Report: Inman Park condo values have exploded by 117 percent in recent years

Amid the swiftly changing landscape of Atlanta, it’s easy to lose perspective on how things were just a few years ago. Big proposals materialize and become the new normal. Flashy renderings morph into real places where real memories happen. The old state of things slowly fades.

And especially in a volcanic submarket like Inman Park.

This week, on the eve of Inman Park’s famed eponymous festival (the reigning champion of Atlanta festivals, we might add), the agent-run website A Is For Atlanta provides some thought-provoking perspective on how much IP has changed since the city began crawling from the depths of recession.

Those changes have induced heightened desirability for one of Atlanta’s most coveted neighborhoods. And that’s translated to a 117 percent increase (per average sales) in Inman Park condo values in six years, in many cases. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that almost no new condo supply has been recently added.

This intro graph poignantly sums up the situation:

“There was a time not long ago when it was hard to give away a condominium in Inman Park. Foreclosures flooded the market, and new developments struggled through their ‘closeout’ phases. Highland Avenue was dotted with recently failed small businesses featuring ‘For Lease’ signs in the windows, and the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail was little more than a trash-strewn, abandoned rail corridor. Hard to believe it now, but this was just six years ago, in 2011.”

Remember all that, y’all?

Curbed Atlanta archives

The article goes on to illustrate the tale of two Inman Parks via one-bedroom units at the neighborhood’s two largest condo developments: 870 Inman and Inman Park Village Lofts.

Consider: In 2011, average sales prices for these units in the commercial heart of IP were just $113,000 (compared to $246,000 now). Even at the lower price, condos were languishing on the market for about 95 days (compared to 13 days now), per the report.

And try to imagine this: The situation in 2011 was such that a listing agent, in hopes of scoring a condo contract, was dangling a free week’s vacation in a Sandestin, Fla. condo as a “broker bonus.”

The days of free vacations are gone, but as the website notes, so too are the days of doubled values, more than likely: “Don’t expect [a] 117 percent increase by 2022—that ship has sailed, friend.”

• INMAN PARK CONDOMINIUM SALES SKYROCKET [A is For Atlanta]
• Atlantans Declare Inman Park Festival the City's Greatest [Curbed Atlanta]