high $600,000s.

Most retirees at Lake Oconee do not live in an age-restricted community. They buy in Reynolds, Harbor Club, a lock-and-leave condo or on an ungated cove, with neighbors of every age. Del Webb is for people who want a full activity calendar and neighbors at the same stage of life.

Which Lake Oconee communities have a marina?

A handful have a marina inside the community or at the end of the street:

• Reynolds Lake Oconee, with its marina near the Lake Club.
• Harbor Club, whose Boathouse marina is owned by the club.
• The Waterfront and the Enclave, side by side at the marina off Collis Marina Road in Putnam County.
• Sugar Creek Landing and Sailview, both near Sugar Creek Marina on the Morgan County side.
• Blue Springs, a small ungated pocket with Blue Springs Marina at the end of the road.
• Camp Buckhead, which has a marina in its plans.

Most lakefront lots elsewhere can have a private dock under Georgia Power’s shoreline rules, and the public marinas around the lake sell fuel and rent slips and storage to anyone.

Are there condos and townhomes at Lake Oconee?

Yes, on both the Greene and Putnam sides. They suit second-home owners who want lake access without a yard or a private dock to maintain. A few I show often:

• The Village at Lake Club Pointe, condos inside the Reynolds gates, a walk from the Lake Club and marina, each with a private one-car garage and inside the short-term rental overlay district.
• Park Place, townhomes on Lake Oconee Parkway, under five minutes from Publix.
• The Vintage Club, gated townhomes at the Highway 44 bridge that are far larger inside than they look from the street.
• The Waterfront, gated lakefront condos in Putnam County.

Some Lake Oconee condo and townhome communities assign a slip to every unit and some do not, so I confirm whether a slip conveys before we write an offer.

Can I rent a home at Lake Oconee year-round before I buy?

Yes, but year-round rentals are hard to find. Most rental houses at the lake are vacation rentals priced by the night, and year-round leases rarely reach the MLS. The best leads come from the local property managers, who sometimes have an owner open to a six- or twelve-month lease, and from vacation rental owners who would rather fill the winter months.

We have done it twice ourselves. We rented a condo at The Village at Lake Club Pointe for six months over the winter of 2010, and later spent about a year renting in The Vintage Club while we waited for the Richland waterfront house we wanted. Renting first is how we learned which side of the lake fit us, and I recommend it to anyone who is not sure yet.

Can you use a Lake Oconee property for Airbnb or short-term rentals?

Sometimes. It depends on the county, the zoning and the neighborhood covenants, and each county handles it differently.

Neighborhood covenants can rule out short-term rentals even where the county allows them. Reynolds, Cuscowilla and Harbor Club all have their own restrictions, and where a neighborhood does allow rentals, the county still has to approve you. Before writing an offer on anything you intend to rent, I check the zoning and the neighborhood bylaws.