‘More for your money.’ Why Macon has become a destination for homeowners leaving Atlanta

Christina Mormann Burris was thrilled when the letter arrived. A lifelong renter who lived in south Atlanta, Burris had just found out she’d been approved for a $200,000 mortgage, a critical step to buying her first home.

But when she began to look at houses in her area in the summer of 2022, everything was far out of her price range. Determined to buy property, she went online to see where she could afford to live and arrived at an unexpected place: Macon.

Burris said she came to realize Macon was exactly what she was looking for. She could own a home with a yard and still be close to family in Atlanta. She bought a house in North Macon for $179,000 and moved in October 2022.

“We were able to buy a really nice house for half the price of what it would have cost,” Burris said.

Burris isn’t an outlier: Macon is top destination for people moving out of Atlanta, according to data from Redfin, a real estate brokerage service that collects information on local markets.

Macon residents and realtors attribute the movement to Macon’s affordability and burgeoning arts and food scene, and say it could herald growth for the local economy.

Macon’s affordability is a big draw

Affordability is a major factor drawing home buyers to Macon, says Steve Solomon, owner and broker of Sheridan, Solomon & Associates, a real estate firm based in Macon. He said while investors have been interested in Macon real estate for years, he has noticed a big uptick in individual buyers following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July of this year, the median sale price for homes in Atlanta was $429,995, according to Redfin data. In Macon, that number was $179,450.

Ceirra Johnson, a broker with Macon-based real estate firm Say Yes to the Address, said many of the clients she’s worked with from Atlanta are looking to buy a single family home with a yard. Few people are able to afford that in large metro areas.

“If you were to put some of these homes in the Atlanta market, they would go for millions of dollars,” Johnson said. “(Buyers) are wanting that, but they’re getting it down here for the price that’s better for them. You get more for your money here.”

Burris said she’s taken note of the influx of new residents, too. Just after she moved into her home, she went to enroll her daughter at Howard High School. The school placed her daughter on a waiting list to get her class schedule because so many people had relocated and were trying to do the same.

Burris even ran into a family two streets over whose son went to school with her youngest child in Atlanta. They moved to Macon for similar reasons.

“It made me realize that I did make the right decision because we moved and then so many other people are moving this way,” Burris said.

‘There’s always new stuff coming into downtown’

Lynsey Free didn’t intend to end up in Macon. She first purchased a home here for $55,000 in 2017 while she was living abroad in Italy with her husband, but planned to only use it as a rental.

Things changed when the COVID pandemic started. Free was looking to move back to Atlanta, where she grew up, but ended up moving into the rental to weather the pandemic. While it wasn’t what Free had initially hoped for, she soon discovered downtown Macon’s restaurants and arts scene and fell in love.

“There’s always new stuff coming into downtown, there’s decent headlining (performers) coming into town at the auditorium and Society Garden,” Free said. “There’s just a lot of stuff.”

Revitalizing downtown Macon has been a major goal for city officials and activists, and Johnson said it’s also been a boon for bringing homeowners to the area.

“When you think about the makeup of buyers that are coming down here, they’re used to that type of lifestyle. They want to go downtown, they want to explore,” Johnson said.

Macon-Bibb County has already worked with partners to pour millions of dollars into business and the arts downtown. It’s a big turn around from the last two decades, when much of the area was vacant and in disrepair.

Earlier this month, city officials approved a project to add parking, residential and retail space along Poplar Street, estimated to cost around $89 million. In May, Macon was also recognized by Main Street America for nurturing around 120 new businesses downtown.

Solomon said the relationship goes both ways. People moving to the area will bring more residents spending money and supporting businesses downtown. It will also help continue investor interest, bringing more opportunities for growth.

“People that live in an area care about an area, so you need residents,” Solomon said.

Macon moving forward

Burris said when she first told friends and family she was moving to Macon, they thought she was crazy. In their minds, it was a small, crime-ridden town that didn’t have much going for it. However, she said that upon arriving she found quite the opposite.

“We have a wonderful neighborhood, the school system is fine, and we enjoy it,” Burris said. “I think Macon gets a bad rap.”

Her family has been happy about the move, and despite only being in her house for two years, she is already building equity.

Free echoed a similar sentiment. She said that growing up in metro Atlanta, Macon was never on her radar. She spent a single evening in the city for a Kenny Chesney concert in high school, but never envisioned herself here.

Since arriving, she feels that Macon is on the precipice of something great, so much so that she obtained her realtor’s license last year to sell properties in the area.

“It’s better this year than it was last year, it’s better last year than it was the year before,” Free said. “I do think it’s an upward trajectory from here.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 5:00 AM.