Bobbie Spiller wants to make one thing abundantly clear about Boulevard Heights, a (formerly) under-the-radar neighborhood in southeast Atlanta that’s witnessing a tsunami of outside investment—and new people.
“I know there’s a lot of talk about the real estate market and how some markets have drastically slowed down,” Spiller, a Realtor with Keller Knapp Realty, recently told Urbanize Atlanta. “That’s not the case in Boulevard Heights.”
Spiller offers recent, eye-popping home sales as evidence—and points to her new listing at 1029 Avondale Avenue, located two blocks from the BeltLine’s Southside Trail corridor. The recently built, four-bedroom dwelling in the modern farmhouse vein—asking $1.34 million for just over 3,500 square feet, with a rentable ADU above the garage—is gunning for the Boulevard Heights home sales benchmark, in terms of price per square foot.
Inside the 1029 Avondale Avenue listing aiming to set the Boulevard Heights record for price per square foot. Photos by Bartilotti Photography; courtesy of Keller Knapp Realty
It wasn’t so long ago that intown price tags like that were exclusively found in places like Inman Park, residential Midtown, and Ansley Park—and not a pocket community of a couple hundred houses between the zoo and a federal penitentiary. But as intown observers know, things can change quickly, for better or worse, when BeltLine cachet is involved.
Boulevard Heights—or, uh, “BOHO”—brings to mind another place where the BeltLine triggered seismic changes long before the trail was paved: Reynoldstown.
According to Point2 data, Boulevard Heights includes 769 housing units (and counting)—about 120 fewer than Reynoldstown, per the most recent U.S. Census statistics and other sources.
Consider: Before the Eastside Trail's southernmost section was paved, Reynoldstown had Krog Street Market in the neighborhood next door; Boulevard Heights has The Beacon, a vibrant former warehouse district about 10 minutes by foot down the BeltLine corridor.
BeltLine hysteria helped spur new apartment and townhome development throughout Reynoldstown, and that continues today, most noticeably with the rising Empire Stein Steel village. That same developer, Empire Communities, put Boulevard Heights’ residential boom in motion with 200 new townhomes at The Swift project. Even closer to the Southside Trail, Boulevard Heights’ new The Penman project and a forthcoming United Avenue mix of apartments and townhomes, both by TPA Residential, aim to add hundreds of new residents to the neighborhood.
Where The Penman project's apartment buildings and retail have incorporated industrial relics along the Southside Trail in Boulevard Heights, which is set to be under construction soon. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta
Where Reynoldstown has Cabbagetown, Boulevard Heights counts slightly less wild Zoo Atlanta.
And as for home prices, Reynoldstown has been on a dizzying upward climb for a decade. (In November, one five-bedroom, traditional-style home traded for $45,000 over asking price, setting the new bar.)
Which brings us back to Spiller’s recent comps in Boulevard Heights.
Photos by Bartilotti Photography; courtesy of Keller Knapp Realty
Prior to this year, the highest new-construction home sold in the neighborhood fetched $825,000—for a 2,636-square-foot dwelling that sold while it was being built.
This year, says Spiller, a relatively massive house with 3,900 square feet came to market in Boulevard Heights for $1.35 million. It landed a contact within six days.
“Everyone should know how the Atlanta market is still hot,” says Spiller, “especially in Boulevard Heights.”
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