Home prices are starting to appreciating in these six areas in Atlanta. (Roswell: condos, hotels)

[Esteban5]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

If the Buckhead average price includes condos, then few people would say we're comparing apples to apples. What's the average price of a freestanding single family home in Buckhead?

Agree 100%.

Personally, I find it disturbing having off-duty police for the local grocery store in a neighborhood. Yes, I saw one at the Whole Foods across from St. Regis night before last.

[OhioNative]

Originally Posted by Esteban5

Agree 100%.

Personally, I find it disturbing having off-duty police for the local grocery store in a neighborhood. Yes, I saw one at the Whole Foods across from St. Regis night before last.

They also do that in the suburbs. My police buddy makes good money working evenings at Kroger and Publix stores in Gwinnett and N. Fulton.

[jpatlanta]

Originally Posted by mrpanda

Atlanta Magazine May 2010 issue

page 66 Buckhead median home price : $565,000
page 67 Milton median home price $548,250

I say that is pretty close jpatlanta.

yes but this doesn't break down into sq ft house and lot size, house type, age etc, take a drive around Buckhead and look at some flyers for sale and you will see what I mean

I am going to guestimate that the price difference is x3. What I mean by that is a new build 3000 sq ft home in Buckhead zips is triple a 3000 sq ft in Milton. The differential between older ranches is more like x4.

I am NOT saying Milton isn't a good area just saying its much cheaper than Buckhead and the housing stock is MUCH risker thats all.............

[mrpanda]

jpatlanta,
I am not arguing with you that Buckhead prices are higher than Milton in ppsf. The same analogy applies to Santa Monica (LA), Brentwood, West LA, or even Beverly Hills and Irvine (Orange County) California. I would pick to live in Irvine anyday over Santa Monica as the homes are much newer and 40% cheaper with much better schools than these older more expensive LA suburbs.

Personally.. I have no desire to live near Buckhead even if it is easily affordable to me. Honestly I have no desire to live anywhere south of Doraville. Milton would be a much more attractive place for me to live than Buckhead. Perhaps I dislike the city life/suburbs and prefer the nice suburbs up north with big lots in the best school districts of Georiga. To each their own.

[Esteban5]

Originally Posted by mrpanda

jpatlanta,
I am not arguing with you that Buckhead prices are higher than Milton in ppsf. The same analogy applies to Santa Monica (LA), Brentwood, West LA, or even Beverly Hills and Irvine (Orange County) California. I would pick to live in Irvine anyday over Santa Monica as the homes are much newer and 40% cheaper with much better schools.

Personally.. I have no desire to live near Buckhead even if it is easily affordable to me. Milton would be a much more attractive place for me to live. Perhaps I dislike the city suburbs and prefer the nice suburbs up north with big lots in the best school districts of Georiga. To each their own.

.....AND without the necessity of having cops in front of grocery stores!

[Mattie]

Originally Posted by OhioNative

They also do that in the suburbs. My police buddy makes good money working evenings at Kroger and Publix stores in Gwinnett and N. Fulton.

Where? I have never seen this in Milton.

[OhioNative]

Originally Posted by Mattie

Where? I have never seen this in Milton.

I don't know about Milton but my police friend has worked at various times at grocery stores in Duluth, johns creek, and Alpharetta. It tends to be on random Friday and Saturday late nights, especially during the summer. It's actually a pretty good way to supplement his income in addition to doing traffic duty for churches. We also occasionally see off-duty officers at the Wal-Mart in Suwanee on summer weekend nights.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Mattie

Where? I have never seen this in Milton.

They started doing this in alot of the Gwinnett CIDs (evermore, Gwinnett Place, and Gwinnett Village). They pay for more patrols from private security and off-duty cops. It has curbed crime on retail businesses in these areas very well and was identified as one of the top ways to increase property values of the area.

I also see it at Wal-Marts.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by OhioNative

I don't know about Milton but my police friend has worked at various times at grocery stores in Duluth, johns creek, and Alpharetta. It tends to be on random Friday and Saturday late nights, especially during the summer. It's actually a pretty good way to supplement his income in addition to doing traffic duty for churches. We also occasionally see off-duty officers at the Wal-Mart in Suwanee on summer weekend nights.

Whats kind of both sad and good in different ways is... so many places don't pay cops very well they have to take advantage of their uniform to earn more money outside of the primary job or rely on housing subsidy at apartment complexes and park their patrol car up front.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by jpatlanta

as Atlanta gets larger and richer even more people will aspire and want to live in Buckhead and surrounding areas as the real rich always flock together, if anything the disparity between the top areas and others will grow even more in cost, believe it or not there are a lot of rich people in Atlanta who constantly complain about not enough culture/facilities etc and they are already in Buckhead, things like the super high hotels opening and SOB will reinforce Buckhead being the place for rich people in the south,

yeah sure some companies are located in N Fulton but look at the majority of high paying companies ( I mean 500k plus law firms etc) and their locations. Most all really high earners in Atlanta and old money live within 5 miles of Buckhead, new money (IT etc) buys Mcmansions in Alpharetta which can be consitently duplicated, its a different demographic and I think the former is less risky

also I think that everyone forgets that a sizable amount of wealthy people want old homes and not new ones, go to most major cities and older homes with character sell for a premium, I would imagine most truly wealthy people would choose a manison of West Paces over some tacky Mcmansion in Alpharetta, look at that disneyland mess on Old Alabama that took 8 years to sell as an indication of the resale values of some of these houses,

See here is where you are losing me... I'm not arguing Buckhead will cease to be wealthy and is losing status. It doesn't matter to mean if there are some wealthy people who want older homes.

You said it... Atlanta is a growing place and with growing wealth. Buckhead is sized to fit the wealth of a much smaller city. Unless they drastically start deconstructing and rebuilding with new zoning (which I doubt) there have to be other places for the wealth of a growing city to go.

Sure there will be more high density residences added in Buckhead that will attract some buyer, but that is a niche market and/or a cheaper/younger or empty nester market.

You are also underplaying the amount of growth of high-paying jobs to the north a bit here. You can shrug it off and just call it new money... but the point is it exists and as we grow it is going to grow as well.

The rich don't always flock together in a single place in a city. In fact in most really large cities they don't. There are multiple job centers and multiple places throughout town where wealth moves.

That is why MrPanda has all of these statistics he can present quite fairly.

You arguments are ignoring many realities of what is going on in our city and has happened in many others. It would be like saying there isn't wealthy people in Connecticut, because the rich would -only- want to live in the upper east side.

LA's rich would -only- want to live in Beverly Hills (which can only grow to about 35,000-40,000 people) and the rich wouldn't truly want to live in Orange County. No, they are going to want to live in many different ways based on their personal preferences and they are also going to want to be near where they work. High paying jobs move north... high-earners move north.

And I know this might sound crazy to some... but many people don't consider how many high rise hotels are nearby when they are looking for a home.

The more high-earning jobs our region attracts here... the more high-earners we will have and many of them are going to demand homes on a large lot and they can't all fit in Buckhead. That is why you have seen so many high value homes northward, even after this big recession we just had.

And don't get me wrong... I'm not underestimating Buckhead and in many ways feel MrPanda is underestimating Buckhead, but I also think you are underestimating parts of the northside and underestimating at the growth of wealthier people our city has had and failing to acknowledge that there can only be so many large lot homes in the Buckhead area and the concentrations of new high paying jobs are moving north.