Thinking About Buying in the West End (Atlanta, Washington: buying a home, neighborhoods)

[Larry X]

Love the location, love the neighborhood but my only issue is the houses, they are just not my style being very old with small yards and driveways. Are their any semi-modern homes in the West End or homes that have been fixed up? If not, I will consider an old fixer-upper for a good price. Any suggestions, thanks.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Larry X

Love the location, love the neighborhood but my only issue is the houses, they are just not my style being very old with small yards and driveways. Are their any semi-modern homes in the West End or homes that have been fixed up? If not, I will consider an old fixer-upper for a good price. Any suggestions, thanks.

The west end is a historic neighborhood, like much of intown Atlanta. What did you expect when buying in a historic area? Any new builds of infill will be a larger home on the same lot, which will lead to smaller yard and possibly no off-street parking.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by cqholt

The west end is a historic neighborhood, like much of intown Atlanta. What did you expect when buying in a historic area? Any new builds of infill will be a larger home on the same lot, which will lead to smaller yard and possibly no off-street parking.

Nearly all Atlanta residential lots have required off-street parking built into the zoning ordinances. I guess a builder could try and get a variance, but I don't think I've seen a situation locally where someone willingly removed all the off-street parking in order to build a larger home.
http://www.atlantaga.gov/modules/sho...ocumentid=2174

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by red92s

Nearly all Atlanta residential lots have required off-street parking built into the zoning ordinances. I guess a builder could try and get a variance, but I don't think I've seen a situation locally where someone willingly removed all the off-street parking in order to build a larger home.
http://www.atlantaga.gov/modules/sho...ocumentid=2174

If none existed before, then the property would be grandfathered in.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by cqholt

If none existed before, then the property would be grandfathered in.

Sure, but that's not really a consequence of a builders squeezing big homes on smaller lots.

[Larry X]

Looking at some homes on Oak Street they look amazing looking at pictures, going to ride through their today, kinda expensive for the ones that are fixed up though, over 200K.

[jero23]

Larry X, I would most definitely encourage you to do such. West End is an area where people like you whom are vested into the helping the existing black middle class population would be greatly appreciated. I've been looking in that area, Collier Heights, and in current area at homes.

On the homes and the average lot size, I would say the average lot size of 7,500 square feet (0.17 acres). The homes in the area date back to the 1940s between 1960s. The average home prices around that area varies but they are usually in between $55K to $95K.

[residinghere2007]

Look on Oak Street near West End Library. There is a newer sub-division type of area behind Peeples where I was looking at buying a home. They were built in the 1990s so are newer construction for the area but are usually high priced unless they are dilapidated

But FWIW, I would stick with the older homes as they are more solidly built. Many of them have been remodeled and are up to date with kitchens and bathrooms. Also, most of the homes in West End actually have large back yards, so I don't get the whole "small yards" thing.

I know a lot of people in West End and all of them have pretty large yards for an inner city neighborhood. Now if you are talking about a half acre or something, then I can see where you would think the yards were small but practically all of my West End friends have large backyards in particular. And if you think about it, a smaller front yard is nice since you don't have as much grass to mow.

Some other neighborhoods, if you can't find something in West End to consider is Westview, which is not too far from West End and it has "newer" homes that are nice. Many of them aren't updated and you can get a better price for them and just fix them up. Washington Park has some newer homes but the yards in Washington Park are smaller than West End. But you can get a deal in Washington Park versus West End due to it not being as highly in demand. Washington Park, if you look by the actual park also is VERY convenient to MARTA at the Ashby Station and to the Walmart on MLK and the MLK Corridor business district in that area. There is also a lot of development activity slated for that area which would increase potential property value. The park also has a recreation center, which though small, is a nice facility.

[equinox63]

http://www.westviewatlanta.com/files...aster-plan.pdf

Westside Trail // Atlanta BeltLine

[Larry X]

I really like Oak st, those homes are so cute, probable going to take a tour of one this weekend. Going to look in Westview this week too, any street you suggest I look at in Westview?