Areas to buy near downtown Atlanta? (Reynolds: condo, house, neighborhoods)

[alevan]

My husband and I are moving to Atlanta in about a month and he will be working downtown and we want to be atleast 5-10 miles from there. I have been researching some areas and can't decide. Our budget is about 300K We have three dogs so we are looking for a house instead of a condo too. I am wondering what the areas south of 1-20 are like such as Grant Park or areas west of Atlanta. How is Cabbagetown? Any suggestions would be welcome. We are also interested in Virginia Highlands, Piedmont, Midtown. We are coming down this weekend and would like to have some areas narrowed down. We are not worried about schools. We would like to live in an area where if we wanted we could walk to a restaurant.

[Merin]

Your best bet is going to be the Grant Park area. Zip Codes 30312,30315. For 300k you aren’t going to get a single family house in Virginia Highlands or Midtown. Unfortunately those are the two areas you could live where restaurants would be in walking distance. Cabbagetown only has two restaurants I would not recommend it for what you are looking for. Grant Park is very dog friendly. You will find that most households have dogs. If you want to walk to restaurants there are about 4 in the Grant Park area. When you factor in your price range please remember the taxes in the City of Atlanta are very high. Without homestead exemption the taxes on a 300k home are going to be about 6k a year. After you can file the exemption they will be about 4k a year.

[ceverett2000]

Cabbagetown is definitely a neighborhood that is dog friendly, and people do walk to the restaurants there. They even have their own smaller park there. There is also a tiny grocery/general store in the neighborhood. It is also very close to the grant park area, if you wanted to go to those restaurants and to the Edgewood retail district for groceries/lowes/target, etc., as well as little five points. I suggest that you check Cabbagetown and Grant park. Cabbagetown and bordering Reynoldstown will be in the 30316 zipcode. It is an easy drive to downtown from there (you don't even need to get on the interstate.)
The issue with Cabbagetown is that it is hard to find a house with a driveway.

You might also consider East Atlanta, and the Ormewood Park areas.

As far as West of Atlanta and further south of I-20, there are some nice older neighborhoods, but they are not as far along in the revitalization process as say, Grant park. You likely won't find the restaurants within walking distance.