HAPEVILLE: Small city has made economic development a priority, managing growth. The result: many want to own there.

CONLEY: Unincorporated burg straddles two counties, and a lack of oversight has prompted home sales to plummet.

In some respects, ZIP codes 30354 and 30288 are a lot alike.

Both sit side by side on the Southside, convenient to the interstates and the world's busiest airport. Both have more females than males. And both have similar racial breakdowns: 69 percent black and 20 percent white, according to the market research firm Claritas.

In one way, however, they are vastly different —- number of new-home sales in 2007.

The 30354 area in Fulton County enjoyed a banner year, primarily because Hapeville's traditional neighborhood development was so popular. Sales in that ZIP jumped 141 percent, the AJC's annual Home Sales Report says.

But in unincorporated Conley, which is 30288 in DeKalb and Clayton counties, new-home sales were woeful. In Clayton, they fell 91 percent and in DeKalb they were off 65 percent.

"We felt the pinch," said Carolyn Harpe Waller, who sells homes at the Estates of Conley Creek subdivision.

How could neighboring areas perform so differently?

Part of the answer is that in one locale government plays a big role in managing growth, while in the other it does not.

Hapeville residents say the city's years of planning provided the foundation for strong home sales, even in a dismal market.

"This wouldn't have happened if we did not have our own city government," said David Burt, who builds homes in Hapeville and lives there.

Hapeville is less than 3 square miles and has only 6,200 residents, but its economic development efforts are big league.

The city's development authority acquired land to sell to companies committed to building a mix of residences and retail.

The Atlanta Regional Commission provided grants for two livable centers' initiative studies to help Hapeville boost its appeal.

Hapeville's economic development Web site touts some of the city's achievements thus far: the Arlington mixed-use development, the Old Towne mixed-residential project, the townhomes at Chestnut Commons, the Virginia Gateway Center retail project, and revitalization of the Virginia Park neighborhood and the Fulton Theater.

Hapeville's Main Street program promotes downtown businesses. Neighbors converse at the cozy Cafe at the Corner and at Chapman Drug, an 87-year-old family-owned business that serves floats and devotes nearly as much space to memorabilia as it does to items for sale.

"This is like a small Southern town that just happens to be inside I-285," Burt said.

Planner Aaron Fortner and his wife, Beth, moved into a traditional-looking new home in Virginia Park. They believe Hapeville could become the Southside version of Decatur, DeKalb's bustling small city.

"You want to get 'there' before it's 'there,'" Fortner said. "Eventually, everything inside the Perimeter is going to get sucked into this wave of redevelopment."

The Fortners are expecting a child, and so are Gary and Emily Meredith next door.

Because more young families are settling in Hapeville, 99 new homes sold last year in 30354, compared to just 41 the year before, the Home Sales Report says. The data comes from deed information collected by the real estate research company SmartNumbers.

"Living close to the airport, close to Atlanta is now a popular thing to do," Mayor Alan Hallman said. "It's really a paradigm shift in how people want to live."

Conley, just outside I-285, lacks a town center. Residents on their way to shopping and work share roads with tractor-trailers serving the industrial businesses in the area.

Developers and builders in the Conley area have more leeway than they do in a city like Hapeville.

They are free to build one kind of house over and over and no retail or offices.

That leaves Conley at a disadvantage because mixing housing types and residential and commercial development fortifies a neighborhood.

At Cove Lake Estates in Conley, a sign says homes start at $400,000, but construction has halted.

"I haven't been there for six months," said home builder Mike Jooma of Focus Developers.

Moses Ector, the police chief in Hogansville, moved to Cove Lake because of the big lots and the pond across the street. "We thought it would be a good place for the grandchildren to play in."

"This is the house we worked 37 years to build," he said.

A huge unsold house at the end of Ector's street was destroyed in a fire that Ector called suspicious. Next door, work on another house stopped.

"I'm disappointed that the builder wasn't able to finish," Ector said. "We're hoping the market is going to jump back."

Sales at the Conley Creek subdivision a quarter-mile away plummeted 72 percent last year, real estate agent Waller said.

"We lost a lot of our out-of-state buyers," she said. Many purchased with little or no money down.

Some families bought more than one house during the boom.

When home sales in other parts of the country withered and loan requirements grew stricter, Conley Creek suffered. Purchases slipped from 51 houses in 2006 to 14 last year, Waller said.

The builder, Southern Residential Group, is now constructing smaller homes priced lower to entice customers.

Seeing a less-expensive dwelling go up across the street doesn't sit well with Gregory Collins, who bought his five-bedroom house last year. "It's not compatible," he complained.

Collins and his wife, Dorothy, moved from Virginia so that she could receive treatment for a brain injury.

"I didn't want to be in the city and I didn't want to be too far from where I take her for care," the freight company employee said.

Collins expressed amazement at the size of the house he got last year for less than $300,000. "I said to myself, 'This is a hidden jewel.' "

Is he worried that jewel is only semi-precious now in the slumping market?

"It doesn't really bother me," Collins said, "as long as they keep up the houses."

—- Computer assisted reporting specialist Megan Clarke and news researcher Nisa Asokan contributed to this article.

ON AJC.COM

What's it worth to you?

Check out the AJC's annual Home Sales Report to find out how the tumultuous real estate market affected home prices and sales across the metro area last year.

Online at ajchomefinder.com/homesalesreport

> Search sales and median prices by ZIP code —- including your own.

> View the best and worst performers of 2007.

> Compare values and sales from 2003 through 2007.

 CHARLES W. JONES / Staff

30354 
Estimated population: 19,158 
Black: 69%
White: 20% 
Other: 11%
Median age: 31.4 
Estimated median household income: $31,784 
Estimated housing units: 6,953 
Percentage detached: 50 

30288 
Estimated population: 7,743
Black: 69%
White: 20% 
Other: 11%
Median age: 32.7 
Estimated median household income: $40,621 
Estimated housing units: 2,694 
Percentage detached: 74 

Pie charts compare population percentages by race.

Source: Claritas 

 CHARLES W. JONES / Staff
Map locates ZIP codes 30354 and 30288. Inset map outlines area of detail in metro Atlanta.