What the relocation guides skip: three Alpharetta neighborhoods you can walk in one Tuesday evening
East of GA-400 and west of it are two different Alpharettas. We walked the ranch streets, the swim-tennis courts and the old grid to see a Tuesday.
Field notes on homes, streets and closings in North Fulton
The housing market north of Atlanta, walked street by street
A reader's journal about buying, selling and owning a home in Atlanta's northern suburbs: Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, Johns Creek, Crabapple, Cumming and Woodstock.
latest note · September 14, 2026The whole survey
What a starter home costs in Alpharetta right now: three doors, three monthly numbers
Pricing a Roswell ranch so it moves in thirty days: the comps that count, the per-foot trap, and what the first ten days tell you
The journal reads Roswell ranch comps the way it walks the street: same subdivision, same school cluster, ninety days back. Land and layout first, finishes last.
What the rate years did to North Fulton: the lock-in, the drought, and the twelve months ahead
Four years of rate swings changed what moves in Alpharetta, Roswell and Milton. A look at the Freddie Mac curve, the inventory drought and who can still sell.
What actually wins a house in Milton: earnest money, diligence days and the terms behind the price
Roswell two ways: a mill cottage off Canton Street, or a 2003 subdivision east of Holcomb Bridge
The two weeks before the sign goes up: what actually gets decided, room by room and line by line
Condo or starter house: running the five-year math in North Fulton
The whole survey
2026
12 notes
September 2026
-
What a starter home costs in Alpharetta right now: three doors, three monthly numbers
A condo near Windward, a townhome off Haynes Bridge, a 1970s ranch east of GA-400: what each entry point costs in Alpharetta this fall, fees included.
Buying6 min read
-
What the relocation guides skip: three Alpharetta neighborhoods you can walk in one Tuesday evening
East of GA-400 and west of it are two different Alpharettas. We walked the ranch streets, the swim-tennis courts and the old grid to see a Tuesday.
The towns6 min read
August 2026
-
Pricing a Roswell ranch so it moves in thirty days: the comps that count, the per-foot trap, and what the first ten days tell you
The journal reads Roswell ranch comps the way it walks the street: same subdivision, same school cluster, ninety days back. Land and layout first, finishes last.
Selling6 min read
-
What the rate years did to North Fulton: the lock-in, the drought, and the twelve months ahead
Four years of rate swings changed what moves in Alpharetta, Roswell and Milton. A look at the Freddie Mac curve, the inventory drought and who can still sell.
The market6 min read
July 2026
-
What actually wins a house in Milton: earnest money, diligence days and the terms behind the price
In Milton, the winning offer is rarely the highest one. What earnest money, a short due-diligence window and appraisal-gap language actually buy at the table.
Buying6 min read
June 2026
-
Roswell two ways: a mill cottage off Canton Street, or a 2003 subdivision east of Holcomb Bridge
A 1940s mill cottage under the city's preservation rules against a 2000s subdivision with an HOA: what each side of Roswell costs, keeps and asks.
The towns6 min read
-
The two weeks before the sign goes up: what actually gets decided, room by room and line by line
What the two weeks before a north Fulton listing actually decide: the repairs that pay, the ones that do not, the paperwork, and the price talk.
Selling6 min read
May 2026
-
Condo or starter house: running the five-year math in North Fulton
The five-year cost of a $280k condo with $400 HOA dues against a $430k ranch that needs a roof: minutes, lender rules and resale depth in each town.
Buying6 min read
April 2026
-
The real selling season in the northern suburbs: what the calendar does to a listing, month by month
Spring volume, the July lull, the September second wind and what December sellers quietly get: the seasonal curve of listings in Atlanta's northern suburbs.
The market6 min read
-
When the offers stop coming: re-price, improve, or wait, and how to tell which one your listing is asking for
Fewer than two showings a week, showings with no offers, no feedback at all: what the journal does with a listing that has stalled in the northern suburbs.
Selling8 min read
March 2026
-
What a Georgia inspection catches here, line by line, and which findings end a deal
Clay soil, termite letters, radon in granite country, polybutylene pipes: how to read an inspection report on a north Fulton or Cherokee County house.
Buying6 min read
February 2026
-
Milton acreage, decoded: what AG-1 allows, what it refuses, and what the county asks before you build
Milton's AG-1 code decides what a pasture can hold: horses, barns, outbuildings, splits, wells and septic. What to read before you fall for the view.
The towns6 min read
2025
2 notes
December 2025
-
Johns Creek schools: where the cluster lines run, and what the same budget buys inside each one
The cluster lines in Johns Creek run down the middle of streets, shift with redistricting, and move a price. How to check an address before you offer.
The towns7 min read
November 2025
-
The same budget in seven different towns: what $600,000 buys from Alpharetta to Woodstock
One fixed budget, seven towns, seven different houses: what $600,000 returns in Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, Johns Creek, Crabapple, Cumming and Woodstock.
The market6 min read
The field books
-
Buying
Searching, offering and closing on a home in the northern suburbs.
-
Selling
Pricing, preparing and listing a home in the northern suburbs.
-
The towns
Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, Johns Creek, Crabapple, Cumming, Woodstock: what each town is like to live in.
-
The market
Prices, rates and seasons across North Fulton and the southern tier.
In other field books
Pages kept by other journals that follow homes, loans and local markets, each read before it ran here.
When the journal checks a parcel or a filing, we go back to how Georgia keeps its public records: the same county documents our market notes are built from.
We read another journal that walks its own market the way we walk ours, street by street: prices seen from the sidewalk read differently than prices seen from a portal.
On the practical side of owning a house, we keep an eye on what a window is actually worth across the pond, because glazing is one of those upgrades sellers here ask about every spring.