Moving to Atlanta from New York City
Have you ever wondered if another city in America will mirror New York City in 20 years? Some have hinted at which city that might be. And in this video, I am going to explore the differences and similarities between those cities, so stay tuned until the end!
If you were wondering what city that is, it’s Atlanta! If it ever becomes like New York City is still questionable and yet to be seen. And, if Atlanta becomes like New York City, will that pose as a favorable outcome for those that are already living here in Atlanta? Well, we are going to take a deep dive of the two cities of where they stand in our current day society!
Hi, I’m Tim Trevathan with Tim Trevathan Homes and Keller Williams Realty. Many clients of mine have called Atlanta their home, and in fact, some of those clients have moved here directly from New York City! I, myself, have been to New York city twice – once in 2007 with a group of friends, and again just this past year. As much as I love New York City, there is a reason why I have called Atlanta my home. And if you are considering to make a move here, feel free to contact me by phone, text, email, however you want to get a hold of me. In a separate video, I’ll be going over a real life example of how a client feels about Atlanta after moving here from Brooklyn, right outside New York City’s central downtown.
Atlanta and New York City: two great American cities that have long attracted people from both across the US and also from across the world.
Atlanta is the largest city and metro area in the South, and New York City is the largest city and metro area in both the Northeast and the entire country.
Both are the dominant cities of their region, but there are some major differences between these cities that you should be aware of if you are considering a move.
If you are watching this video, you most likely are not trying to decide between moving to Atlanta or to New York. You also most likely aren’t trying to decide whether to leave Atlanta and move to New York. But, I can guarantee that there are a lot of you in New York who are trying to decide whether or not to move to Atlanta.
Here in Atlanta, you can’t talk to too many people before you meet someone from New York, New Jersey, or somewhere nearby who decided to make the move and now calls Atlanta home. People come here to Atlanta for job opportunities, lower cost of living, milder winters, following family who moved earlier, or a host of other reasons.
Obviously, in terms of population, New York dwarfs Atlanta. The 2020 census showed New York packing over 20 million people into a metro area of 6.7 square miles, with the city center having 8 million of those people.
In contrast, Metro Atlanta spreads its over 6 million people out into a 13 square mile area with roughly 500,000 people living in Atlanta proper. So, in both population size and population density, comparing Atlanta to New York is sort of like comparing a grapefruit to grape; they are both large cities but Atlanta is just never going to rival New York in terms of population.
Alright, let’s talk about some other similarities and differences between the two cities.
Transportation. This is a key difference between the cities. If you live in New York City, you know that walking or taking public transportation are a way of life. You typically don’t need to own a car to get to work, do your shopping, or take your kids to school. In contrast, here in Atlanta, you won’t get very far unless you have your own car.
While we do have a public bus and train system, it does not serve a broad swath of the metro area at all. In downtown Atlanta, bus service is decently easy to access but train service, or MARTA as we call it, is limited to one north-south and one east-west line. Most likely you’ll have to drive to the train station and bus stops aren’t always conveniently located, especially in residential areas.
Car ownership is very much part of life in Atlanta. We do have a few work-live-play communities designed with walkability in mind, but most people who live in one will find that their job is elsewhere.
Weather. This is another obvious difference between the cities. Atlanta is in the southern part of the country and New York is in the northern part of the country.
So, while both cities have four distinct seasons, they look a little different.
In New York, you have long, cold, and often snowy winters and a hot but fairly short summer. In Atlanta, you have fairly short, mild winters with no to little snow and long, hot, and very humid summers. If you aren’t familiar with Southern humidity, in the summer when you first step outside, you’ll often feel like you just stepped into a steam shower. It is that humid.
Atlanta also has what locals not-so-affectionally call “The Pollening” that happens each spring. Everything outdoors becomes coated with a thick yellow dust for a couple of weeks as the pine trees release their pollen. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, you may notice an increase in symptoms your first couple of pollen seasons in Atlanta.
Another difference between the two cities is how they handle winter weather. New York handles snow like a pro. It takes a lot of snow to shut the city down, and a shut down doesn’t happen often.
In comparison, in Atlanta, schools tend to close with just a strong prediction of snow. Employers will often have employees go home early or work remotely if it starts to snow. But, Atlanta isn’t just a city full of people who don’t like snow.
Our snow down here tends to result in a layer of ice on the roads that can make travel hazardous since the road surface temperatures are often above freezing when snow first starts falling. This means the snow initially melts and then as the surface temperature drops, it freezes and icy patches form.
Snow and ice are rare though thanks to Atlanta’s generally mild winters.
Access to Mountains and the Beach. In Atlanta, if you live in the suburbs it is very easy to escape town for the day or the weekend and even if you live in the city center, it is a pretty easy drive out of town unless you leave at rush hour. With no traffic, downtown Atlanta is only a 1.5 hour drive to Blue Ridge, one of the popular vacation towns up in the North Georgia Mountains. If you live in the suburbs on the north side of the city, its an even shorter drive.
