As part of ongoing Best of Atlanta 2021 coverage, Urbanize’s inaugural Best Atlanta Neighborhood tournament is kicking off with 16 places vying for the prestige of being called the city’s greatest. (Note: Seeding from 1 to 16 was determined by reader nominations this month, so no pitchforks, please.)
For each Round 1 contest, voting will be open for just 24 hours. Please, let’s keep the tourney fun and positive, as one neighborhood rises above the rest in very public fashion. The eliminations begin now!
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INMAN PARK (6)
Highest home sale of 2021: $2.2M Grande Dame in June
Lowest: $217K one-bedroom condo
Median sales price increase year-over-year: 9.9 percent
You know you live in a desirable Atlanta neighborhood when 2021’s median home sales prices have reached a whopping $676,000, with only 13 houses and condos sold. That speaks to the relatively high entry points that have long been a hurdle with Inman Park housing, and also the scarcity of available homes—that is, people’s unwillingness to let go of this place. Inarguably one of Atlanta’s most charming neighborhoods, the city’s “first planned suburb” remains a beautiful, fascinating amalgam of Victorian homes, well-planned greenspaces, transit/BeltLine accessibility, and blossoming commercial hubs along Krog Street (hello, Krog District) and North Highland Avenue. Or as one reader put it, in a nomination for Inman Park last week: “We’re a model for how to co-mingle every stratus of housing types in one compact walkers' paradise.”
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OLD FOURTH WARD (11)
Planned look of the Fourth Ward project's apartment building's north face. Rendering courtesy of New City Properties; design architecture, Olson Kundig
Highest home sale of 2021: The $1,475,000 “Belle of the BeltLine,” sold last month
Lowest: $133K one-bedroom condo
Median sales price increase year-over-year: 19.5 percent
Encapsulating the investment activity around Old Fourth Ward in a single paragraph would be like describing Atlanta’s traffic woes in a single breath: Not gonna happen. It’s just too much, and it’s everywhere! Along with Midtown, this eclectic, historic intown neighborhood has been the epicenter of Atlanta’s break-neck growth for a decade, with multi-block behemoths such as New City’s Fourth Ward Project and the BeltLine’s tallest residential build to date now joining the likes of (constantly evolving) Ponce City Market and the flood-solving park across the street. This year saw the Edgewood Avenue/Boulevard corridors continue to densify (hello, Waldo’s), while the next phase of Studioplex plowed ahead with a front-row Eastside Trail seat. For development wonks who favor a growing, vibrant urban environment, that all beats traffic any day.
