Fulton County, Georgia
Georgia’s Most Populous County Offers Vast Opportunities
by Carole VanSickle Ellis
The state of Georgia boasts more counties than every other state in the United States except for Texas, and of all Georgia’s 159 counties, none are more populous than Fulton County.
Containing roughly 90% of the state capital, Atlanta, and housing roughly one in every 10 Georgians in the state, Fulton County has long been an area of prime interest for real estate investors of all types. The county’s Development Authority is well-equipped to help investors and businesses make the most of Fulton’s prime location and thriving local economy. Twenty-four companies are headquartered in Fulton, and its proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest global passenger airport in the world, continues to attract new investment and new employers to the area.
“We have worked hard to build a world-class and pro-business community,” said Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, in response to Fulton’s ranking fourth on Site Selection Magazine’s “Top 20 Best Counties in America” list in July 2024. Pitts credited the award to Fulton’s “partners at the State of Georgia, the region, and our 15 cities.”
Something for Everyone
Not surprisingly, those 15 cities and their economies bring some of the wealthiest residents in the state into Fulton Country. At present, Milton, Georgia, is ranked as the “richest city in Georgia” with a median household income of $151,300 and a median home price hovering around $928,000.
Milton is home to many unique luxury properties, including a $9 million mega-mansion that houses a “wild west town” set in one wing and Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington’s former $12 million home. However, luxury homes are just one facet of Fulton real estate.
Due in large part to its size, Fulton offers a vast array of asset classes for investors to consider. For example, Chattahoochee Hills, located in Southern Fulton, encompasses roughly 60,000 acres and is dedicated, in large part, to conservation of the area as rural “forest and farm” land. Billing itself as a “place of intention,” Chattahoochee Hills has dedicated much of its land to outdoor recreation, “sustainable development, and environmental conservation, with a focus on preserving the natural beauty of the area while promoting responsible growth and development.”
The city is home to new urbanism village Serenbe, a community of three exclusive hamlets developed to “protecting the beautiful rural land just outside of Atlanta.” Serenbe has won awards from the Urban Land Institute, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and EarthCraft.
Serenbe’s developer is currently working on another community in Chattahoochee Hills centered around a four-acre park and has been a driving force in the expansion of Fulton County via annexation of land around Chattahoochee Hills since the mid-2000s.
College Park, by comparison, boasts an array of multifamily residential developments with more on the way. Due to its proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the Georgia International Convention Center, and downtown Atlanta, the city is home to more than 5,000 hotel rooms as well as residential housing developments.
Its rail station, which is serviced by two of Atlanta’s MARTA rail lines, is the third busiest in the city. College Park is also home to several innovative housing developments, including Ion College Park, a public-private partnership between the city and a local Methodist church dedicated to “activating surplus land around the church for community development,” and South Park Cottages, a 29-unit tiny-home community promising an annual cost of living below $300,000 and a “higher chance of [home] ownership.” The developer of South Park Cottages announced in October 2024 that he would debut a second micro-community, also in Fulton County, dubbed “Union Park Cottages.”
Complicated Tax Policies May Affect Long-Term Investments
Investors should note that most of Fulton County is incorporated, and the municipalization of the county in the early and mid-2000s created a series of independent, municipal governments that control their respective areas, provide services independently from the rest of the county, and, periodically, advocate for secession from Fulton County as a whole. Should these efforts succeed at some point, investors should be aware that they could dramatically affect the tax base of the remaining areas of the county. Because Fulton County contains a cross section of both the wealthiest and poorest communities in the state, secession of any one city (and subsequent conversion to an independent county) could dramatically affect property values. To date, however, secession attempts have been largely thwarted by county residents and the state legislature.
Fulton County has also struggled with a variety of tax issues related to property values, which skyrocketed across the Atlanta metro area in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2020, Redfin reported median home sales prices were hovering around $278,000 in the Atlanta area, most of which is located in Fulton County. By the end of 2024, median home prices had leapt to $400,000. Fulton County has reacted with a series of controversial millage rate increases, including a recent increase adopted this past August that would raise property taxes by 3.74% and a proposal to exempt Fulton County from statewide property tax caps that ostensibly “provides long-term relief for homeowners and protects them from sharp spikes in property taxes.”
Advocates for the exemption say Fulton County already has other protections in place for homeowners, while critics argue an exemption will lead to higher property taxes over time. The Atlanta area as a whole has experienced a 66% increase in property taxes since 2019 according to reporting by the New York Times.
On the bright side for developers, however, Fulton County has a long history of dedicated advocacy for tax incentives and breaks for companies that bring jobs into the area. Recently, the county development authority snagged a $75 million tax break for Microsoft, which, in return, has invested $1.8 million in a national data center estimated to bring in 50 full-time, permanent jobs and create as many as 600 temporary construction jobs during the development of the site. That project alone has a 10-year estimated economic impact of $2.8 billion once the tax abatement is factored in.
Investors should note, however, the Georgia Senate has recently attempted to block data center tax exemptions, although the state’s governor has vetoed those efforts so far. If legislative action blocking tax incentives should succeed in the future, that could have a dramatic impact on Fulton County’s ability to bring in groups like Microsoft in the future.
The county also recently reversed a denied tax break from a developer constructing an apartment tower targeting Georgia Tech student residents, ultimately granting the developer a $2.9 million property tax abatement. The Development Authority of Fulton County also granted a roughly $10 million tax “inducement” for X Corp. [formerly Twitter] to create another data center in the Fulton area that would be largely dedicated to generative artificial intelligence and work with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. This project comes with an estimated 10-year economic benefit of $241 million and the creation of 74 direct and indirect permanent jobs.
A Diverse Array of Opportunities
Real estate investors in Fulton County should bear in mind that the market is wildly diverse and, as a result, both exciting and potentially perilous.
Fulton’s unique municipal structures can create confusion for new investors in the area who may not realize exactly which elements of local government affect their assets, but these challenges can be overcome with research and careful monitoring.
With so many options in the Fulton area and Atlanta-area home prices falling slightly in some areas as inventory rises, Fulton County could be a great place to explore new asset classes and opportunities for both experienced and beginning investors.
SIDEBAR
Top 10 Employers in Fulton County by Population Employed
Delta Air Lines: 39,500 employees (transportation)
Piedmont Healthcare: 25,110 employees (healthcare)
Northside Hospital: 24,500 employees (healthcare)
AT&T Warner Media: 11,000 employees (media/communications)
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: 10,027 employees (healthcare)
Cox Enterprises: 8,146 employees (media/communications)
Verizon/Warner Bros. Discovery: 7,800 employees (telecommunications)
Grady Healthcare System: 7,600 employees (healthcare)
Georgia State University: 7,000 employees (education)
Georgia Institute of Technology: 6,541 employees (education)
