North, South Fulton contributing to overall growth in the county

A recent study found that Fulton County’s growth isn’t just centered in the city of Atlanta.

The Atlanta Regional Commission released a study last week that found the non-At- lanta parts of Fulton grew by 6,540 people in 2018, said the ARC’s Junior Knox.

The ARC said m etro Atlanta added 72,500 peo- ple in the past year, putting the 10-county region at 4.6 million people.

You wouldn’t know it from traffic, but that growth is at a slightly slower rate than the previous two years.

The nation is awaiting the latest numbers from the U.S. Census, which will be held in 2020. But early census estimates show that metro Atlanta is certainly still grow- ing.

The ARC study also helped show growth by analyzing the number of building permits.

In 2018, the non-Atlanta portion of Fulton has 3,210 single-family home build- ing permits.

That’s second-highest in the metro area, just a hair behind Gwinnett County’s permit numbers.

Maps show that the larg- est groups of permits in Fulton are around Roswell and Alpharetta in North Fulton and near the airport and Fayette County border in southern Fulton.

And the ARC isn’t alone. The Atlanta Realtors Association said the median price ($285,000) of a home sold in metro Atlanta during June increased 7.5% from the same month last year.

An increasing hunger for homes throughout Fulton can also be seen in Hapeville, where the city in February started a process to insulate its 2,100 homeowners from rising property values by upping its homestead exemption.