Are you wondering where to live in Atlanta? What are the best places to live in Atlanta? Best areas to live in Atlanta In this video, we talk about the 10 best neighborhoods in Atlanta. If you are moving to Atlanta and are not familiar with the different Atlanta areas, this will give you an idea about the flavor of the top neighborhoods in Atlanta. This video covers Atlanta neighborhoods inside and outside the perimeter – some are super suburban, some are very urban. What this video to see what it’s like living in Atlanta. #atlantahousingmarket #movingtoatlantageorgia
Well if you’ve watched the channel much you know that we talk a lot about where to live near two of Atlanta’s biggest employers: Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Well today we’re gonna hop north of I-85 to the lovely city of Brookhaven. With a population just under 60,000, Brookhaven is the largest city in Dekalb County Georgia. The city of Brookhaven was incorporated in December 2012, so they are coming up on their 10th anniversary. Brookhaven is a very well-run, very efficient city, with their own police department and their own planning and zoning committees. Planning and zoning have been very important in Brookhaven’s rapid growth and I’ll talk more about that later.
Now if you note on the map Brookhaven is entirely inside the perimeter in the north part of Atlanta. Brookhaven is conveniently located near three of Atlanta’s largest healthcare employers. On the south end you have Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory hospital, and on the north end Northside Hospital. Traffic is terrible in Atlanta, so if you’re moving here to work at any of these three healthcare facilities, Brookhaven would be an excellent choice. You’re going to have a very short commute and you’re never going to have to get on the highway.
To keep it simple we’re going to break Brookhaven down into three distinct areas and talk about those. The first part is historic Brookhaven, which is on the west side of Peachtree Road surrounding the Capital City Club and Oglethorpe University. Homes here generally start well above a million dollars. So let’s start in historic Brookhaven near the Capital City Country Club and Oglethorpe University. This part of Brookhaven is filled with homes from the early 1900s – you’ll see the same classical architecture that you find in Buckhead and Druid Hills and that’s because these were all Atlanta’s first suburbs. They were built in the early 1900s. This area around the Capital City Club is on the national register of historic places. In historic Brookhaven you’ll rarely see anything on the market under a million dollars.
Our second part of Brookhaven is located on the east side of Peachtree Road near the Brookhaven village. These neighborhoods are known as Ashford Park and Drew Valley. Ashford Park is north of Dresden and Drew Valley is south, but they are largely homogeneous. Now Ashford Park and Drew Valley were developed primarily in the 1950s and they were formerly filled with hundreds, probably thousands of these very small homes most of them under 1200 square feet and largely obsolete by today’s standards. These homes are being torn down on a daily basis and rebuilt as very livable modern homes, often with four more bedrooms open floor plans, gourmet kitchens and all the details you would expect in a modern home. As I mentioned earlier, planning and zoning has been critical to Brookhaven’s rapid growth over the last 10 years. Brookhaven has streamlined the process so that good homebuilders can do their jobs and build more single-family homes. Literally everywhere you look there are new homes under construction, every street seems to have two or three new houses being built every time you drive through. As you can see, Brookhaven keeps the home styles very classic, very refined you just don’t see the giant bomb shelter mcmansions popping up here like you do elsewhere in Atlanta. Now the good news is that many of these new homes are available starting in the low 700s in fact I just sold one over on Drew Valley road for 715 thousand dollars
Our third part of Brookhaven is north Brookhaven, which extends north of Oglethorpe University all the way up to I-285. The main section of north Brookhaven is the retail and park district at the intersection of Ashford Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry Road. North Brookhaven has a much more suburban feel. Most of the homes there were built in the 1970s up through the 1990s, so these houses are still very functional, with many homes well over 2500 square feet and four bedrooms. There is some infill housing here, but not nearly as much as you’re seeing in south Brookhaven. I mentioned Brookhaven’s terrific park system and north Brookhaven has two of the best and largest parks in the city: Blackburn Park has a large tennis facility a huge green space and several soccer fields just down Ashford Dunwoody Road towards Perimeter Mall is Murphy Candler Park which at 120 acres is the largest park in Brookhaven. Murphy Candler lake has a two mile trail loop and you’ll often see people fishing there. Plus there are more tennis courts, more baseball fields, more soccer fields, more football fields, a swimming pool, playgrounds and more. Brookhaven in fact has 18 different parks and recreational facilities. So if you love to be outdoors and enjoy the great Atlanta weather Brookhaven is a great place to live.
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.
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