Report Says City of DeKalb Would Be At Financial Disadvantage

What would a "City of DeKalb" be like?

It would not be as affluent as DeKalb County or most of the current cities in DeKalb, according to a story in CrossRoads News.

The story told about a report from the Carl Vinson Institute (CVI) at the University of Georgia.

CVI’s demographer Matt Hauer showed that the median household income for the county as a whole is $51,349, while the median income for unincorporated DeKalb is $36,000.

Of the county’s 11 current cities, five – Avondale Estates, Decatur, Dunwoody, Brookhaven and Atlanta – are at or above the county level. Only Clarkston at $31,741 and Lithonia at $26,410 have less median income.

When a comparison of median home values, which are important to tax digests, is done, an even greater disparity surfaces.

Unincorporated DeKalb with a median home value of $158,000 leads only Clarkston with $148,400, Lithonia with $120,200, and Stone Mountain at $132,900.

Home values are about twice as high in Avondale Estates, which stands at $316,700. In Decatur, it’s $348,100; Dunwoody is $382,800; and Brookhaven is $337,000.

The CVI report was delivered Nov. 29 to a committee of state senators from DeKalb who are studying the possibility of forming a City of DeKalb from all the unincorporated areas.

This has been discussed before but the idea gained urgency because more cities are forming in DeKalb County, like Brookhaven.