Atlanta

[updated september 2024]

SO, roomiematch.com's Atlanta roommate rundown:

Atlanta is the largest, most expensive, and most important city in the South. As such it's much more diverse than many expect, with many different neighborhoods meaningfully more different from each other than most metro areas.

Atlanta also SPRAWLS. Outside of the relatively few hotspots served by MARTA plus a few bus routes, everyone is driving. Many consider the massive ring of suburb around Atlanta "Atlanta" as well, commuting back and forth regularly, causing some of the worst traffic congestion in the country.

You'll want to choose your neighborhood with extra care when moving to Atlanta. You'll likely prefer living near where you work or study to avoid massive gridlock. Alternatively, you can live outside the perimeter and commute to the center if you must, but you will require your own reliable vehicle and you will be miserable if your commute is happening anytime around rush hour.

Atlanta is incredibly rich in black history, featuring an abundance of civil war history and HBCUs, driving tourism.

Atlanta is also incredibly rich in pollen from its lush foliage, driving the purchase of allergy medication. You and your roommates might need to beware or stock up on medication in spring.

The rest of the Atlanta roommate lowdown:

• state capital and most populous city in Georgia - widely considered the educational and entertainment center for the southern US, with an extremely diverse economy including aerospace, biomedical research, film and television production, finance, healthcare, information technology, logistics, news and media, and transportation
• summer temperatures are very warm, famously humid, late summer heat is prolonged, winters are mild and thunderstorms are common, abundant rainfall throughout the year
• now a huge airline hub with the world's busiest airport (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport)
• site of most of Georgia's state government and federal bureaucracy, including the Georgia State Capitol, the Governor's Mansion, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• divided into 242 officially defined neighborhoods, with 3 high-rise districts
• A very large number of residential/suburban neighborhoods are colloquially considered within greater Atlanta. About 1/2 million live within the city limits, but the larger Atlanta metropolitan area contains about 6 million.
• The most expensive neighborhoods for roommates include: Inman Park, Buckhead, Midtown, and Virginia-Highland. Less expensive neighborhoods still inside the perimeter (ITP) tend to include most in the south and east, but they're not that much less expensive. For a significantly cheaper roommate situation you'll need to leave the city limits for one of the many suburbs surrounding it.
• Heavy reliance on automobiles for transportation even downtown has led to traffic and commutes among the worst in the country. Where I-75 and I-85 merge traffic into the Downtown Connector is one of the most congested segments of highway in the United States. You and your roommates will probably be happier if you structure your lives around avoiding major arteries during anything resembling a rush hour. You'll probably be happiest if you can work/go to school as close to where you live as possible.
• While you can take MARTA rail or public buses some hotspots around the city, and the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition is fighting for more safe lanes, you and your roommates will probably still want access to a car. Atlanta SPRAWLS. Many places are not yet served by any nearby public transport. (Some say MARTA is absolutely the best way to get to the airport and the football stadium. And . . . that is all.)
• historically the home of the American civil rights movement against racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement
• now home to several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Clark Atlanta University, the first HBCU founded in 1865
• abundance of universities and colleges overall, including Atlanta College of Art, Clayton State College, Morris Brown College, Reinhardt College, Agnes Scott College, Kennesaw State, Oglethorpe University, Southern College of Technology, West Georgia College, Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory, Spelman, Morehouse, and Georgia State University
• Some call Atlanta "city in a forest" due to the lush foliage, featuring magnolias, dogwoods, Southern pines, oaks, and the now ubiquitous Peachtree (the trees as well as streets, buildings, festivals, many other namesakes, etc.). A thick layer of yellow pollen is the result every springtime. Tell your roommates with allergies to stock up on their meds or they won't stop sneezing until winter.
• dog-friendlier than most American cities, with mild weather, pet-friendly patios, and most parks around the city featuring dedicated dog areas. Many casual bars and restaurants with outdoor areas welcome them as well. Few apartment complexes exclude dog owners accordingly; most are very welcoming for a reasonable pet deposit.
• according to several surveys Atlanta ranks third (behind San Francisco and Seattle) for largest number of lesbian, gay, and bisexual residents
• The Beltline is a former rail corridor that was rehabilitated into a series of parks connected by a trail forming a 22-mile loop around Atlanta's core - great for walking and biking and figuring out which neighborhood is best for you and your roommates
• Most longer-term residents don't pronounce the second T in Atlanta. They say it like it's just another N instead, "Atlanna."

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Atlanta's:

• Live music: Atlanta has played a major role in the development of various American music genres, including Atlanta hip hop, country, Crunk, indie rock, Southern rock, and trap. Though they originated elsewhere, rap and R&B fans can also find more than enough to love.
• Tyler Perry Studios, the first African-American owned major studio, and Areu Studios, the first Latin-American owned major studio
• Historical tourism: Tourism is huge, with much of the tourism driven by historical museums, gardens, parks, and other outdoor attractions including: Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Georgia Aquarium, High Museum of Art, Historic Fourth Ward Park, Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, Zoo Atlanta, Piedmont Park, the World of Coca-Cola, Fox Theater, College Football Hall of Fame, Historic Auburn district, Centennial Olympic Park, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Carter Center and Presidential Library . . . and the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, where she wrote Gone with the Wind
• Restaurants: Atlanta is home to some of the best rated restaurants in the country, with a great diversity of reasonably-priced dining options, including regular emerging chef "pop-ups" around the city. The Ponce City Market is Atlanta's largest collection where you can taste your way through a wide range of local favorites all at one spot. Similarly, there's a robust farmers' market culture.
• Buford Highway: Lengthy strip of shopping centers filled with cuisine and culture from all over the world - locally considered the best place to get Chinese, Korean, Mexican or Vietnamese food
• Atlanta Street Art Map: Colorful street murals are abundant. You can visit this map to explore the street art and graffiti from all over the city via their curated neighborhood suggestions.
• Waffle Houses: "Scattered, smothered, and covered" might refer to what you and your roommates order after a night out involving many cocktails. But only if you're into that sort of thing (most roommates are at least once or twice).
• Alpaca Treehouse: Nestled in a bamboo forest that's a sanctuary for rescued llamas and alpacas. You and your roommates can even feed them carrots.

Here's Atlanta's page for new residents, with info on neighborhoods, plus licensing and registration, which you'll hopefully never need if you choose the right roommates.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.


7.   From hoodmaps.com: a collaborative map where residents use tags describing social situations you're likely to find. Other users can thumb up or down, so the largest tags have been thumbed up the most.