Cobb County/Cumberland Area: Real Estate Home Run?

Not so many years ago, Cobb County was considered “up there” – an almost-country cousin of Atlanta. With an ongoing recovery from the recession and a boom-like expansion more recently, you’ll now find just about everyone including Cobb County as a major part of “Atlanta.” Never mind that a piece of Cobb County has always been in Atlanta, what the county has known for a long time is now common knowledge: proximity to the Atlanta city limits with just enough distance for a buffer, easy interstate and surface street access combined with plenty of room for home and commercial growth means Cobb is an ideal place for growth. Some sources show that Cobb County home values have gone up almost 7% over the past year and that median sales prices are up as much as 24% since their low in 2012.

However, only those on the inside knew of the extra powder that Cobb County’s boom would get when the major league baseball team Atlanta Braves announced a surprise move from Turner Field in downtown Atlanta to a to-be-constructed ballpark on a 60-acre lot. Once that move was announced, both talk and activity accelerated. However, though the now-named SunTrust Park is an obvious inspiration for more development, there are plenty of reasons behind the county’s growth.

According to Joe Foltz, an attorney heavily involved in real estate dealings, “Multi-family housing development has continued apace across all submarkets, including Cumberland.”  He also cautions, however, that “more transit-oriented development will be required or traffic gridlock will make these prize locations unattractive to visitors to the areas.” The Braves development has raised – or at a minimum increased – the specter of traffic issues mentioned by Foltz. Witness a headline on Curbed Atlanta: “Cumberland Area to Be Walloped by Braves Traffic” to the tune of 20,000 – 25,000 more cars per day. On the (very) bright side, the ownership of the Braves has committed $452 million for a surrounding mixed-use development. With the positive economic impact of this development, the influx of visitors and exposure to the ballpark, plus surrounding real estate opportunities…we believe there is much more to look forward to than to be wary of.

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