Best Places in the South to Buy an Old House

The Neighborhood
It's been said before, but, yes, when you walk through Washington, Georgia, you feel like you've stepped into Scarlett O'Hara's celluloid Civil War world. Washington is one of the most sultry, scenic, and seemingly overlooked destinations in the South, yet it's less than an hour's drive from both Athens and Augusta. Most of the town's homes are located on quiet streets that extend out from its historic public square, bordered by 19th-century commercial buildings filled with restaurants and shops.

The Houses
Washington has more antebellum mansions—sprawling plantation houses, the most coveted of which have massive, fluted columns on four sides—than any other town in Georgia.

The Prices
Antebellum mansions run as low as $350,000, while a 2,000-square-foot Victorian cottage might go for $130,000.

Why Buy Now?
In the past five years, quite a few Washington homes that had been in the same families since the 1800s have popped up in the real estate ads. With generations-long family strongholds here gradually fading out, the town has started to attract preservation-minded DIYers looking to tackle some of the South's most impressive and hard-to-find architecture.

Among the best for:
Bargains, The South