It is a 4.5 hour drive from downtown Atlanta to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a popular beach destination for Atlanta residents. It is a 5-6 hour drive to the beaches on the Florida panhandle, the other primary beach destination for Atlanta residents.
For New Yorkers, beach access is easy and hard to beat. New York City is, after all, surrounded by a lot of water! While the New York City beaches may not be what you picture when you think beach vacation, they certainly get the job done if you want to head to the beach for the day.
Living in New York City, you have a few mountain ranges within a 2-4 hour drive from the city, making a mountain weekend a realistic option as well, though it will take a bit more planning to arrange transportation if you don’t own a car.
Green Space. When you think of New York City, what comes to mind? Lots and lots of tall buildings and city streets, right? New York is certainly full of large buildings of all sorts, both commercial and residential. Most people who live in the city live in an apartment. There is of course a huge green space in the heart of New York City, Central Park, and several smaller parks scattered throughout the city, but one thing you won’t see a lot of when you are walking around the city are trees.
Atlanta, in contrast, is sometimes called “a city in a forest” because of how much tree cover it has. In 2010, tree coverage was estimated to be about 50%. No, trees aren’t everywhere in downtown Atlanta, but you don’t have to go very far before you find some.
This makes it easy for city dwellers to get out and exercise in nature or just enjoy nature and forget about city life for a while. Within just a couple miles of downtown, you can escape to the Atlanta Beltway or the 30-acre Morningside Nature Preserve to go for a run and completely immerse yourself in nature. Those are just two of the many great nature options available to you without even having to head out to the suburbs. If you look at an arial view of the suburbs, trees abound, and it almost looks like a green ocean. There is an abundance of parks and nature escapes out in the Atlanta suburbs.
Like New York, there are a lot of tall buildings in Atlanta. But, there are also a good number of single family dwellings in Atlanta and it is just as common to own or rent a home as it is an apartment.
Entertainment and Things to Do. You can’t go wrong with either city when it comes to things to do. Both have professional baseball, basketball, football, and soccer teams. Both also have an abundance of wonderful, chef-driven restaurants with amazing food and both cities have plenty of popular nightlife spots.
One obvious difference is Broadway. You can’t really find a close match to Broadway anywhere else in the world. So, if taking in live musicals is what you love to do, New York may be the place for you.
But, Atlanta isn’t without entertainment. The Fox Theater is in the city and hosts a variety of live shows and musicals each year. Plus, if you take a short drive out to the suburbs, there are multiple venues like Gas South Arena in Duluth that host concerts, ballets, and musicals. There are plenty of entertainment options in Atlanta, it just takes a little bit more effort to get to them than it does in New York.
Both New York and Atlanta offer plenty of options when it comes to grabbing dinner, heading to a night out with friends, or catching a sports game or live entertainment.
Culture. Both New York and Atlanta are cities with a lot of transplants. People move to both cities from literally all over the world. New York is well known for being a melting pot, and Clarkston, just outside of Atlanta proper, is said to be home to the most diverse square mile in the United States.
In New York, the pace of life tends to be a bit faster and the people to be very direct and too the point when conversing with each other. If you aren’t from New York, this normal way of life can seem rude and unfeeling, especially if you are from a place where small talk and chatting with strangers is the norm. In traffic, you will hear a constant chorus of horns honking and drivers yelling.
In Atlanta, the pace of life tends to be a bit slower. Waving to your neighbors and making small talk with store clerks is the norm. The complete opposite of New York, here you may be perceived as rude if you don’t wave and make small talk. You will rarely hear horns honking or drivers yelling in traffic.
I would say that cultural difference is one of the biggest things to be aware of and keep in mind if you are moving to Atlanta from New York or somewhere else where people tend to be more direct and life is fast-paced.
Another cultural difference you may notice is sports affinities. Atlanta is obviously in the South, and people here love college football. There are pro football fans too, but college is definitely king. It is so popular that it is not uncommon for couples getting married in the fall to plan their wedding around college football schedules.
Whereas in New York, you’ll find people’s allegiance is to an NFL team. You’ll see packed, open-air stadiums no matter how cold or snowy the weather. College football just isn’t even on most people’s radar in New York.
Jobs. People move to both cities every day in hopes of a new job. New York is known for its finance industry, performing arts industry, shipping industry, and tourism industry. There are of course jobs in lots of other industries, but those are usually the first industries that come to mind when you think “jobs in New York City”. If your career goals center around the finance industry or performing arts industry, it could be that New York City gives you the best chance of achieving those goals.
Atlanta on the other hand doesn’t have one or two dominant industries that stand out. There are many Fortune 500 companies headquartered here and we have a healthy economy that is not dependent on the fortunes of any one industry.
