The Best Place to Live in Georgia

Our local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, recently ran an article about the best place to live in the state of Georgia.

According to the article, each year, data research website Niche ranks the best places to live in the United States.

The ranking provides a comprehensive assessment of the overall livability of an area, taking into account location, quality of local schools, crime rates, housing trends, employment statistics and access to amenities. In an attempt to measure the overall quality of an area in Georgia, Decatur came out on top with an A+ overall rating.

 

 

 

The city of Decatur was originally incorporated in 1823, and it’s about six miles east of downtown Atlanta. It’s a great place to live if you work in downtown Atlanta, because you never have to get on the highway to get downtown, and you can just take Dekalb Avenue.

The city of Decatur is a very charming area of Atlanta. It has beautiful architecture. Most of the homes are Craftsman bungalow style – a lot of Victorian houses as well.

It’s close to Agnes Scott University and there’s a beautiful little downtown filled with restaurants and shops, and access to Marta, which is our local subway. And another plus for the city of Decatur is it’s got terrific schools. They’re actually some of the best in Atlanta.

Due to the high demand for the city of Decatur, and the relatively small geographic area that it covers, prices are quite high for the Atlanta area. To move into the city of Decatur in this current market, you’re looking at spending about $500,000 on maybe about a 1,000 square feet, and that house is probably not going to be updated.

The demand is extremely high there. Most houses in Decatur are going to be $500k+. Many of them are going to go for over $1 million.

Many of the people who want to live in the city of Decatur (people who work at children’s healthcare or Emory or the cdc) find that they’re actually priced out of that market. They can’t buy as much houses they need, given those current prices.

Many people who are priced out of the city of Decatur area start looking in the North Decatur area, which is obviously right next to that and they find much better home values.

North Decatur, which includes the 30329, 3003 and 30345 zip codes, has a lot of the positives of the city of Decatur, with a more accessible price point.

Also, speaking about accessibility, the North Decatur area is actually more accessible to the rest of Atlanta. It’s right off a major highway: I-85, but you can get to areas like Buckhead, Virginia Highlands and Midtown without ever getting on the highway.

One of the negatives about city of Decatur is that due to its location, it adds about 20 minutes onto any trip within the city (Atlanta), other than going into downtown Atlanta.

Now, North Decatur does not have the charming bungalows and Victorian homes like the city of Decatur, but it does have some spectacular mid-century modern homes. There are many straightforward brick ranches, but there are a lot of pockets of really cool high style mid-century homes.

In fact there’s a whole neighborhood called Amberwood that is the best example of mid-century architecture in Atlanta. When the neighborhood was built, it was required that each home be unique and designed by an architect. Robert Green, who was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed several Amberwood homes.

Okay, so let’s talk about the North Decatur home market right now. The median sales price is around $460k which means that half of the homes are below $460k and half of them are above $460k. A one bedroom one bath condo will run you anywhere from about $150 to $180k. A typical three bedroom two bath 1960s ranch or split level type home, you can find for as low as $400k. A very nicely renovated ranch or split level home is going to be anywhere from $500,000 and up. The most expensive home on the market right now in this area is a $2.3 million dollar home, which is seven bedrooms and five baths and it’s a brand new build.

I live in North Decatur because I think it’s great and I think you will too! So if you’re thinking about moving to Atlanta and you’re going to be working for Emory University, Emory Hospital Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta or the CDC you really need to take a look at the North Decatur area it’s extremely convenient to all those locations we’ve got some some of the best restaurants in Atlanta. We have fantastic schools – it’s just a great community filled with great people and I think you’re going to love it!

So if you’re considering moving to Atlanta think about moving to the best place in Georgia.