I’m calling this a house hunt here because dwelling hunt doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but we’re still keeping our options open as to what we buy and where we buy it.
The only real dealbreaker is that we live ITP vs. OTP. We’ve been looking at neighborhoods all over town, just trying to get a feel for what’s out there and where we might like to live that we can afford. The serious search starts in December when our Realtor starts sending us listings for things we might end up buying.
I’ve become very partial to bungalows with big front porches like the one Amber put up in her post:
Bungalow in Adair Park
But we’re not ruling anything out yet. We’re leaning toward houses, but would consider a townhome or condo in a really cherry location. We’d like to live somewhere with something we can walk to.
On one level Midtown would be nice because that’s where we work and there’s a lot in walking distance there. In that case though, it would have to be a fucking steal in an amazing location, because the bigoted brand of NIMBYism prevalent in Midtown is a huge negative weighing against living there for me.
Here are some other quick thoughts on areas we’ve toured:
- Decatur is mostly out of our price range, which is a shame because we like it here
- Avondale Estates also is probably too steep
- Oakhurst is likely out of our price range as well, but it’s possible something could come up there by the time we’re ready to buy. It has a nice village area with restaurants, coffee shops, etc. which would be a real plus
- Toco Hills had houses that weren’t that impressive for prices that were out of our range, mostly due to being near good schools, I think
- East Lake has a few things we’d consider
- East Atlanta has more things we’d consider, and it’d be nice to get something close to East Atlanta Village
- We didn’t get a good feeling from Grant Park. The houses close to the park itself were out of our price range, and the stuff that was in our price range was either in a sketchy area or kind of hidden away in a non-descript area. Out of everywhere we’ve visited so far, I have the most trouble imagining myself living there
- The Westview/Adair Park area had a few neat houses there. Lots of neighborhood association flags and stuff, which I take as a good sign
- Edgewood has some neat houses
- There’s property down near Avondale Mall, Candler Road, etc. that could get annexed by City of Decatur eventually and is worth a look since the property values would almost immediately shoot up (along with the taxes, so there’s that). There are some other decent neighborhoods down Candler
- We didn’t see a whole lot down Lawrenceville Highway, but we haven’t looked very hard either
I’m missing a few, but there you go. There are still so many other areas we need to check out in more depth. Kirkwood, North Decatur, East Point, stuff near Howell Mill Road, damn near everything on the west side of the city. That’s only a fraction of them really.
The latest development is we got pre-qualified for a home loan (typo: home load) yesterday. Amber’s credit is a little better than mine, as I’ve got a bullshit collection from Cingular on my credit that I need to try to get stricken (and a couple of other dings).
A couple of years ago, I switched to Verizon and Cingular locked me out of my online account, which was set to “no paper invoices.” Turns out they hadn’t yet tallied the final balance yet, and never sent me a bill for it. By the time I found out about it, it had already been sent to a collection agency.
The lesson to be taken here is that if you cancel cell phone service and they never send you a final bill, it’s still your fault if it’s not paid. They’re dicks like that.
The worst case scenario is it might add somewhere between one-eighth and one-quarter of a point to our interest rate. Could be worse I guess, but that shit adds up.
I’d take a closer look at Kirkwood. It’s got the neighborhood village with requisite bar restaurant (Ace’s and Vinocity), coffee shop (Gathering Grounds), and other stores, and because it’s in Atlanta vs. Decatur (like Oakhurst), prices are probably only 75% for the same product. September 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am
We are planning to drive around Kirkwood tomorrow. Looking forward to it! I jut heard about Ace’s today (before reading your comment, I mean!) September 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I had the same reaction to Grant Park that you all did. Just could not envision myself living there at all.
Kirkwood has some really good values, and I have several coworkers who live there. You can apparently get pretty close to Oakhurst while still technically being in Kirkwood, which keeps the prices down.
I do love that house you all saw in Adair Park, and westside neighborhoods would be surprisingly convenient for a commute to midtown. Only problem is that convenience requires the rebuilding of the 10th street bridge, which is likely to take awhile. September 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Or, Sara, you could be kind of stupid like me and live so close to Kirkwood/East Lake (3 houses), yet still pay Oakhurst prices. But I can’t complain, you do get a better quality of services (and schools if you are interested in that) in the Decatur city limits that does make it worth it. But if I were starting all over again 5 years later, in reality, Kirkwood would be where I’d go because I wouldn’t be able to afford it here, unless it was a real fixer. September 13th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
[...] on a much smaller scale, that we’re not worked up about Midtown. (Rusty mentioned this in his post a few days ago, and Joeventures touched on it in a comment.) Living in Midtown would be nice [...] September 14th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I don’t know if you’ve considered Brookhaven, but there is a lot of development going on in the area (for the better), but not yet so much that it may be completely out of contention. They’re adding in some district-like areas, though they are a little slow to develop, and the houses are cute and on fairly substantial lots in most areas.
There isn’t as much to walk to, yet, but that’s changing with the new developments. September 24th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Brookhaven is one of those areas we want to go look at. We haven’t been doing a lot of driving around looking at houses lately though, with the gas thing.
Take a look at the neighborhood between Decatur and Avondale. Just south of College Ave and east of Arcadia. It’s unincorporated Dekalb, but either Avondale or Decatur will probably annex it someday. I lived just south of the neighborhood in Ashwood Glen, an infill neighborhood. VERY close to Avondale Marta station, and that section of College Ave is scheduled for an upgrade. October 12th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Wow guys, you are like a buyer agent’s DREAM CLIENT! You really seem to be doing your homework on your neighborhoods. Very insightful stuff you’ve written here - we wish more of our clients would open up and share like you have.
Don’t know exactly where Chris Parrish was talking about above, but I used to live in Forrest Hills, in unincorporated DeKalb… it’s wedged between Decatur and Avondale Estates right off Columbia Drive. Loved living there, but now I live in Grant Park with my partner. We’ve been here 5 years and although we enjoy living here (we totally restored a 1911 bunglaow and have a lot of sweat equity in the place), I do know what you mean about some parts of the area that peopel try to call “Grant Park,” even though it really isn’t.
Most of our business is in Grant Park, Ormewood Park and East Atlanta. Out of those three neighborhoods, suffice it to say that East Atlanta is hot, hot, hot, and you can still get a home close to the Village core for a pretty good price. In fact, we’ve sold 3 homes within walking distance to the Village in the past few months without even listing them!
Good luck to you guys (it doesn’t sound like you need it!) and if you need someone to help out, let us know. December 5th, 2008 at 12:00 am