One thing to keep in mind is that pay for equivalent jobs is almost always lower here in Atlanta, and that reflects differences in costs of living.
If you are moving to New York from elsewhere, it may seem like you are getting a large pay increase. If you are getting a promotion, maybe you really are! But keep in mind that your living expenses and taxes may be significantly higher depending on where you are moving from.
If you are moving from New York to Atlanta, it may feel like you are getting a pay cut. But, keep in mind that your taxes and cost of living will be less here than what it was in New York.
In Buckhead, one of the nicest areas in Atlanta, average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment is around $1,900 a month right now. In contrast, a 1-bedroom apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, one of the nicest areas of New York, will run you over $4,000 a month right now on average.
If you are looking for a single-family home in the Atlanta suburbs and are coming from New York or elsewhere in the Northeast, you’ll be amazed what you can get for a little as around $350,000. If you can spend up to about $800,000-900,000 you’ll find yourself able to afford almost anything you want here in the Atlanta area. You definitely don’t have to spend into the millions to get space and luxury here.
In contrast, if you are headed to New York from a Southern or Midwestern suburb, you’ll likely find you have to downsize or go more rural than you’d like in order to spend the same amount of money on housing that you are spending right now.
Safety. Both cities have their crime issues. Statistics can be misleading if you look at statistics for a city as a whole. Crime unfortunately is part of big city life and a big part of safety is learning the neighborhoods in your city.
There are sadly some neighborhoods in both cities where it is just not a good idea to walk alone after dark. Both cities also have plenty of generally safe areas. Basic safety tips apply both places: pay attention to your surroundings, don’t leave valuables in plain sight, and let friends know your plans.
On paper, New York is the safer city; with statistically a good bit less violent crime and property crime. But, both cities have their neighborhoods where extra caution is in order and both cities have their generally safe neighborhoods where you can take a jog after work with no problem.
When choosing the neighborhood you want to live in, that is when I would pay attention to crime statistics instead of looking at the city as a whole, especially since both cities are so large.
Food. Okay, so earlier I said both cities have plenty of great restaurants. That is true! I stand by that statement. But, there is a difference in what kind of food you will find in each city.
New York City does bagels like nowhere else, and Italian like nowhere else outside of Italy itself. There are also so, so many corner delis, something we just don’t have here in Atlanta.
We do have spots like Emerald City Bagels down on Glenwood Avenue, Goldbergs Fine Foods with 9 locations across the metro area, and General Muir near Emory University that offer great bagels and sandwiches. How well they compare to New Yorks, well, that depends on which former New Yorker you ask. Some say they are a taste of home and others say nothing outside of New York will ever compare. You’ll have to try them out and decide for yourself. Coming from New York, not being able to walk a block or two and grab a great bagel or sandwich can be an adjustment. Instead, you’ll have to hop in your car and drive a several miles for a hopefully authentic taste of New York.
What DO we have in Atlanta: good food of our own, and a lot of it. Soul food, barbeque, and fried chicken are easy to find as is sweet tea. If you see tea on a menu here it is automatically sweet unless you specify you want unsweet tea.
Atlanta is also the home of Waffle House and Chick Fil A. Of course Waffle House and Chick Fil A aren’t unique to Atlanta, but there’s something extra special about enjoying them here in their hometown. If you are looking at moving to Atlanta from the New York area, you may not be familiar with Waffle House. The closest locations are in Allentown and Scranton, PA, so Waffle House is certainly not something you’ll come across in New York, unlike Chick-Fil-A.
Waffle House is a 24/7/365 diner specializing in, you guessed it, waffles. They do have a menu full of other breakfast items, burgers, and such, though most people go for their waffles and hashbrowns. It is not an on-trend, cool place to eat, but if you move to Atlanta and have never been; a visit to Waffle House is a must if for no other reason than to say you’ve been. They are all over the place here!
If you are looking for ethnic cuisine, you won’t be disappointed in either city. Because New York City is a melting pot and has people from truly all over the world, the food scene comes with food from practically every country on earth, which is unrivaled in all of America. It is pretty special to be able to find food from everywhere in just one city. I do want to mention that while Atlanta is a much smaller city, it has a food scene of its own that is raving with incredible multi-culturalism where you can also find food from just about every country. The main difference is there aren’t as many options for each country as there is in New York.
If you are considering a move to Atlanta, I hope this video has been helpful. It is a great city with a lot to offer both in the city and out in the suburbs. If you decide you’d rather be in the suburbs, check out some of my other videos if you haven’t already. I’ve covered a good portion of the North Atlanta suburbs and talk about things to do, great neighborhoods to consider, and more.
I would love to connect if you are planning a move to Atlanta and help you find your dream home. Please call or email if I can be of service!
