Atlanta tops another list of Cities to buy a home in 2023

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Listennow32

I think the scary part is the fact that the type of growth planning is insufficient. From housing to transportation and even economic development we are still using 20th century methods to address 21st century problems. Building luxury housing everywhere and expanding roads is not the answer. The metro area is just going to be overpriced and congested core with a dilapidated and overcrowded suburbs with people stuck in 4-5 hour commutes to get to job centers. I mean case in point California. If we don’t start to build sustainable projects that decentralize population growth and quickly invest in alternative forms of transportation the metro area will become stagnant and moribund.

Lol… Growth planning has always been insufficient in an Atlanta metro whose history has been that of a metro that has just grown and grown and grown with no coherent plan or strategy for growth.

Insufficient planning for future growth just seems to be a built-in part of the local culture in an often transportation infrastructure-averse state like Georgia.

And the apparent widespread construction of luxury housing has never been considered to be a serious answer to Atlanta’s metropolitan growth challenges but rather has been driven by increased demand in the metro Atlanta real estate marketplace due to the dramatic increase in the number of high-paying jobs (including in metro Atlanta’s booming technology sector) in recent years.

That is also an excellent point that expanding roads alone is not the answer to metro Atlanta’s transportation challenges. Though, historically, while metro Atlanta experienced a massive expansion of its freeway system back in the 1980’s and into the early 1990’s, metro Atlanta experienced virtually no meaningful expansion of its road network for about a 20-year period from about 1993 (when the controversial GA-400 expansion opened through Buckhead after a decade of massive freeway expansion) to about 2013 (when the State of Georgia started ramping up its investment in building new toll lanes and other high-profile freeway reconstruction projects, including the I-285/GA-400 interchange reconstruction project).

Also, the Atlanta metro has before (most recently during the slow early economic recovery that came in the roughly 5-year period after the 2008-2009 Great Recession) experienced predictions of imminent stagnancy and eventual demise if the Atlanta region failed to address its transportation challenges on a large scale.

But, outside of the implementation and construction of a few significant sections of new toll lanes along existing freeways, Atlanta’s stunning emergence from the Great Recession as a major Southeastern regional hub of tech industry activity and as a major international hub of television and film production industry activity that sometimes outpaces Southern California happened largely without a comprehensive regional multimodal transportation plan.

Atlanta obviously needs to adequately address its significant transportation challenges to remain highly economically competitive. But characteristics such as a highly favorable very centralized geographical location, the world’s busiest airport, an increasingly diverse population and a very high profile entertainment production scene seem to be helping Atlanta to remain extremely highly competitive despite the region’s obvious transportation challenges.

Originally Posted by Prickly Pear

As a new transplant I agree. I underestimated Atlanta traffic. I hope the metro will commit to action. With so few freeway infrastructure compared to many of its similar ranked cities, Atlanta is in a prime position to be something great. The question is will it? If Atlanta took on more of what Dallas has been working on as of late and getting them done Atlanta would be leagues above Dallas our city is better set up for public transit. Yet Atlanta is crickets while Dallas builds DART, the freeway cap, that new subway…

Now projects like Centennial Yards are huge do not get me wrong but we can’t just keep doing land development and no traffic management. Hopefully we get through on the beltline streetcar, Clifton corridor etc.

I’d love to see a regional rail in Atlanta, like a Brightline, Metra, LIRR, Path etc. style setup in addition to MARTA that focused on going out of traditional Atlanta metro (core counties) and went out to the exurbs. Even if it’s private like Brightline it’s better than nothing.

It is very understandable that Atlanta’s traffic congestion and mobility challenges are a major concern for many.

But even without the much more extensive freeway networks of other Sun Belt metros like Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, Atlanta is already a great city/metro with the world’s busiest airport; thriving major industries in the tech, entertainment and logistical sectors, and a large and increasingly diverse regional population of 7 million residents.

And even though Atlanta doesn’t have a regional approach to transportation planning due to political constraints and social and cultural differences between metro Atlanta’s urban core and her suburbs and exurbs and rural Georgia, the City of Atlanta proper is moving forward by building out urban transportation initiatives such as the BeltLine and a citywide network of higher-capacity transit lines (bus, light rail and streetcar) whose funding was approved by City of Atlanta proper voters in 2016 as a way of complementing and enhancing the existing MARTA Heavy Rail Transit-anchored transit system.

Meanwhile, the State of Georgia has built and implemented dozens of miles of new express toll lanes along Interstates 85 Northeast, 75/575 Northwest and 75 South; and the State of Georgia has plans to build dozens more miles of express toll lanes along the Top Half of the I-285 Perimeter, GA-400 North, I-75 South and I-20 West, and the state continues to work towards the completion of the massive reconstruction of the I-285/GA-400 interchange.

Atlanta (by way of the State of Georgia) may not be able to execute the big freeway and toll road expansions that big major Texas metros like DFW and Houston might be able to execute. But it should be noted that Atlanta is doing something to address its traffic challenges, even if what it’s doing may not be part of a cohesive big Texas-style comprehensive transportation plan.

[JoeJunior]

Atlanta is simply the capitol of the Southeast. It's about as good a place to do business as anywhere--with a great international airport to get you anywhere in the world.

If you've got to live in a really big city in the U.S., you'll have to go far to find a better large city. Houston's suburbs may be the other great large city.

We lived from 1992 to 2002 outside of Lawrenceville--on the northeast corner of Atlanta. We overdosed on traffic and left after Megacorp consolidated operations in Wisconsin--where it's very cold and the land of ridiculous property taxes. We bought our 4200 square foot home for $168K and sold it to the 3rd person that looked at it for list price.

Our county once had more homes built yearly than all the houses built in Chicago. Cobb County (on the northwest) also had more homes built yearly than in all of Chicagoland. Houses in Atlanta area remain half the cost of other major cities--like Chicago.

The reason homes are relatively inexpensive in Atlanta area is because of all the Mexican labor. The men from nine Mexican cities work in construction in Atlanta and they send 80% of their income home where their wives are buying cows and farming. The only Americans on job sites are finishing carpenters and electricians.

Business remains strong in Atlanta and it will remain to be the dominant megacity in the Southeast. What's misunderstood is that the City of Atlanta is only 20% of the population of the metropolitan area. It's actually somewhat inconsequential--with the county mayors of surrounding counties more important as politicians.

[aslowdodge]

Originally Posted by JMatl

I know success can be a real pain at times, but I'll take it all day long over a moribund and stagnant Metro.

I never agree with you, but here 100

[architect77]

That list says Apple opened offices in Atlanta. I didn't know that.

Apple is building its East Coast presence in Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park.

Did the author just mention Apple with the wrong city?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by architect77

That list says Apple opened offices in Atlanta. I didn't know that.

Apple is building its East Coast presence in Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park.

Did the author just mention Apple with the wrong city?

This may be what they’re talking about:

Apple invests $25M in 'first-of-its-kind' education hub in Atlanta (FOX 5 Atlanta)