AJC Business: New home building boom fuels revival of robust Northside exurban growth patterns (Atlanta: for sale, 2015)

[Born 2 Roll]

On Friday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution posted an article in its Business section telling of how a new home construction boom has helped to restart a pattern of robust growth in the Northern Arc exurban counties of Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Forsyth, Hall and Jackson counties....Robust growth that was stalled out by the Great Recession.

JEFFERSON -- Virtually every acre along a six-mile stretch of Ga. 124 in Jackson County is for sale, subdivided, newly built upon or expected to be soon as development returns to metro Atlanta's northern fringe.

Even the few remaining cows glance nervously over their shoulders, it seems, for the bulldozers marching north.

Nine subdivisions, some with names ending in "mill", "hollow" or "pointe," line the highway about 75 minutes northeast of downtown Atlanta. In all, 47 subdivisions across Jackson County saw some level of construction in 2015, according to Metrostudy, a housing data firm.

Atlanta's decades-long residential surge northward stalled during the Great Recession, but it's back with gusto today, at least in some areas. Home permits are up and vacant lots down across an exurban arc that includes Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Forsyth, Hall and Jackson counties.

Cheaper prices and homebuyers are not averse to long commutes, or those who work nearby or from home, are expanding metro Atlanta's footprint ever closer to South Carolina.

The construction rekindles a key sector of metro Atlanta's economy, putting framers, roofers and carpenters back to work and creating new homeowners who buy furniture, lawnmowers and the like. At the same time, demand for roads, schools and other services ensue. And what was once special and unique eventually becomes more common and crowded.

"We never really gave up on our dream of a house in the suburbs. We just put it on hold temporarily," said Jeff Humphreys, a University of Georgia economist. "And now we are back to our sprawling ways."

The renewal is playing out vividly in Jackson County, which is bisected by I-85.

The county seat of Jefferson, says Jay Cleveland, is like Dacula only better. Cleveland, 41, and his wife moved from the Gwinnett County a year ago after building a house at Traditions, a 1,100-acre golf-tennis community with hundreds of new homes off Ga. 124. He commutes to his truck driving job in Dacula 20 miles away; she does internet security from her home office.

They both wanted the traditional American Homeowner Dream: a new house on a corner lot with a 3-car garage and a sizeable buffer from traffic, crime and Atlanta.

"We wanted to move away from a busier area," Cleveland said while spring cleaning the garages.

"We like it out here. We occasionally hear a rooster crowing or a loud gun shot. And there's a lot of deer. I'm sure there'll be growth, but it's probably nothing we can't handle."

Cleveland, like legions of earlier Atlantans, followed the interstates in search of bigger homes at more affordable prices. As Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett filled up with houses, stores and traffic, residents and newcomers leapfrogged farther north.

Prior to the recession, the population of the northern exurbs was predicted to double by 2030.

"Building boomlet fuels new northern march" (Atlanta Journal Constitution Business/MyAJC.com)
Building boomlet fuels new northern march | www.myajc.com

[Newsboy]

Do you ever sleep? I don't ...

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Do you ever sleep? I don't ...

Only when the sun is up.

(...I was told that if I am exposed to direct sunlight, I'll turn into a bat. )

[Mutiny77]

So much for the so-called "end of sprawl" in metro Atlanta.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

So much for the so-called "end of sprawl" in metro Atlanta.

Not necessarily. There appears to be demand for both walkable urban places in-town AND for inexpensive housing on the outer edge of suburbia 50+ miles outside of Atlanta.

It also seems to be the case that exurban growth is sustained to a much higher degree by blue-collar employment.

[fieldm]

Commuter rail

[BR Valentine]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

So much for the so-called "end of sprawl" in metro Atlanta.

I really wish Vegas would have had prop bets on the end of exurbia. Betting against all the breathless forecasts of the end of exurbia from journalists, academics and other professional suburb haters would have been very easy money. It was obvious to anyone not blinded by their dislike of the suburbs that exurban development would resume once the economy improved somewhat. I read that CL article when it was published and laughed at it and all of the other wishcasts of suburban doom published during the recession.

[sedimenjerry]

I have to believe some of those subdivisions are less about Atlanta and more about Gainesville and Athens. Places along 129 at 85 are about half an hour from each.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

I have to believe some of those subdivisions are less about Atlanta and more about Gainesville and Athens. Places along 129 at 85 are about half an hour from each.

It will cater to people who want to be far enough away but still close to Atlanta

[demonta4]

Either way Atlanta is a major city with 2nd Tier Macon (South side but still relevant), Gainesville, and Athens nearby. Is it really bad to have a little exurban growth. They aren't commuting to Atlanta anyway so how does it affect us.