Real Estate

HGTV is giving away another fully decorated and renovated home, and this year's prize is just a short drive away on St. Simons Island. Atlanta designer Brian Patrick Flynn describes his inspirations for the house.

Walmart made retail history today by opening its smallest store ever. While a tiny Walmart—the store near Georgia Tech's campus is around 2,500 square feet—seems like an oxymoron, don’t let the size fool you.

Situated on 1.2 wooded acres at the end of a private road, the Jacksons’ rustic yet refined abode features a spacious farmhouse-style kitchen, a private screened porch with a fireplace, and a two-story boathouse.

About 150 miles from Atlanta, family-owned Russell Lands includes 14 neighborhoods clustered around the southwest corner of Lake Martin—a 41,000-acre reservoir awarded state “Treasured Lake” status because of its exceptional water quality. The community is about 40 miles from both Auburn and Montgomery.

When Scott Mall and his then wife noticed that the house at 1965 Drummond Pond Road in Milton was for sale, they jumped on it immediately. This Nantucket-style house had everything they wanted, including a large lakefront lot.

While the folks at the real estate blog Movoto.com think Atlanta excels in nerdiness and redneckery, they’ve concocted a new list where, oddly enough, the city doesn’t place at all. Movoto’s “10 Best Places in Georgia” roster doesn’t include the state’s capital.  That’s right; Atlanta evidently doesn’t rate. The most peachy keen of Georgia’s places to live is none other than (drum roll, please) Canton.

Movoto’s explanation: a data-and-statistics-based formula used to identify real estate Utopias by ranking total amenities, crime, tax rates, employment, commute time, and weather (uh, humid). The rankings don’t include access to mass transit, but do include a multifaceted “quality of life” tabulation that assesses the cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student-to-teacher ratio in public schools.

Movoto’s List of the Best Places in Georgia

Its target market is “a generation of buyers that are trading in their large family homes and entering a new chapter lived on their own terms,” says Caroline Simmel, senior vice president of marketing.

The CEO of Atlanta’s oldest home-building company built his ultimate dream house in Milton. Now that he and his wife are downsizing empty nesters, that home can be yours—for $6,750,000.

The only privately owned nuclear-proof bunker in the world is in Georgia, and it can be yours for $17.5 million.