Premium To Live ITP (Atlanta, Dunwoody: transplants, condo, low crime)

[stvincent]

If I were to live intown I would want something older. I love homes built at or before about 1940. Many homes in the intown areas are architecturally rich and very unique. Built better than new homes for the most part too. For affordability I would probably buy something that needed TONS of work with many unique features, like a diamond in the rough type deal, and put my own mark on it with the rennovations. If I were looking to get a bang for my buck in the city, I wouldn't even consider anything that has been rennovated by someone else. having had the home brought up to 21st century standars is what makes them so expensive...and it's all done with someone else's tastes instead of yours.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by DennyCrane

I'm currently in the market to buy a house. I'm single, in my 30s, and don't any have kids. I know that you get a lot more for your money the further out you go, but I also know that I would be extremely bored in a suburb like Alpharetta. The flip side of that is that you can live in the city, but you might not be happy with the concessions you have to make to get something you can afford. So my question for all of you is how much more would you pay to live in the city and/or what would you be willing to give up (space, quality, etc.)? I realize the answer isn't going to be the same for everyone. I'm just trying to get an idea from people who've been here longer about what they think is a worthwhile trade-off. For example, if you found a place you liked just OTP, how much more would you pay to get that same place closer in (assuming both were safe areas)? 5%? 10%? Or put another way, how much would you give up? A bedroom? A basement? A garage?

Given the issues we're seeing from the Atlanta Public School board, the Atlanta Police Department, and the City of Atlanta government, I simply would not live in the City of Atlanta at this point in time. It isn't worth it.

Since I work on the perimeter (Cumberland), I already have very good housing options adjacent to my workplace which aren't in the city.

[oakhurstlauren]

Originally Posted by Flewza

Plus, the most expensive part of town is becoming less white and less black and more latino. That means lower prices.

What part of town would that be exactly?

[stvincent]

Originally Posted by Flewza

Right, but the areas outside the 285 are getting hammered. In that case, an expensive core might create a condition like NYC. You have the have and not's an no one else. However, Atlanta is not NYC or LA, so I doubt prices will stay where they are now. Plus, the most expensive part of town is becoming less white and less black and more latino. That means lower prices.

You have no clue what you're talking about in your last sentence. Don't know what you meant but taking just as you said it, it makes no sense.

Atlanta has TONS of places that are still waiting to be gentrified or are currently in the process of being gentrified, all near the downtown/midtown core, since the city land wise is very small in area. To name a few: Pittsburgh, Mechanicsville, Old 4th Ward, the West End, Bankhead(it starts right by GA Tech, ie good investment), Lakewood, Peoplestown, Summerhill, etc.

Gentrification started in Midtown and pushed east. As it becomes common for homes in this area to tout 500K price tags now, its only natural that urban pioneers looking for affordabilty and convenience over anything else will move in and gentrify other neighorhoods to the west and south of midtown and downtown. Atlanta has a long way to becoming like NYC or European cities. One can buy a home in Peoplestown brand new for 60K right now. The neighbohood borders I-75/85 and right by Turner Field. Can you imagine with such a minimal initial investment how much that would be returned in 5 or 10 years? And for those who think the idea south and west Atlanta will not gentrify in the near future due to crime, poverty, schools etc...people said the same of points east in the 90s.

If I was looking to move intown on a budget, and had no kids, I would move into the "hood" as close as possible to the border of an already gentrified area, like south of Ormewood Park. Don't underestimate the spillover effect.

[plessthanpointohfive]

I had a 2200 sqft split level house, built in the mid-80s, out by the Mall of GA. I paid 140K for it in 2002. It was a nice home, on a large treed lot, was fairly well built for a "newer" home but it could have used a bit of updating. We did do a little bit before we sold it for 175K in 2005.

in 2006 we paid ~400K for a 2200 sqft duplex, built in 1925, in Candler Park. We get $1250/mo in rent for the 2/1 1000sqft apartment we rent out and we live with our son in the other apartment. It's a bit of a squeeze and we had to get rid of a lot of stuff to downsize like that, but in the 5 years since we find we're perfectly comfortable (though I will enjoy living in the whole house when we convert it in a year or two). The house is extremely well-built and needs a LOT of updating. We've probably spent another 50-60K on it - replaced roof, replaced entire HVAC in both apartments, replaced rotted eaves, replaced the ceiling in the downstairs living room (with expensive beadboard), replaced the ceiling in one of the upstairs bedrooms, painted the non-brick portions of the exterior, redid some plumbing, did a small surface reno of our kitchen, and we've done some truly massive renovations to the landscaping (all done by our own hand). We're about to redo the electrical in our apartment and gut both bathrooms to reconfigure them to better use the small space.

