Neighborhood News
Neighborhoods · Metro Atlanta
Neighborhoods Nov 1, 2026
Roswell's historic Groveway neighborhood gets its 180-year history documented as Webb Street, steps from Canton Street, fills with upscale townhomes
Appen Media's Preserving the Past column traces Groveway, the historic Black neighborhood at the heart of Roswell, where Black residents have lived since the city's founding and, by the 1930s, were concentrated on Webb Street, Oxbow Drive, Pleasant Hill Street, Bush Street, Zyon Circle and Grove Way. The district is anchored a mile apart by Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, whose current building dates to 1963, and Zion Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1871 and rebuilt in 2001, with the Groveway Community Group organizing neighbors since 1943. The column's flipper-relevant detail is Webb Street: once defined by close family ties, it now sits steps from Canton Street and has been transformed into an upscale stretch of modern townhouses. For a fix-and-flipper: Groveway is the rare pocket where older single-family stock meets Roswell's hottest retail corridor, so walk-to-Canton-Street properties carry a premium, the new townhome builds on Webb Street are setting fresh high comps, and any play here needs the sensitivity - and possible preservation scrutiny - that comes with a 180-year-old historic community.
Image via Appen Media
Neighborhoods Nov 1, 2026
Roswell property owners still face a tax hike - council settles at 5.232 mills after a revolt against the 7.732 proposal
A letter to the editor in Appen Media lays out where Roswell's property tax fight landed: after strong resident pushback, the Roswell City Council cut its proposed increase from 4.1 mills to 7.732 mills down to a 5.232-mill compromise, keeping the operating rate flat at 4.049 mills and setting 1.183 mills for debt service on the 2022 bond program. Writer Mekai Richardson calls the outcome a win for community involvement but notes the bad news: property owners in the north Fulton city will still pay a higher rate in the coming year. For a fix-and-flipper: the tax bite on held inventory in Roswell just went up, not down, so pro formas need the new millage in monthly carrying costs, and higher PITI will test buyer budgets at the top of Roswell's price bands - while the episode shows how fast organized residents can move city fiscal policy, worth remembering anywhere you hold product through a budget season.
Neighborhoods Oct 30, 2026
Western lifestyle brand Ariat leases 4,000 square feet at Atlanta's Upper Westside Works district for a 2027 opening - another national name betting on the Chattahoochee Row corridor
What Now Atlanta reports, citing Tomorrow's News Today Atlanta, that California-based Ariat is heading to The Works in 2027, taking roughly 4,000 square feet in a freestanding brick building at the mixed-use district on the Upper Westside. Ariat - boots, clothing and accessories founded in 1993 - would add a national apparel name to the tenant mix at the former industrial complex off Chattahoochee Row; no opening timeline beyond 2027 was reported. For a fix-and-flipper: every national lease signed at The Works deepens the walkable amenity base that has been pulling buyer demand into surrounding neighborhoods like Blandtown, Berkeley Park and Howell Station. Flips near an anchored, leasing-up district get the amenities story for free in your listing - but remember the corridor's premium is partly priced in already, so the margin comes from buying the tired house a few blocks out rather than next door to the front door.
Neighborhoods Oct 28, 2026
Johns Creek adopts Fulton County's lowest city property tax rate - a 3.681-mill total rollback - as its taxable digest grows 1.9% to $6.6B
Appen Media reports the Johns Creek City Council, at its Oct. 26 meeting, unanimously adopted a 2026 rollback maintenance-and-operations millage rate of 3.434 mills - again the lowest city property tax rate in Fulton County - plus a 0.247-mill parks bond levy for a 3.681-mill total, down from 3.742 mills last year. The M&O levy is expected to generate about $22.77 million, and the taxable digest grew about 1.92%, from $6.5 billion to $6.6 billion. For context, neighboring north Fulton cities landed higher for 2026: Milton at 4.502 mills, Sandy Springs holding at 4.731, Roswell at 5.232 and Alpharetta at 5.750. For a fix-and-flipper: two profit levers at once - digest growth of nearly 2% says Johns Creek values are still climbing, and the rollback keeps your tax carry the cheapest among Fulton cities while making the payment math easier for your cost-conscious buyer. Underwrite holding costs at 3.681 mills when you run comps there.
Neighborhoods Oct 30, 2026
Atlanta Public Schools completes $18M South Atlanta High renovation - covered entrance, stadium and ADA upgrades on the southside
Rough Draft Atlanta reports Atlanta Public Schools completed an $18 million, multi-year renovation at South Atlanta High School with an Oct. 28 ribbon cutting, funded by the E-SPLOST sales tax. Improvements include a new covered entrance and atrium, a security vestibule, a renovated counseling and student success center, a renovated sports stadium, a refinished gym floor, air conditioning upgrades and ADA accessibility work, with Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson and City Councilmember Antonio Lewis attending the ceremony. For a fix-and-flipper: sustained public investment in southside schools is the kind of block-level upgrade that supports buyer confidence and comps across the surrounding South Atlanta market - a marketing point for renovals in a corridor already seeing new-construction momentum.
