MOVING TO ATLANTA? NORTH DECATUR – ATLANTA’S BEST KEPT SECRET

Hey this is Parker your favorite Atlanta realtor. Today we’re going to take you on a tour of one of Atlanta’s best in-town neighborhoods, and frankly one of Atlanta’s best-kept secrets:  a neighborhood called North Decatur. Over the course of this video, I’m going to tell you why I love this area so much, but I’m going to give you the hook right now:  value. There isn’t a better bang for your buck anywhere inside the perimeter in Atlanta. North Decatur combines affordable houses with a great location making it easy to get everywhere you want to go in Atlanta. Add to that some of in town Atlanta’s best schools, outdoor recreation, hundreds of great restaurants, and the laid back easy easy-going lifestyle, and all that adds up to some of the best home values in Atlanta.

The primary challenge living inside the perimeter in Atlanta is affordability. Buckhead, Midtown, Virginia Highlands, and Decatur are some of the most expensive neighborhoods with even small homes selling above six hundred thousand dollars, so if you want to live in town in Atlanta, but you need to keep your budget closer to two hundred dollars a square foot, North Decatur is for you.

Let’s take a quick look at our map so we can get oriented here is downtown Atlanta and this big red ring surrounding the city is interstate 285, also known as the perimeter. Just to keep you up to date on your Atlanta lingo, if you live inside of I-285 you live ITP or inside the perimeter, and if you live outside I-285 you live OTP, outside the perimeter. So about six miles east of downtown Atlanta is the lovely city of Decatur, and just North of the City of Decatur is this large unincorporated area of Dekalb County known with great imagination as North Decatur. North Decatur has two zip codes: 30033 and 30345. If you live in 30033, you’ll have a Decatur mailing address, and if you live in 30345 you’ll have an Atlanta mailing address.

In North Decatur you’ll discover that a lot of your neighbors work at Georgia Tech, Emory University, Centers for Disease Control and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. To give you some idea of the distances, it’s about seven miles down to GeorgiaTech, and it’s about two or three miles to get to Emory or Children’s Healthcare. North Decatur is filled with great neighborhoods each which has their own distinct personality in areas like Medlock Park and Lindmore Woods, you have mostly smaller homes that generally are starter homes, sometimes downsizers buy them, but mostly it’s first-time home buyers. Many of these first-time buyers graduate from these areas up into larger homes in Leafmore, Oak Grove, Sagamore Hills or Briarlake. In any case you’ll find some of Atlanta’s most affordable and livable in town communities right here in North Decatur.

North Decatur has a wide variety of price points:  you can find starter homes in the mid 300s good three-bedroom two-bath houses fully renovated starting around 600, and you can find these really impressive super contemporary new construction homes that start well above a million dollars. So let’s talk about the houses. The most common house you’re going to find in North Decatur is going to be the classic ranch style home. These are very solidly built houses dating mostly from the 1960s, and as we say in the south, they clean up really well. You can easily paint the exterior and freshen up the landscaping, and quickly take these houses to the next level. Here are some examples of 1960s ranches that have been renovated:  these are projects my wife has designed and it usually involves moving some walls and opening up the layout to make the house more in line with how people live today. In addition to the ranch style, you’ll find plenty of two-story traditional vintage, mid-century modern, some 90s infill suburban style homes and even as I mentioned before, ultra contemporary new construction homes that always go on the market over 1 million dollars. Now I’m going to tell you the five things I love about North Decatur.

Let’s start with number one:  you’ve probably heard the old joke what are the three most important things in real estate the answer of course is location, location, location. First off you can see how convenient North Decatur is to the highways:  it makes it very easy to get around Atlanta. And I mentioned before, we’re very close to some of Atlanta’s largest employers. We’re also very close to some of Atlanta’s most vibrant in-town communities: Decatur, Avondale Estates, Virginia Highlands, Midtown, Buckhead. Just outside the perimeter is Tucker, which is really starting to pop. One of the other places I love is Buford Highway:  there are hundreds of great restaurants with every kind of cuisine imaginable from all around the world. And last but certainly not least we love to go out to Stone Mountain, which I’ll talk more about in just a minute.

Number two:  the schools. Some of in town Atlanta’s best schools are located right here in North Decatur. Since we’re so close to Emory and Children’s Healthcare and Georgia Tech, naturally a lot of their employees choose to live in the area. As a result we have a very high level of parental involvement in all of our schools. If you want more information about the schools in the area, here’s a list of some of our local public and private schools that you can use for your own research.

Number three:  the amenities. We are really blessed to have an amazing selection of stores and restaurants all over the North Decatur area: the Oak Grove Plaza and Vista Grove shopping center are kind of the heart of North Decatur, and most of the restaurants and shops there are locally owned, and they’re just a short walk or drive for many of the neighborhoods. The community turns out in full force almost every night of the week, and these restaurants are always packed. People here love to eat out. One thing I get asked all the time and something that’s on everybody’s mind is where do I go grocery shopping? Where do I buy food? Well if you live in North Decatur, you have a great selection of places to spend your grocery budget:  Publix and Kroger are the two big traditional grocery stores. Here in Atlanta we also have Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s.

Number four:  the outdoor lifestyle. If you love being outdoors, if you love being active, you’re gonna love North Decatur. We’ve got nature trails, and paths for walking and biking, and several different youth sports leagues for your kids. Some of the best amenities in North Decatur are the swim and tennis clubs, which are located in almost every neighborhood. Just join one of these swim tennis clubs, and you’ll immediately start making new friends. Even if you’ve never played before, there are teams specifically for beginners. Getting outside the North Decatur area, you can quickly drive out to Stone Mountain and hike up to the top, get a great view of the city, or take a trip down to the Chattahoochee River. The great weather in Atlanta, it’s easy to get outdoors all year round.

And finally number five, and the things I love about North Decatur:  price to value. Most of the homes built in North Decatur were built after the three-bedroom two-bath became the minimum build size. Unlike most of the homes built in the early 1900s, these houses are all going to have good-sized bedrooms and baths, plenty of closet and storage space, usually a partial basement, if not a full basement, and a carport or a garage. So they’re still very livable by today’s standards. Add to that the other things I’ve mentioned:  the terrific location, great schools, access to so many amenities, shopping, outdoor activities, and you have what I think and hopefully have convinced you, is one of the best values you’ll find anywhere in Atlanta. Again North Decatur has been our home for 19 years now, our family has grown up here and gone to all the local schools. We’ve had a fantastic experience – we’re very very happy here. If you’re thinking about making the move to Atlanta, maybe you’re interested in North Decatur, maybe you’re interested in some other part of Atlanta. In any case feel free to reach out to me, my contact information is in the box below I’d love to talk to you thanks.