Home buyers take advantage of lower costs

Christian Frails, 3, trips over an uneven piece of newly-laid sod in the front yard of his south Augusta home.

He gets up and hollers for his 11-year-old brother to chase him, but soon tires of the game. He hops on his miniature, motorized motorcycle and rides up the driveway.

"In our old neighborhood, we lived on a busy street," father Charles Frails said. "The kids couldn't play like this."

The Frails' new 2,600-square-foot home and yard are almost twice the size of their old south Augusta home, giving the two boys more than enough room to run and play.

Mr. Frails, who lived in Columbia County as a child, said he decided to stay in south Augusta rather than moving to Columbia County because of its value and proximity to his job as a chemical operator at Solvay Advanced Polymers.

"It's nice out there (in Columbia County), but I don't think I could have built my home in Columbia County for what I paid out here," Mr. Frails said.

Columbia County's residential boom has been well documented, but a more discreet housing surge has been gaining speed in an often overlooked section of Richmond County.

South Augusta, often stigmatized by its rundown urban areas, such as Regency Mall, and heavy industry, has become Richmond County's fastest-growing area as home buyers look to cash in on low prices.

"There's a boom; we just approved 16 new subdivisions at planning commission (two weeks ago)," said George Patty, the executive director of the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission.

Housing growth in south Richmond County fueled much of the 22 percent increase in residential building permits issued by Richmond County in 2004. Residential building permits were up only 7.6 percent in Columbia County in 2004.

South Augusta has become the de facto area for development in Richmond County because of its available land.

"For Richmond County to grow, it really has to grow south," said Bill Boatman, the president of the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors. "There really is not developable land in west Richmond County."

South Richmond County's growth has been fairly consistent during the past 15 years, city planning commission figures show.

"You've got builders who see a growing market there building on a pretty steady basis, because they know people are going to buy," said Paul DeCamp, the planning director for the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission.

But new home sales south of Gordon Highway have picked up speed during the past two years - increasing 29 percent in 2003 and 19 percent in 2004, according to the Multiple Listing Service, an electronic system that lists homes for sale.

A DRIVE THROUGH south Augusta reveals half-built homes that are under contract. Real estate agents show homes well into the evening. And wooded lots line newly-paved streets waiting to be developed.

Land availability plays into the price of the home, and land in south Augusta is relatively cheap compared with Columbia and west Richmond counties.

"If you look at a map of Augusta like a pie, we've got the best piece," said James Kile, the site manager for Southern Speciality Development Corp., whose Walton Farms developments include more than 1,000 homes. "We've got bigger lots for less money, and more square footage for less money."

Many new south Augusta homes are brick, three- or four-bedroom, one-story ranch houses and sell in the $100,000 to $120,000 price range.

"That same house in Columbia County, new, would have vinyl siding. It may be a townhouse. There is such a difference in what's available," said Gayla Moore, a real estate agent with Meybohm Inc.

Linda Squarcette, the manager of Blanchard and Calhoun's south Augusta office, which opened more than a year ago, estimated that a $115,000 home in south Augusta would cost about $180,000 in Columbia County.

The price difference is driving sales.

"It's going to reverse the table because of affordability; some of those (Columbia County homes) cost hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said. "The average person cannot afford that. They're going to have to go somewhere."

South Augusta also benefits from being home to several large industrial employers and Fort Gordon.

Donna Redd, a vice president of Nordahl Homes, one of the larger developers in south Augusta, estimates a third of new-home buyers in south Richmond County work at Fort Gordon.

"People want to live where they work," she said.

Staff Sgt. Tarence Hill and his wife, Sgt. Dazzarie Hill, closed on a home in Walton Hills on Wednesday. They chose the neighborhood because of its value and proximity to the base.

"Two main roads and we're right on post. Right at Gate 5," Sgt. Hill said. "It's less than 10 minutes."

Fort Gordon is the key to much of the development. It provides a supply of potential homebuyers looking for family-sized homes in an affordable price range.

And the federal Department of Veterans Affairs helps soldiers and veterans get home mortgages, fueling demand.

The military base also has fueled home development in central Richmond County along Jimmy Dyess Parkway, Mr. Boatman said.

ADDING TO SOUTH Augusta's charm is a resurgence of commercial development.

The rebirth began with the opening of Lowe's on Peach Orchard Road in 2000, which attracted drug stores, banks and restaurants to the area. Applebee's Neighborhood Bar & Grill, for example, is building a new location on Windsor Spring Road.

Schools are following the growth.

Two new elementary schools are being built to open for the 2006-07 school year, according to school board member Jimmy Atkins.

One will be built one block from the corner of Fairington and Lynncrest drives and the other at the corner of Windsor Spring and Spirit Creek roads.

Renovations at Gracewood, Windsor Spring and Willis Foreman elementary schools are adding classrooms, but more are needed.

If the infrastructure doesn't keep pace with the growth, the southward migration could be hindered.

The school district has resorted to using portable buildings to handle overcrowding at many south Augusta schools, Mr. Atkins said.

"I have been lobbying pretty hard for a new middle school for south Richmond County, hopefully in the Cross Creek-Goshen area," he said. "It is definitely needed."

RIGHT NOW, SEWER pipes cover almost all areas north of Tobacco Road. However, the sewage lines are only in select locations south of that.

City officials say it will be years before the area between Tobacco Road and the county line is totally covered.

"We don't get the density with septic tanks that you get with sewers," Ms. Redd said.

Officials say the city government has done a good job so far of keeping pace in south Augusta, having completed several sewer expansions, fire stations, the Diamond Lakes Recreation Center, and a new water treatment facility on Tobacco Road.

And more projects are planned.

A $40 million project is planned to widen Windsor Spring Road from Tobacco Road to Hephzibah, said George Brewer, a Georgia Department of Transportation spokesman.

A center turn lane will be added to Mike Padgett Highway between Old Waynesboro Road and Doug Barnard Parkway, and possibly south to Brown Road.

"We're building public facilities now that serve the area as it continues to grow over next couple decades," said Mr. DeCamp, Augusta-Richmond County's planning director.

Staff writers Greg Rickabaugh and Dena Levitz contributed to this article.

Reach Adrian Burns at (706) 823-3352 or James Gallagher at (706) 823-3227.