Marietta

One of Georgia’s oldest cities, Marietta, is the county seat of Cobb County, and its downtown area has been and continues to be a place of local entertainment. Potential homebuyers can find old, historic homes and new townhouse developments, and Marietta Square provides entertainment, time outside and a place to shop and eat. “People like it because of that small-town feel outside of a major metropolitan area,” says Tom Faust, a Marietta resident, Realtor and associate broker with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Georgia Properties. “One of the draws is that you can walk to the downtown square with a park in the middle and stores and restaurants surrounding it while being about 20 miles away from downtown Atlanta.” <br><br>Residential neighborhoods with tight, tree-lined streets are a few blocks off the square. The original home inventory includes ranch homes, bungalows and Colonial Revials but more recently, townhouse developments have been added to the area, and investors have torn down old houses and replaced them with new construction Craftsman bungalows. Buyers can expect an original ranch property to sell for around $180,000, while newer construction properties will rise to around $735,000. “The market is very active, and in the $300,000 to $600,000 range, we are starting to see multiple offers and people getting more than the asking price. Things above that range are still moving, but just not as fast. I’d say, on average, nothing lasts longer than 60 days,” Faust says. <br> <br>Downtown Marietta’s youngest residents are zoned for the Marietta City Schools, which became Georgia’s first Charter System in June 2008 and scores an A-minus on Niche. The district offers school choice in elementary school and each school offers a different academy. Students in downtown Marietta are districted for multiple elementary schools, and one potential path is West Side Elementary, which grades an A on Niche, Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, Marietta Middle and Marietta High School, which all grade as B-pluses. Marietta High offers all students the Career and Technical Education Program and offers multiple paths, including architectural drawing and design, emergency medical responder and graphic design programs.<br> <br>Glover Park is the city park system gem at the center of the square, which is more than an acre. The green space features a unique playground shaped like a train engine but is a hot spot for weddings and pictures at its gazebo. It also has many events, including a concert series on the stage at the park. The city of Marietta works with other organizations to offer top-notch facilities in programs, including a sprayground at Elizabeth Porter Park, multiple athletic facilities and the City Club Marietta. This 18-hole public golf course opened in 1991 after the city purchased it. <br><br>Residents can shop for groceries outside of downtown at Food Depot or head further east into Marietta, which has big box stores like Walmart and Target. The perk of living downtown is its proximity to Marietta Square, which dates back to 1833 when James Anderson first plotted the city. Today, the square is a hot spot for restaurants, including the popular Taqueria Tsunami, a Latin-Asian fusion restaurant, and the Marietta Square Market Food Hall, which has more than 20 vendors offering different foods from around the world. Mac’s Chophouse opened in 2020 for a more upscale night out but is housed in a Civil War-era building and offers a second-floor private event space. The square is home to multiple boutiques, including Doodlebugz, a clothing store with other knickknacks, and Rocket Fizz, a candy store popular among kids of all ages. <br><br>Locals can catch a show at the historic Strand Theater, which opened in 1935 and still offers live theater shows, films, concerts, comedy, a piano bar, a lounge, and a second-story patio. Glover Park has a handful of events throughout the year, including the Glover Park Concert Series, which runs the last Friday evening of each month from April to September. Downtown features numerous museums, including the Marieta Cobb Museum of Art, which hosts Chalktober Fest each October, where they close a portion of the square for a street festival. The event features artists who put their work right on the streets of the square. <br><br>Cobb County’s CobbLinc bus service runs multiple routes throughout Marietta and the square, which connect with the MARTA bus line to get into Atlanta at the Marietta Transfer Center. Commuters can also use U.S. Route 41 or Interstate 75 to make the 20-mile trip into Atlanta. “Traffic is traffic, but it is relatively easy to get out of Downtown Marrietta and into Atalanta. Then, on the way home, once you get about a mile from I-75, it feels like you are back in that small town,” Faust says. Downtown Marietta is about 30 miles north of Atlanta’s Hartfield Jackson Airport and is serviced by Wellstar Kennstone Hospital, a major hospital with 105 beds, less than 2 miles away.