We've been very, very happy with how things have worked out. We love the neighborhood and neighbors. We really like the exact location of our house. Despite rcsteiner's dire warnings about APS our son has gone through elementary school in APS and we've been very pleased with Mary Lin Elementary and are happy to send him to Inman and Grady. The issues with the APS school board are, indeed, troubling but the parent community has been putting a lot of pressure on them to get their act together - you don't read about that in the paper.

So, in short, we paid a lot more for the same size house and voluntarily decided to live in only half of it. We lost a garage, gained a basement (dirt basement - only good for storage), lost large closets, gained an entire community, gained easy access to dining/shopping/entertainment, lost a 2.5-3 hour daily commute (this, alone, was worth any "sacrifice"), lost a large backyard (this ended up being a an unexpected positive because we found we like having a small court-yard like yard to care for rather than a large park-like property and we have 2 parks within 2 blocks of our house). I also lost a significant amount of weight because I started biking to work and also became a runner.

We love it here and absolutely feel it was the right choice. But it all depends on what makes you happy.

I do think you should consider a townhouse or condo since you don't have kids or large pets. You can always rent it out if you find you one day need to upsize.

[nyte3k]

Originally Posted by Flewza

Right, but the areas outside the 285 are getting hammered. In that case, an expensive core might create a condition like NYC. You have the have and not's an no one else. However, Atlanta is not NYC or LA, so I doubt prices will stay where they are now. Plus, the most expensive part of town is becoming less white and less black and more latino. That means lower prices.

I'll ignore your last sentence as it seems to be laced with bigotry. But, with Atlanta, there are no natural borders, so perhaps what today is midtown/downtown/buckhead will be unattainable by most, in say...50 years (assuming housing bounces back in full force, and Atlanta continues it's population growth of a few years ago), i wouldn't be surprised if places like Brookhaven and Chamblee are considered somewhat urban.

Outside the perimeter, I could care less for...Atlanta has too many suburbans that shouldn't have existed with the amount of space that was still available closer to the city. People are finally realizing that as they don't want to drive 50 minutes to work. Unfortunately, most can't sell their homes so they can't do anything about it yet.

[DennyCrane]

OK, allow me to make a couple of clarifications since I was probably a little too vague in my original post.

1. When I say house, I mean house in the generic sense. It doesn't have to be a single-family home. In fact, I would prefer a townhouse over both a SFH and a condo. I have no interest in mowing a lawn, pulling weeds, cleaning gutters, etc. As for a condo, I have a dog and need to be able to take him outside pretty easily. Since it's just me and the dog, I obviously don't need a ton of space. But that doesn't mean I want to live in a small box just because it's in a great part of town. There has to be balance. Certainly resale is a big concern and so the things that buyers look for (space, amenities, good schools, etc.) have to matter to me as well.

2. I don't want something that requires fixing up. I know there are some people who love buying a place and doing rehab work. That's not me.

3. When I say OTP, I'm really referring to two specific places which are just OTP. The area around Cumberland Mall and the area around Perimeter Mall.

4. ITP, I would not want to go farther south than Buckhead. Midtown and Decatur would be cool. The problem is that in my field, a lot of the jobs are up in Alpharetta. Commuting to there from Buckhead would be OK, but probably not from Midtown or Decatur.

[RoslynHolcomb]

I'd be willing to give up pretty much everything, except for the two things I'd HAVE to give up: financial solvency or decent schools. I can't afford the neighborhoods that are zoned to good schools, and being an urban pioneer is not an option at this point in my life.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by DennyCrane

OK, allow me to make a couple of clarifications since I was probably a little too vague in my original post.

1. When I say house, I mean house in the generic sense. It doesn't have to be a single-family home. In fact, I would prefer a townhouse over both a SFH and a condo. I have no interest in mowing a lawn, pulling weeds, cleaning gutters, etc. As for a condo, I have a dog and need to be able to take him outside pretty easily. Since it's just me and the dog, I obviously don't need a ton of space. But that doesn't mean I want to live in a small box just because it's in a great part of town. There has to be balance. Certainly resale is a big concern and so the things that buyers look for (space, amenities, good schools, etc.) have to matter to me as well.

2. I don't want something that requires fixing up. I know there are some people who love buying a place and doing rehab work. That's not me.

3. When I say OTP, I'm really referring to two specific places which are just OTP. The area around Cumberland Mall and the area around Perimeter Mall.

4. ITP, I would not want to go farther south than Buckhead. Midtown and Decatur would be cool. The problem is that in my field, a lot of the jobs are up in Alpharetta. Commuting to there from Buckhead would be OK, but probably not from Midtown or Decatur.

Luckily for you there are tons of deals to be had for townhouses and condos all over Buckhead.

[DennyCrane]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Luckily for you there are tons of deals to be had for townhouses and condos all over Buckhead.

Like I said, I'm not interested in condos so that just leaves townhouses. I've been looking and found a number that I liked, but nothing in my price range, and certainly not as good as some of the stuff I've found just OTP by Cumberland or Dunwoody.