Neighborhoods

Atlanta’s suburbs are getting more urban. Metro residents crave proximity to walkable city centers and are flocking to reinvigorated, historic towns like Alpharetta and Hapeville—or newly invented places like Trilith and Serenbe. Here are 10 communities with newly vibrant downtowns.

The metamorphosis of Alpharetta’s formerly sleepy downtown was no accident, albeit a few years behind the rest of metro Atlanta’s post–Great Recession construction boom.

As Hollywood continues to choose Atlanta as a prime filming destination—Georgia productions generated more than $9.5 billion in impact last year—actors, crews, and other talent are infiltrating Atlanta neighborhoods and sometimes even setting down roots. From Buckhead to Midtown to Pinewood Forest, here’s where they hang their hats.

In Fayetteville, 15 miles south of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and just across the street from Pinewood Atlanta Studios, Pinewood Forest is designed as the kind of mixed-use community where “positive collisions” happen among neighbors—and where picturesque streets might serve as the backdrop of a Hollywood blockbuster.

This 450-acre gated community in Chickamauga, Georgia is special for its commitment to conservation and history. With architecture ranging from the late colonial period through the mid-20th century, Cloudland Station is a charming, family-friendly north Georgia community.

The next hot Atlanta neighborhoods. Eight friendly, walkable places where you can still afford to live.

Peachtree Hills Place, right next to Peachtree Creek and will eventually connect to the Atlanta BeltLine, offers spacious units with upscale features like 10-foot ceilings, high-end appliances, and luxurious master baths. Subtle accommodations like lever door handles, shower grab bars, and wider doorways allow for aging in place.

The swath of north Atlanta west of I-75 inside I-285 was developed in the 19th century as an industrial hub around the CSX line. The area is home to quiet neighborhoods. But lately development, from warehouse conversions to a much-needed grocery store, has been booming in the area.

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.