Cheaper. It's a transitional area. I don't know residential real estate very well at all, but a quick Google search lends me to believe $250-$500K for a decent house, but prices seem to go all the way down to below $100K. There are rough patches, so you're definitely paying for the house, not the area.
Glenwood Park is a mile closer into Atlanta from there, all new construction infill and highlighted on this site. It's nicer and gives you proximity to both EAV, Little Five, Inman Park and Grant Park and pricing there is $350K-$700K, which I believe is below cost of construction! Glenwood Park is a new urbanist's wet dream, but I don't think it's a great project from a financial perspective. It's sort of an island in that area. I think it may have been ahead of its time/path of progress.
EAV could be a good investment if it goes the way of Va-Hi, Inman Park and Grant Park. All those areas were transitional 10-15 years ago and now the avg home price in Va-Hi is $480K (2011) and Inman Park it is $404K (2011) and in Grant Park it is $225K and rising rapidly (all 3 areas are appreciating rapidly). Just don't buy a condo, those will continue to be built all over the city while there is only so much SFR you can have IN the city. I do know some people that are sitting on a small old bungalow in Va-Hi purchased for $200K a decade ago ago have seen it rise to close to $800K in value! Their neighbors sold their smaller 3 bedroom for over a mil. Va-Hi is a little different from EAV, though in that it's closer in and has a more prominent commercial component, so it's popular with yuppies.
