I never imagined I would be living in Atlanta, Georgia. I moved here in 2008 and I absolutely hated it. Fifteen years later I can honestly say I love it here, and this post is my attempt to explain what changed.
If you are weighing a move from out of state, that arc is worth paying attention to. Atlanta is not a city that blows you away on first impression. It is a city that grows on you as you spend time here. When I filmed the video this post came from, I had been here fifteen years and I put together the specific things I had come to love. All fifteen are below, including the ones that are honestly a mixed bag.
I am Marc. I sell real estate across Metro Atlanta and I am a transplant myself, so most of what follows is the same conversation I have with clients relocating to Atlanta from somewhere else.
1. It is a city inside a forest
This is my favorite thing about living here, and it is more specific than saying Atlanta has nature. More than just about any other city in the country I can think of, Atlanta is a city in the forest.
I live in the heart of the city, less than half a mile from downtown, and my property is surrounded by trees. If you were only looking up, you would think I was somewhere rural. There are trees all over the city and the effect is calming and genuinely beautiful to look at.
The downside is real, though. Those trees can cause problems from time to time, especially the ones close to your house. That is a maintenance and risk conversation worth having on any home you are considering here.
2. The weather, in both directions
Weather is personal, but I prefer four distinct seasons over a place like Southern California where it is beautiful and does not change much. I grew up in the Northeast, where we had four seasons but the cold was extreme.
Atlanta I would describe as a mild climate that still gets four real seasons. Summer is the honest downside: it gets extremely hot and humid, and it stays that way for a long stretch. Much of summer is also beautiful and sunny, but go in knowing about the humidity.
Winter, if you are coming from a harsher climate, is going to read as a joke. There is hardly ever snow. It gets chilly and rainy for a few months and it is easy to get through. Spring and fall are my two favorites. Sunlight, a breeze, 60s and 70s, and it happens year after year.
3. Opportunity and an entrepreneurial streak
Atlanta is an extremely entrepreneurial city, and the opportunity is not limited to people starting businesses. There are long, healthy, productive careers here too.
When I filmed this in 2024, there were 35 Fortune 1,000 companies headquartered in the Atlanta area, and 19 of those were in the Fortune 500. Whether you are launching a career, trying to advance one, or making a bigger change, the mix of large employers and an entrepreneurial mindset gives you room to move.
4. Affordability, with an honest asterisk
Locals reading this are probably scoffing, and they have a point. A few years before I filmed this, affordability would have been number one on my list. You could buy a home inside the perimeter, meaning inside the I-285 loop that circles the city, for under $200,000. That is certainly not the case anymore.
Here is the comparison that still holds. Atlanta was the sixth largest metro in the country when I filmed this in 2024, and against other metros that size our housing costs are still very reasonable. At that time you could live in the heart of the city on a detached-home budget of $350,000 or less, and if you were open to an attached option like a condo or a townhome, under $200,000 was still possible. On the rental side, more than in many other cities I have spent time in, there were opportunities to rent an entire house for often under $2,000 a month.
Property taxes here also run much lower on average than what people are coming from in Texas, Florida, California or New York. That gap surprises people more than the sticker price does.
So yes, affordability has gone down quite a bit as the metro has grown. Comparatively, it is still one of the better deals among large American metros. If you want to see how that plays out neighborhood by neighborhood, that is what my Atlanta neighborhoods guide is for.
5. Nature beyond the tree canopy
Atlanta has more green space and public parks than most cities in America, but the outdoor case does not stop at the city limits.
There is the Chattahoochee River, which people across the metro use in a lot of different places and a lot of different ways. As a kayaker I can tell you North Georgia has a whole set of other good rivers, including the Tallulah River Gorge and the classic Chattooga. There are lakes like Lanier and Allatoona. For hiking, you have everything from Stone Mountain to the Appalachian Trail, and the mountains in North Georgia are genuinely scenic. North Georgia even has a climate that supports vineyards, which is something people rarely bring up.
Whatever your specific outdoor hobby is, Georgia probably has a version of it.
6. Buford Highway
I am fairly critical of Atlanta’s high end restaurant scene. Buford Highway is where I send everyone instead.
It is a stretch on the northeast side of town that starts inside the perimeter and runs north, and it is full of fantastic food from countries all over Latin America and Asia. The food is authentic and the prices will not break the bank. If you are a foodie and you are going to spend any time in the Atlanta area, make a trip to Buford Highway a priority.
7. The Beltline
The Beltline is Atlanta’s best amenity, in my opinion. It is an old railway corridor that was ripped up and paved over, and it is now a connected trail you can walk, bike or scooter.
