Does living near MARTA make your home more valuable? Depends on which station.

A new study mapping out home sale prices near MARTA stations highlights broader disparities in Atlanta’s housing recovery
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MARTA station study

Courtesy Estately

Since 2012, Atlanta’s real estate market has been white-hot, with average home prices climbing by more than 50 percent, finally approaching pre-recession levels. Inside Atlanta’s city limits, the market (in selected neighborhoods, anyway) has gone bonkers, partially fueled by the migration of millennials who are starting to buy homes for the first time. As that trend has picked up, more people have swapped their congested commutes for walking, biking, and public transit.

Earlier today Estately, the national real estate listing website, published median home prices of houses, townhomes, and condos sold over the last six months within a one-mile radius of MARTA rail stations. Based on the sale price per square foot, the most expensive stops are unsurprising: the northern red line (three in Midtown and Buckhead) and the eastern blue line (East Lake, Decatur, Inman Park, and Avondale). In Decatur, homes near the Decatur station had a median sale price of $460,000. A number of factors likely contributed to that figure—including being within walking distance to the restaurants on the square as well as the Decatur High School—but it’s worth noting that the median home price for the entire city is $446,000, according to Zillow.

Meanwhile, the least expensive stops are in neighborhoods south of I-20 and west of Downtown. And in many ways, the transit stops reflect the broader uneven housing recovery that has plagued southwest Atlanta, relative to the northeast swath of the city. Board a train at Five Points, the city’s central station, and ride the train three stops in any direction to see the disparity. Homes near the Oakland City station, three stops south, sold for less than a fifth of the price ($43,075) of those near the North Avenue station, three stops north ($230,000). It’s even starker on blue line: If you ride east, you’ll see Inman Park, which has a median price of $325,000; then ride west to find Ashby, where you’ll find a median price of $39,500. The homes near Buckhead’s stop sold for 11 times more per square foot than those close to Hamilton E. Holmes, the westernmost stop at the end of blue line.

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