In it’s latest issue (not yet online), Atlanta Magazine features an extensive look at home values across the Atlanta metropolitan region, with charts of data comparing current sales to previous years and other neighborhoods.

As a good, obsessive Decaturite, when my glossy issue appeared in the mail yesterday, I flipped quickly to the section and skimmed down to “Decatur, city of” to see how we were stacking up against our arch-nemesis “It’s more than a zipcode, it’s a lifestyle” 30308.  (Look!  I just gave us a nemesis!)

What I saw was shocking.  So shocking in fact, that I knew it had to be wrong.  And I wasn’t the only one who noticed.  I’ll let Brent, who sent in an email last night, describe the problem…

In the article on page 66, it shows Decatur, City of, as the lowest median price in all their metro cities with an average selling price of $113,610. It also shows us as losing a whopping -40.6% in household value over the past 4-5 years–again, the largest drop of any neighborhood by far! It goes on to state we have lost 27.1% over the past year. This is obviously incorrect and a black eye for our community. How do we rectify?

I sent an email over to Atlanta Magazine’s editor Steve Fennessy last night, and he looked into it this morning and responded thusly… Read the rest of this entry »