What makes it significant is that it connected neighborhoods that previously were not connected. Atlanta is a sprawled out city where you pretty much need a car to get anywhere, and on the Beltline you can often walk between neighborhoods faster than you can drive between them. You can go from Inman Park up to Midtown, or the opposite direction, or loop around the city.
An entire mini economy has grown up around it. Restaurants, bars, shopping and retail along the Beltline are transforming the neighborhoods it runs through, and when I filmed this in 2024 there was light rail in the works for the corridor, which is sorely needed given how bad our public transportation is.
If you are looking to buy in town, pay attention to this. Purchasing near the Beltline can be a fantastic anchor for your property values, and it is one of the first things I raise with clients buying or selling in Atlanta.
8. Hartsfield-Jackson
When your go-to airport has been LaGuardia for most of your life, you come to appreciate a good one. Hartsfield-Jackson International is easy to navigate, and the train system inside gets you to your gate quickly.
It is a Delta hub and, on average, it handles more flights than any other airport in the world, so you get more direct-flight options whether you travel for work or for fun. It does get completely insane during certain holidays, like any other airport, but the overall travel experience out of Atlanta is a good one.
9. We do not plan around natural disasters
I get pushback from locals on this one, but when you talk all day with people from California, New Orleans and Florida, the contrast is stark. Those are places where natural disasters affect daily life, where you prepare for them and pay for them in a lot of ways.
In my time in the Atlanta area I have never dealt with a significant natural disaster. A tornado did touch down in the city a few years before I filmed this and it caused a lot of damage, but that is extremely rare. Hurricanes end up as pretty bad storms. We never worry about earthquakes. Flooding in certain parts of the metro is the one real thing to check on a specific property. Otherwise, natural disasters are rarely something you have to think about here, and that is a bigger bonus than people realize.
10 and 11. Diversity and culture
I grew up in the New York area, which really was a melting pot, and I am grateful for how that exposure shaped me. Atlanta is not the same thing, but it is diverse. We have one of the largest Black populations in the country and very healthy Asian and Latin American communities. That brings exposure to different cultures, perspectives and cuisines that you would not get somewhere more homogeneous. The South can get a rap for being intolerant, and I can tell you with certainty that in the general Atlanta area there is a place for everyone to feel accepted.
Culture here is harder to pin down than in New Orleans or San Francisco or New York, cities that call up instant imagery. If I had to identify Atlanta’s, it is three things: a history steeped in the Civil Rights Movement, an incredibly rich culture of music and music lovers that sits at the forefront of what is popular, and entrepreneurship. Not entrepreneurship for the already wealthy, but people from all kinds of ethnic and economic backgrounds succeeding here consistently and at a high level. It is inspiring to be around.
12, 13 and 14. Festivals, funk and Waffle House
If you are a festival person, Atlanta belongs on your radar. I am not one and I still cannot list half of them: Pride, Music Midtown, the jazz festival, the Peachtree Road Race, Comic Con, Shaky Knees, Shaky Beats. Music, arts, food, whatever the hobby, there is a festival for it here.
Then there is the part I struggle to put into words. Atlanta is kind of funky. There is a wild card factor here, some genuinely unique people with no inhibitions about putting themselves out there, and you will see things you did not expect to see.
Which brings me to Waffle House, and yes, it is on the list on purpose. If you evaluate it like a restaurant critic you will be disappointed, but that is not what it is for. It is always open. Late at night, coming off a long trip, whenever you need coffee at an odd hour, it is there. Live here long enough and it becomes a point of pride.
15. The future
I am bullish on Atlanta. We had just officially become the sixth largest metro in the country when I filmed this in 2024, and we are one of the fastest growing.
That means opportunity. Big companies are here, smaller companies are growing into bigger ones, there is a diverse pool of tech talent, and a lot more people are going to move here over the next ten years. The future is uncertain and there is real work ahead on infrastructure to be ready for that growth. But between the cost of living, the nature, the weather, the absence of natural disasters and the economy, Atlanta feels like a place that has not been fully established yet. That makes it a great place for new beginnings.
So, should you move here?
I hated Atlanta when I got here and it is going to be my home for a long time. That is the honest summary. It may not win you over on the first visit, but the trees, the sunshine and the range of experiences here tend to work on people over time.
If you are trying to figure out where in the metro you actually fit, that is the conversation I have every week. You can read my longer breakdown of what it’s like living in Atlanta first, and when you are ready, book a call with me and we will map it out together.