People running like h*** from Henry?? (Atlanta, Decatur: section 8, for sale, crime)

[cbreeze22]

I was doing my usual dreaming on ZipRealty, and I noticed that there are almost 3,000 homes for sale in McDonough alone.

There are only 16,853 people here! Since it's family-oriented, am I right to figure about 3 people per household, making about 5,620 homes?

So HALF of McDonough is trying to get out?

Is this just about the Clayton County crisis and people trying to run from "undesirables", or is something deeper going on that I don't know about?

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by cbreeze22

Is this just about the Clayton County crisis and people trying to run from "undesirables", or is something deeper going on that I don't know about?

Nope. You hit it on the head. A couple of my customers are from that area and both have homes for sale, and in no uncertain words they have said exactly what you think it is.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Nope. You hit it on the head. A couple of my customers are from that area and both have homes for sale, and in no uncertain words they have said exactly what you think it is.

Seems like a lot of posters on here like living there; if this is what's going on there, I'm very sad to hear it.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Seems like a lot of posters on here like living there; if this is what's going on there, I'm very sad to hear it.

Personally, I haven't been down there for quite a while. I can only go by comments my customers made. Others experiences may vary and of course like any town, there will be good and bad areas of it.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Personally, I haven't been down there for quite a while. I can only go by comments my customers made. Others experiences may vary and of course like any town, there will be good and bad areas of it.

I've no reason to doubt what you've been hearing, Greg...seems like the city's 'problems' continue to push their way out into the outer suburbs.

[Tdiddy0027]

or maybe there as many people moving in as there are moving out. McDonough, like most of Atlanta, is a transient area- so people move in and move out at a quickening pace. That is the main reason for the many houses for sale, but I don't doubt that there is demographic change, or white flight, at work

[j0ja]

I think part of it with Henry county is quite possibly white-flight, but I also think that the recession has a lot to do with it. People losing their jobs, people who got very large mortgages who barely qualified, and other reasons. So many resales are on the market ALL over metro Atlanta. Lots of new construction not moving either in Henry county OR in other metro Atlanta counties for that matter. The perceived white flight already had been going on in North Henry (Ellenwood to Stockbridge for close to a decade now). Same thing has happened with Fayetteville. The truth of the matter is Atlanta now is home to large numbers of other people besides whites and blacks (Hispanics, Asians, and others who have settled here in significant numbers since the Olympics), so I don't think it is simply whites "moving" out where blacks are relocating.

Also, McDonough has a lot of unincorporated areas with 2 zip codes, so the actual number of people in the city limits is rather limited. My rough guess is about 20-30K people live in 30253 and 30252 zip codes respectively. It reminds me of Decatur in that respect.


I am very well acquainted with Henry county and know what you stated is only *part* of the picture. However, if you posted about Rockdale or Douglas county (throw in Gwinnett or even Cobb), I *bet* the same comment can be said here by some who believe they are witnessing "white flight" in their respective areas in metro Atlanta.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by j0ja

I am very well acquainted with Henry county and know what you stated is only *part* of the picture. However, if you posted about Rockdale or Douglas county (throw in Gwinnett or even Cobb), I *bet* the same comment can be said here by some who believe they are witnessing "white flight" in their respective areas in metro Atlanta.

"White flight" is very hard to accurately pinpoint, and it's a generic statement because other groups experience "flight" as well to get away from real and perceived problems in an area. For example, not long after Atlanta's "white flight" decades ago, the upper-middle and high income blacks in Atlanta ALSO began to leave the city in mass, into almost hidden pocket suburban areas outside the city. What do we call that? Black flight? Doesn't sound right. I dunno.

In terms of REAL "flight" reasons, it's again, hard to figure out legit reasons vs. paranoia. Example: I'm in West Cobb. There are neighborhoods here where a lot of folks moved away and rented their old homes. In some of these areas, a lot of section 8, vouchered, and lower-income people have rented the homes, and those particular neighborhoods have seen a surge in gang and drug activity. The remaining "old time" white residents who have been there for decades are now packing up and moving out. That might be called white flight, but it's justified for ANYONE to want to fly out of that type of area. On the other side of the coin, I'm aware of neighborhoods where if ONE single middle-income black family moves into a white neighborhood, half the street will have "for sale" signs in their yards by the end of the week. That is what you would call unjustified or paranoid white flight, and it does still happen in some areas.

So the reasons for flight vary - some are legit - others are paranoia or prejudice driven. It's happening throughout the suburban areas now just like it did inside the city decades ago, due to large numbers of people from all over moving here, as well as government-assisted homes now moving into the burbs from now torn down housing projects that were once more concentrated in smaller areas inside the city.

[JasonPaul]

McDonough exploded in the terms of people moving there to get better deals on their homes then the surrounding areas and not so far of a commute from Atlanta. When Stockbridge filled up people moved to McDonough, but just like Stockbridge the small city, that once was, where everyone know's your name it was ill prepared. The roads couldn't handle the traffic, it got miserable there. The 675 and 75 merge there before the bridge (Eagles Landing) was widened to more than 2 lanes was worst than the Atlanta city traffic. I think the people who got tired of the traffic and crime that had started to happen in Stockbridge moved to McDonough, now it's hapening there and moving further out is too far out, so they are moving to the other side of Atlanta.

[greened]

take a look at the demographics of conyers over the past 25 years... white flight is alive and well.