The TRUE Cost of Living in Gainesville, Georgia

Any time I work with out of state buyers, they are shocked to find out the cost of living in our area. Compared to many other states in the US, the cost of living here in Georgia is SO low!

Gainesville is a metro town about an hour north of Atlanta up Interstate 85 and the population of Gainesville is just over 40,000 with a total of about 200k people in Hall County. We have many great places to live and work around Gainesville, including beautiful Lake Lanier–in fact, if you haven’t watched this video on the different areas, make sure you check it out. 

To kick things off, let’s have a look at bestplaces.net which is a website that many people use to compare cost of living in various different cities. They say that the median price of a home in Gainesville is $181,700. In my opinion, more recently, this is closer now to around $236,000, but we’ll talk about that a little later. As you can see, most everything in Gainesville is below the overall price in Georgia, and definitely below the US average. Healthcare is the only thing that is above Georgia average, and national average. We do however, have great healthcare here in Gainesville- the Northeast Georgia Medical Center, which is a huge employer in our county. Grocery prices are lower, gas is lower, transportation, and utilities are all lower as well. Let’s break down these numbers. 

Bestplaces.com uses a sale to 100 to describe the overall cost of living in an area compared to the national average. Gainesville ranks at 89.6, meaning the cost of living is below national average here. If you look at our neighbors in Atlanta however, they score at 107.5, meaning they are higher than the national average, and much higher than here in Gainesville. One of the great things about living in Gainesville is that you are just a hop, skip, and a jump from Atlanta, close enough to commute into work, but your cost of living is obviously much lower.

Let’s talk about gas and transportation. Georgia is one of those states where you pretty much have to have a car. Public transportation is not something we really have here, however, that isn’t all that much different from most other states in the US. Sure, a few cities in the states have busses or the subway, but it really isn’t all that common, so you probably won’t be missing out on that. This is where the price of gas in Georgia really shines, the average gallon of gas in Georgia currently is $2.24, which is cheaper than 40 other states in the US. Each gallon of gas in Georgia is only taxed $0.27 per gallon, which compared to states like Pennsylvania at $0.59 per gallon, and California at $0.62 per gallon- is very low. The cost of a gallon of gas is currently $0.32 cents below the national average. Another thing to note that makes transportation cheaper here is that you do not have to have your car inspected every year or every two years, like you do in many states. You also don’t have to have it inspected any time you buy or sell a car, like you also have to do in many states. Plus, we don’t have to pay for parking in Gainesville either! You can go pretty much anywhere and not have to pay for parking- no need to worry about carrying around change for the meter.

Next up: Housing

The median cost of homes in Georgia is $185,000. In Gainesville, that price is a little closer to $236,000. I have to say, because of the current real estate market, it can be pretty difficult to find a home in that price range in the north metro Atlanta area currently. Anything at that price is selling insanely quick (which, by the way, if you are considering selling- now is a fantastic time to do so.) That price will definitely increase the closer to Atlanta you get, as well. If you’re coming from somewhere like Alabama or Kentucky where you can find homes in the lower 100’s, living in Gainesville will come at a higher price tag. To some people, this median home price is extremely low, if you’re moving from somewhere like California, Utah, or Massachusetts where average home prices are in the upper 3’s, 4’s, and 5 hundreds- this sounds like an incredible deal. It all depends where you are coming from, and what you are used to paying. Here in Gainesville, we have homes in a huge range of prices, and I’m confident we could find the perfect one for you that would fit in with your budget. 

Another thing to consider when thinking about the cost of housing are HOA fees. Most homes in Georgia are located inside neighborhoods, many of which have homeowners associations. These homeowners associations, or HOA’s, charge homeowners anywhere from $100 a month up to several thousand dollars a year- depending on the amenities they provide. This fee is used to maintain the neighborhood pool, tennis courts, keep up the landscaping in the common areas, et cetera. If you choose to live in a golf course community, your HOA fees will definitely be on the higher side, and you may have to pay an additional fee to become a clubhouse member in order to actually use the golf course. If you choose to live in one of the awesome 55 and older communities here in Gainesville, you’ll see that the monthly HOA fees are closer to say lower $200’s to $300 a month- but these communities take care of your yard work, many of them have gyms so you don’t have to pay for a gym membership, and most of them cover the cost of trash pick up as well, so it is a higher monthly cost, but it cut down on a lot of the other things you would have to either take care of yourself or pay someone else to do. Obviously not every home in Gainesville is in a neighborhood, but they are pretty common and that’s a cost that you will want to think about up front so you can budget it into your monthly or yearly expenses.

Property taxes are another thing to take into consideration. Many buyers from states like California, New York, and other northern states are thrilled to learn about the relatively low property taxes and the many exemptions that you may be able to qualify for. One exemption that you may qualify for is the senior homestead exemption. This exemption, depending on the county you are living in, will exempt you from all or part of the school tax portion of your property tax bill. This can result in a savings of thousands of dollars each year and is one of the reasons that makes living and retiring in Georgia so attractive. If you’re curious about all the property tax exemptions you may be eligible form, let me know, I’d love to send you that info. 

Alright. What about groceries and utilities?

The average cost of groceries is below the national average in Gainesville. We have tons of great grocery stores- Aldi, Publix, Kroger, Walmart, just to name a few. Of course we have Target as well- can’t live without Target. We have lots of cool small businesses and restaurants in town if you aren’t into big box stores. Utilities are below the national average too. I’ll give you an example of pricing- I recently had a client purchase a home that was nearly 5,000 square feet. The previous owner’s gave us a breakdown of their utilities so my buyer would know what to expect. During the hottest summer months where the air conditioning was pumping at full blast, the electric bill was $240 at its highest, but during a typical month, like 8 or 9 months of the year- it only ran them $150. Their gas bill stayed between $30/$35 dollars. Keep in mind- 5,000 square feet is a pretty huge house, meaning higher bills because higher usage and higher square footage. You can expect those costs to be quite a bit lower for a smaller house.

Last but not least, taxes.

Just like most everything we’ve talked about today, property taxes in Gainesville are lower than the national average. The median real estate tax payment in Georgia is $1,448 per year, which is around $650 less than the $2,090 national mark. The average effective property tax rate is 0.91%. In Gainesville, that number is 0.84% However, if you live on Lake Lanier, you can expect higher property taxes. Georgia falls at #25 when ranking real estate taxes in the US, right in the dead center.  In line with what we talked about earlier with inspections on vehicles, there are also vehicle property taxes that residents in 27 states have to pay for. Luckily, Georgia is not one of those states. Something we do have that you won’t find in every single state is sales tax. Currently when you buy clothes or food, or anything in a store really, you will pay 7% sales tax. As someone who has lived in Georgia my whole life, I don’t even really notice it. However, if you move from a state where you aren’t used to paying taxes on food and groceries, you’ll quickly get used to the fact that the cost of an item on the shelf isn’t going to be the cost of it when you go to check out. We also have progressive income taxes, which are fairly average compared to the rest of the US. Every state’s taxes are different, so be prepared for changes if you decide to move away from your current state.  

I know that I just threw a ton of numbers at you- but basically, the cost of living in Gainesville is much lower than if you were to live in the heart of Atlanta, or in many other states. We have tons of great jobs that will allow you to pay for those costs, not to mention, it’s a beautiful place to live. The people are friendly, the scenery is great, you can’t beat the location, and as we’ve figured out in this video- it’s a pretty affordable place to live. If you’ve given any thought to moving to Gainesville, Georgia, give me a call and I’d love to help you with that process.

Want to learn more about buying or selling, or get more information on the Gainesville/ Hall County area? Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. I put out a new video every week!