Buford

Overview

Buford is at the far north end of Gwinnett County, about 35 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, and a small northern slice of the city reaches into Hall County. It grew up as a railroad and factory town near the south end of Lake Lanier. The city’s 2024 plan describes downtown as a distinct place with a tight grid of streets, walkable blocks and historic homes.

One thing I always point out: a Buford mailing address doesn’t always mean the City of Buford. The Mall of Georgia, for example, has a Buford address but sits outside the city limits. The exact address decides the county (Gwinnett or Hall), the school district and who provides utilities (the City of Buford provides water, sewer, gas and electric service to various areas). So check the exact address first.

History in brief

This was Cherokee land into the 1830s. After the Civil War, a railroad linking Atlanta and Charlotte came through, and a town grew around it. It was incorporated as the Town of Buford on August 24, 1872, and renamed the City of Buford in 1896. The name honors Algernon Sidney Buford, president of the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway.

Leather made Buford famous. The Bona Allen Company, founded in 1873, made saddles, harnesses, horse collars and shoes, and the town became known as “The Leather City.” Hollywood cowboys like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry used Bona Allen saddles. The tannery closed for good after a 1981 fire. According to the city, Buford was Gwinnett’s largest city for more than 60 years and had the county’s first bank.

Downtown & things to do

• Tannery Row. Bona Allen built this brick building as a shoe factory in 1919 (it’s the one in the photo above). It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bona Allen Shoe and Horse Collar Factory, and since 2003 it has been home to the Tannery Row Artist Colony, with 20 working art studios and two galleries.
• Main Street. The historic downtown has restaurants, shops and galleries, plus Main Street Park and its amphitheater. A downtown statue shows Roy Rogers with a Bona Allen saddle maker saddling his horse, Trigger.
• Buford Community Center. Across from City Hall on Buford Highway, it has the 282-seat Sylvia Beard Theatre, a Town Park amphitheater with terraced lawn seating for up to 1,800, a splash fountain, and the free Buford Museum on the ground floor.
• Mall of Georgia. Just outside the city limits, the state’s largest mall opened in 1999, with about 195 stores on three levels and a 20-screen movie theater.

Downtown parking is free in the city’s four-level, 256-space parking deck on Moreno Street.

Parks & outdoors

• Lake Lanier. The lake was created in 1956 when Buford Dam was finished on the Chattahoochee River. It covers about 38,000 acres, with 692 miles of shoreline. The city’s parks list includes Lake Lanier boat ramps at 12 Pinetree Drive, and the Lake Lanier Islands resort, with a water park, beaches, golf and a hotel, sits on islands in the lake.
• Bogan Park. This 83-acre county park on North Bogan Road has an indoor aquatic center, a double gym, a seven-field baseball and softball complex and two miles of trails.
• Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center. On 233 wooded acres near the Mall of Georgia, it has hands-on water exhibits, the 1850s Chesser-Williams House, a treetop ropes course and access to the Ivy Creek Greenway.

Getting around

I-985 runs through the city. Exit 4 (SR 20/Buford Drive) serves Buford, and Exit 8 (SR 347, Friendship Road/Lanier Islands Parkway) heads toward Lake Lanier Islands. On I-85, Exit 115 (SR 20) leads to the Mall of Georgia. The city lists Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard as its main local roads.

Ride Gwinnett’s local Route 50 runs between Buford and Sugarloaf Mills, and a local bus ride costs $2.50.

One tip: before you make an offer, drive from the home to your work at the time you’d really be commuting.

Homes & the market

Here’s where Buford stood in September 2026:

• Typical home value: $464,885, down 2.3% from a year earlier (Zillow Home Value Index). For all of Gwinnett County, it was $400,880.
• Pace: homes sold after about 55 days on the market (51 a year earlier), for 97.1% of the list price on average. 55 homes sold, down from 67 a year earlier (Redfin). With this few sales, monthly numbers can swing a lot.

Homes for sale by ZIP code, September 2026 (Realtor.com). These ZIP codes reach well beyond the city limits, and 30518 also covers Sugar Hill.

ZIP	Homes for sale	Median list price
30518	348	$530,169
30519	322	$524,725

Types of homes: Census estimates for 2020–2024 show that about two-thirds of the city’s homes are single-family detached houses, about 5% are townhomes or other attached homes, and about 8.5% are manufactured homes. The rest, about 20%, are in buildings with two or more units. Roughly 29% were built in 2010 or later (small-area estimates have wide margins of error). The city’s 2024 plan notes a recent trend toward building townhomes.

Down payment programs have price limits. In Gwinnett, Georgia Dream’s limit is $625,000, and Homestretch’s is $371,000 for an existing home or $425,000 for new construction. Homestretch only covers Gwinnett homes, so on the Hall County side, ask a lender what applies. You don’t have to save it all at once: read my down payment help guide, and confirm whether you qualify with a licensed lender.

Schools

Homes inside the Buford city limits are served by Buford City Schools, the city’s own district. Homes with a Buford address outside the city are served by Gwinnett County Public Schools or Hall County Schools. Assignments depend on the exact address, so check any home with the district directly. For public data on any Georgia public school, see the state’s K-12 Report Card.

What’s next

These come from the city’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan (2024 update). Plans and timelines can change, so check the city’s latest news.

• Roads: a new I-985 interchange at Thompson Mill Road, estimated at $35 million, along with widening Thompson Mill Road. The plan schedules the interchange from 2024 into 2029 and beyond.
• Trails: a greenway trail along the north side of Suwanee Creek, from Garnett Street to SR 20 at South Lee Street.
• Housing: the plan says the Buford Housing Authority intends to bring 71 units online in three multi-family buildings in the city, and the city’s website describes plans to replace public housing units that are about 70 years old.

If you’re drawn to Tannery Row or the south end of Lake Lanier, text me or book a free call and I’ll check whether each home you like is inside the city, since that decides the school district.