Most Expensive Places To Live In Georgia For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In Georgia For 2020

1. Dahlonega

The city of Dahlonega is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242.

The median income in Dahlonega comes in at $35,000 and the median home value is $337,200 for 2020.

2. College Park

College Park is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia, adjacent to the southern boundary of the city of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the population was 13,942. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is partially located in the city's boundaries, and the Georgia International Convention Center, owned and operated by the City of College Park, is within the city limits.

The median income in College Park comes in at $32,039 and the median home value is $167,900 for 2020.

3. Cumming

Cumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States, and the sole incorporated area in the county. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Its population was 5,430 at the 2010 census, up from 4,220 in 2000. Surrounding unincorporated areas with a Cumming mailing address have a population of approximately 100,000. Cumming is the county seat of Forsyth County.

The median income in Cumming comes in at $43,790 and the median home value is $214,400 for 2020.

4. Atlanta

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city of the State of Georgia in the United States. With an estimated 2016 population of 472,522, it is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5.7 million people and the ninth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Atlanta is the seat of Fulton County and a small portion of the city extends eastward into DeKalb County.

The median income in Atlanta comes in at $55,279 and the median home value is $261,400 for 2020.

The median income in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government (Balance) comes in at $36,637 and the median home value is $164,100 for 2020.

6. Chamblee

Chamblee is a city in northern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,892 at the 2010 census.

The median income in Chamblee comes in at $57,408 and the median home value is $245,500 for 2020.

7. Marietta

Marietta is located in central Cobb County, Georgia, United States, and is the county's seat and largest city.

The median income in Marietta comes in at $54,983 and the median home value is $273,300 for 2020.

8. Thomasville

Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The city is the second largest in Southwest Georgia after Albany.

The median income in Thomasville comes in at $32,236 and the median home value is $145,900 for 2020.

9. Norcross

Norcross is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 9,116, while in 2015 the estimated population was 16,634. It is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metropolitan statistical area, which is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville combined statistical area.

The median income in Norcross comes in at $48,175 and the median home value is $173,600 for 2020.

10. Hawkinsville

Hawkinsville is a city in and the county seat of Pulaski County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,589 at the 2010 census.

The median income in Hawkinsville comes in at $29,919 and the median home value is $137,800 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Peach State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Georgia to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 127 places in Georgia that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in Georgia according to the data is Dahlonega. You can download the data here.