Avondale Estates (Atlanta, Decatur: apartments, houses, neighborhood)

[maybetoday]

Any thoughts on Avondale estates? A realtor I was speaking of was making it seem like this is the "next city of decatur" type area. We want a more progressive neighborhood, walkable, access to public transport. We have a budget of about 550K (prefer to spend less) and top schools are our priority. We love the City of Decatur but the price points are high to get in and houses go quickly it seems. I have a 4 year old and an infant and she said that although it is APS there is a school called The Museum School which sounds promising but it is a lottery so not sure how likely admission is. Was also considering the suburbs as well. Jobs near 285 tucker exit and other at perimeter mall area.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by maybetoday

Any thoughts on Avondale estates? A realtor I was speaking of was making it seem like this is the "next city of decatur" type area. We want a more progressive neighborhood, walkable, access to public transport. We have a budget of about 550K (prefer to spend less) and top schools are our priority. We love the City of Decatur but the price points are high to get in and houses go quickly it seems. I have a 4 year old and an infant and she said that although it is APS there is a school called The Museum School which sounds promising but it is a lottery so not sure how likely admission is. Was also considering the suburbs as well. Jobs near 285 tucker exit and other at perimeter mall area.

Avondale is lovely city, with a rejuvenating downtown and great housing stock. The down side is its DeKalb county schools.

[lastminutemom]

Originally Posted by maybetoday

Any thoughts on Avondale estates? A realtor I was speaking of was making it seem like this is the "next city of decatur" type area. We want a more progressive neighborhood, walkable, access to public transport. We have a budget of about 550K (prefer to spend less) and top schools are our priority. We love the City of Decatur but the price points are high to get in and houses go quickly it seems. I have a 4 year old and an infant and she said that although it is APS there is a school called The Museum School which sounds promising but it is a lottery so not sure how likely admission is. Was also considering the suburbs as well. Jobs near 285 tucker exit and other at perimeter mall area.

The problem is that if your child(ren) aren't admitted to the Museum School, you are pretty much out of luck with traditional public schools. Avondale Elementary has had a horrible principal for so many years who will finally be gone but so much damage has been done, it won't be a fast turn around. Plus mostly all the motivated families in AE are either in Musuem School or private school or they move as their kids get close to school age.

A phone call on Monday might give you the sense of what the odds are for a resident of AE to get into Museum School.

[AtlantaIsHot]

Avondale Estates' English Tutor style "downtown" is quite charming. Very unique for a suburb. One of Atlanta's treasures for sure.

[AnsleyPark]

Terrific town.

[George Chong]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Avondale is lovely city, with a rejuvenating downtown and great housing stock. The down side is its DeKalb county schools.

^^ This

It's proximity to the City of Decatur is great but I think it is a far stretch to call it the next City of Decatur because of the schools.

[MilkMachine]

I find Avondale to be a slightly different flavor than the CoD. It's great but in its own way. If anything my impression is that Avondale was until very recently a little more upscale and grounded than Decatur, at least when it comes to housing. They may not be so far apart anymore as Decatur prices continue to climb and there are so few tear-downs or fixer-uppers left in Decatur. Many of my more politically conservative friends live in AE (and you can drive around and see the various signs during an election cycle) so I think that sets it slightly apart from Decatur, but despite people at different ends of the spectrum everyone is very welcoming and friendly. Also like Decatur, there is AE within the city limits and then areas referred to as AE that are unincorporated DeKalb.

Everyone I know who lives there LOVES it. They are an extremely tight-knit community. They have a very active parents' network with playdates and events, their own fireworks on the square on the 4th, and their own community pool. They have recently made huge strides with retail and restaurants. Everything seems to be headed in a great direction.

That being said, I would in no way count on being able to use the Museum School. I know a number of families who had been planning on TMS for years and were absolutely devastated when their children didn't get in. It is one of the most desirable charters in DeKalb, period, so the waiting list does not see a lot of movement. They also have a sibling priority policy so I would expect the number of available spots to continue to get smaller every year as younger siblings of current students reach kindergarten age. I believe that Avondale, like Decatur, has had a big baby boom in the last 5-10 years and the influx of students is not slowing down any time soon.

[netdragon]

A bit of a history lesson: The year is 1892. You can get a 100x130 lot in Avendale Estates for this: $5 cash and $5 per month until the $100 lots were paid off.

Two good lots can be made from it. A man can build a house on one, and in a short time sell the other for enough to pay for the house. That is the way people get rich nowadays.

Ahh, metro Atlanta, you never change Speculative since day one. It seemed to work, though.

[travelinFool]

Avondale is the most racist affluent city in Georgia. Until 2020 they had a wall (well locked fence) so people couldn’t enter from an adjacent green space. Until about 10 years ago it wrote more traffic tickets per capita then any city in Georgia. Change is coming and the old racist guard is fighting like heck to kept it white. The residential side is 90% white. With the new apartments and 3 breweries, I must admit it’s slowly changing. It had a really bad reputation amongst the majority black population County it’s located in.
Had friend who are an interracial couple and they sold their home and moved away because once they had kids they didn’t want them to be subjected to the pervasive yet subtle racism.

[travelinFool]

Originally Posted by netdragon

A bit of a history lesson: The year is 1892. You can get a 100x130 lot in Avendale Estates for this: $5 cash and $5 per month until the $100 lots were paid off.



Ahh, metro Atlanta, you never change Speculative since day one. It seemed to work, though.

Yeah, what’s not mentioned is African Americans couldn’t participate in this. I’m fact, if you dig deep you can still find deeds that say “cannot sell to Negroes”
Interest read on race relations https://decaturish.com/2020/09/the-r...ndale-estates/