A block from the Beltline, this house just sold for $700K. And now it’s being torn down

Welcome to Atlanta, home of the $700,000 teardown.

In what could be among the clearest indications of the Atlanta Beltline’s power on intown residential real estate, a 1940s Virginia-Highland bungalow has recently sold at lot value for $700,000 even, or what would be $2.12 million per acre.

The home’s listing agent, Zach Payne of Payne and Company Real Estate, tells Curbed Atlanta that no other single-home lot has sold for so much in Atlanta history, according to his MLS research.

“Will Atlanta be the next NYC?” Payne asked in an email. “We don’t have a $1,000 [per] square foot sale yet, but it looks like we’re headed that direction soon.”

What the two-bedroom cottage at 760 Ponce de Leon Terrace has working in its favor—or not—is proximity to a Beltline Eastside Trail entrance at Greenwood Avenue down the street, plus walkability to Piedmont Park and Ponce City Market, Payne notes.

The address’s WalkScore registers at 80, strong for single-family neighborhoods in Atlanta.

The house’s charm and relatively small size of 1,638 square feet was less relevant than the depth of its wooded lot, which stretches back 182 feet, with a pathway wending through towering trees.

Payne says the seller worked in a temporary occupancy agreement, so the structure won’t likely be scrapped until the fall. The homebuilder buyer also purchased the house/lot next door and intends to erect two houses in the $1.7 to $1.9-million range, he says.

The transaction might have broken records, but Payne says it wasn’t exactly surprising, given that metro Atlanta home sales are outpacing national averages and the availability of buildable lots continues to shrink.

“The hottest keyword my millennial buyers are using these days, ‘walkable,’ seems to be the million-dollar feature,” says Payne. “Young wealthy buyers are opting for smaller spaces, high-end finishes, and walkable locations, over their parents’ larger, gated compounds.”