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Let’s just assume for a minute that you are sitting there in your office or at home and you have $1,000,000 just dying to be invested in a new (to you) home.  And then let’s assume for a few minutes that you’d love to do that here in Gwinnett County, GA.  What can you get for a million bucks here in Gwinnett?

There are a few homes listed for around $1,000,000 in Gwinnett County, GA.  I limited it to homes that were priced within $1,000 of the magic number.  The six houses all came in between $999,000 and $999,900.

Three of the homes are located in Chateau Elan, in Braselton, GA.  You can’t really get much further north in the county, but it is a truly magnificent area.  Chateau Elan is built around the winery of the same name started by Donald Panoz.  That would be the same Donald Panoz that owns Road Atlanta, just a little north of the winery, and the American Le Mans Series in sports car racing.  There is also an Inn, event facility and several golf courses.

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The other three homes are a little more spread out around the county, but all are near the I-85 corridor.  They are in Buford, Duluth and Suwanee.  This particular Buford home isn’t in a subdivision, but could have easily been a home on Lake Lanier.  The homes in Buford that are on the lake are on what is called “South Lake”, which is the biggest area of the lake.  There are some exceptional homes in this area.  Duluth is home to the Sugarloaf Country Club, where many of Atlanta’s sports stars and celebrities live.  The home that is currently in that narrow price range is in another neighborhood called Sweet Bottom Plantation.  Sweet Bottom Plantation is nestled on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, with many homes having styling reminiscent of New Orleans, LA, or Charleston, SC.  Our Suwanee home is located in Belmore Estates.  Suwanee is also home to The River Club and Bear’s Best Estates.  It also bleeds over into Forsyth County and a little bit in Fulton County.

Here in Gwinnett County, GA, homes priced at $1,000,000 are pretty cool. That buys a LOT of house; 6,000 to 9,000 square feet.  They have terrace level rooms, finished to very high standards.  Three car garages are a minimum, with 4+ being more common.  Most of the homes have 5 or 6 bedrooms, but every once in a while, a 4 bedroom home will sneak in.  Most of the homes have swimming pools on the property, as well.  Only the home not in a subdivision had a significant amount of land, 14 acres.  The others were all generally under one acre.  Hardwood floors, central vacs, stone and brick, updated kitchens and high end cabinetry and appliances are pretty standard.

Right now, in Gwinnett County, the luxury market is pretty much buyer driven, too.  We do see some foreclosures and short sales, but a larger percentage of buyers at this level paid cash than at lower price points.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t deals, though. Homes that are selling in this price range are often homes that would have sold for upwards of $1.5M just a few years ago.

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