Neighborhoods Oct 29, 2026
After 35 years, Star Community Bar closes Dec. 31 in Atlanta's Little Five Points as Red Light Café takes over the space
Rough Draft Atlanta reports Star Community Bar will close Dec. 31 after 35 years in Little Five Points, with listening-room operator Red Light Café moving into the space in January 2027. The handoff keeps an anchor storefront active on a corridor that has cycled several legacy venues in recent years rather than going dark. For a fix-and-flipper: a backfilled entertainment corridor protects the foot traffic and street life that support intown commercial rents and nearby residential values around Little Five Points - a quiet comp-support factor for renovals on surrounding blocks.
Neighborhoods Oct 28, 2026
Norcross mayor reports median household income up roughly 50% as the Gwinnett city weighs a stack of redevelopment proposals
In his Oct. 27 State of the City address, Norcross Mayor Craig Newton said median household income has climbed about 50% and population about 15% during his tenure, and name-checked a live redevelopment pipeline: the Canopy at Crooked Creek condos, Magnolia Grove, housing at Britt Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard, and the Hunter Street project, per Rough Draft Atlanta. Newton cautioned that land in the city is limited, redevelopment is expensive, and proposals will be scrutinized for infrastructure, traffic and community character impacts. For a fix-and-flipper: income growth with constrained land is the classic recipe for strengthening resale values in Norcross, but a city deliberately managing scale means renovation and infill plans should budget time for design review and community pushback.
Neighborhoods Oct 27, 2026
Sandy Springs' 400-home Hillcrest project lands its first retail tenants as construction passes the podium
Developers Third & Urban and Trammell Crow Company announced Salted Melon and Chastain Creamery as the first retail tenants at Hillcrest, a roughly 8-acre mixed-use project with 362 apartments, 30 for-rent townhomes and 19,000 square feet of retail just south of Mount Vernon Highway at Sandy Springs Circle, on track to open next summer, per Rough Draft Atlanta. As of late October the parking deck, townhomes and first multifamily levels are built, with the five-story Mount Vernon building rising above its concrete podium by year-end. For a fix-and-flipper: a walkable retail-and-residential node this close to City Springs underpins comp values for renovators in Sandy Springs' downtown quadrant — though the 392 new homes will also add fresh inventory your exit has to price against.
Neighborhoods Oct 27, 2026
Peoplestown kicks off a $9.4M, three-year Four Corners Park makeover in southeast Atlanta — Bezos Earth Fund grant compresses a 20-year plan into three
Peoplestown launched the nearly $10 million rebuild of its long-neglected five-acre Four Corners Park on Oct. 25 with a community celebration, after the Bezos Earth Fund awarded a $9.4 million grant — drawn from its $100 million Greening America's Cities campaign across eight U.S. cities — to Park Pride to realize a resident-designed park plan, the largest project in the nonprofit's history, per SaportaReport. Mayor Andre Dickens, Parks Commissioner Doug Voss, a Bezos Earth Fund representative and Park Pride CEO Michael Halicki joined neighbors at the event; the park began as a vacant lot and now holds a neighborhood center and basketball court, and the funded timeline compresses what was originally a 20-year phased vision into roughly three years. For flippers, this is the southeast Atlanta amenity catalyst de-risked: park upgrades are among the most reliable comp-movers for adjacent single-family blocks, and a funded three-year schedule means renovations completed in the 2027-2029 window in Peoplestown market against a finished amenity rather than a promise — one more support beam under the BeltLine-southeast corridor demand thesis, without adding a single competing housing unit.
Section guide
A running read on the metro: which areas are gaining value, which are losing it, where renovation activity is concentrated, and where almost nobody is flipping. Updated monthly as county sales data and permit filings come in.
Values going up
- Westside / Vine City corridor — continued public-private redevelopment is lifting comparables block by block; new affordable and market-rate product is raising the renovation bar for adjacent private investors.
- Midtown / Beltline-adjacent intown — rental growth continues to outpace the suburbs, supporting buy-renovate-rent math near the corridor.
- Central Sandy Springs — office-to-residential conversions (Glenlake corridor) are repricing underused commercial parcels as residential land.
Values under pressure
- Entry-level rental bands citywide — an eviction rate reported at three times the national average adds turnover and collection risk to tenant-occupied acquisitions in these bands.
- Suburban office corridors — underused office stock continues to lose value as conversions absorb the best sites; anything adjacent to a conversion benefits, anything not converting drags.
- Aging apartment stock held for appreciation — large redevelopments (Ponce de Leon, Trestletree) are adding rental supply that pressures older unrenovated comparables.
Most active for fix-and-flips
- Southside price bands — the widest acquisition-to-ARV spreads in the metro; the 70% rule still pencils where exit comps support it.
- Gwinnett's older suburbs — 1990s housing stock, fast permits, and under-median price points are pulling renovation capital to Norcross, Duluth, and Lawrenceville.
- Poncey-Highland and intown historic districts — legacy stock trades on improvement rather than teardown, keeping renovation demand steady.
Least flip activity
- North Fulton luxury pockets — acquisition costs leave thin spreads for renovation plays; activity is dominated by new development, not rehabs.
- Historic-protected blocks — demolition moratoriums (Norcross pre-1950) and historic district review boards slow projects and raise carrying costs; the flip model bends toward preservation here.
- Far-exurb subdivisions — long days-on-market on renovated product keeps most flippers closer in.
Signals compiled from local development reporting, county filings, and monthly market data. Precise zip-level figures refresh with our monthly data pull — this page updates as they land.