KEITH HADLEY / Staff Brad Hennecy found a convenient location and the space he wanted in a home and yard in Clarkston.   Related: COMPARE PRICES BY ZIP CODE • Complete Home Report 2004

Instead, if you want to talk about the place in DeKalb County with the hottest housing market, think Clarkston.

"Clarkston, where's that? That's what my friends said," recalls new resident Brad Hennecy, who moved into his house in Clarkston in October.

Previously, home buyers often overlooked Clarkston in favor of better-known DeKalb sites such as Stone Mountain's large brick communities or the mushrooming new subdivisions in Lithonia. But the more modest homes in and around Clarkston are emerging from the shadows.

In 2003, the median sales price for existing homes in ZIP code 30021, encompassing Clarkston, a sliver of Scottdale and unincorporated DeKalb, rose by 41 percent, from $78,000 in 2002 to $110,000 last year. That was the highest percentage increase in metro Atlanta for existing home prices.

Clarkston was part of a triple play for DeKalb. The county also posted the region's biggest percentage jump in new-home sales prices. The median price for new homes in ZIP code 30083 -- Stone Mountain and areas to the south -- jumped 30 percent, from $129,700 to $168,000. And new homes in Brookhaven and elsewhere in the 30319 ZIP code fetched the region's highest actual sales price, $547,500.

Druid Hills and the Emory area in the 30033 ZIP code commanded the third-highest price, $432,000.

Yet the volume of sales slowed countywide by 4 percent, reflecting a sluggish economy and the dwindling stock of vacant land for construction.

"DeKalb, in my opinion, is probably the most built-out county in the state," said Doug Kirkpatrick, the county's deputy property tax assessor. "The Gwinnetts and Forsyths, even Cobb and Cherokee and Douglas -- these counties have lots of undeveloped spaces. We don't have a whole lot of open land left. That's why DeKalb is getting a lot of infill housing now."

In addition, prospective home buyers are turning to older homes in more modest communities that offer the charm of hardwood floors, such as the 1940s-era bungalows of Clarkston, a city of 7,200 along I-285 northeast of Decatur.

Hennecy, a 31-year-old who owns a silk-screening business, was living in Grant Park in Atlanta and had grown tired of his commute between his distributors in Little Five Points and Norcross. He laid out a map and pointed a finger at the midpoint -- Clarkston, a place he'd never been.

"It's probably not one of the better-known municipalities in the metro area," Kirkpatrick said. "It's probably one of the least-known municipalities. But you go around the I-285 loop and try to find other areas touching it that are that well-priced."

Hennecy wanted a larger house than his 750-square-foot Grant Park home, a big back yard for his two dogs and a garage in which he could pursue his hobby of rehabilitating old cars. He found what he was looking for in Clarkston.

His new home is 1,700 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms and has a detached two-car garage behind the house with its own power source.

His Rottweilers, including a third he inherited from the home's previous owners, roam a back yard that dominates the 1-acre property. Price tag: $142,000.

"I'm from a small town in northern Alabama, where the Wal-Mart was right there. That was the thing about Grant Park -- I had to drive to Buckhead just to get some new socks. Here, there's a Target up the street, a Kroger right there, there's a farmer's market."

As DeKalb County Commissioner Burrell Ellis, who represents the Clarkston area, put it, it's "location, location, location. People are tired of the commute. . . .

"There are a lot of good deals like that in DeKalb County, whether that be the renovated bungalow or the new ones. And, of course, if you're willing to get some older homes, there are better deals."

County records show that 70 percent of all home sales were for less than $200,000 last year, which indicates that starter homes are by far the most sought-after in DeKalb. Another draw is DeKalb's property tax rate, among the lowest in the region.

DeKalb also has its share of affluence, as home prices in the Brookhaven, Druid Hills, Emory and Lakeside areas attest. That is where developers are tearing down homes in older communities and replacing them with larger structures that are being snatched up.

"The infill mansions in Sagamore Hills, Oak Grove, the whole Lakeside area, are going for double the price of the homes around them," said Zac Pasmanick, a Realtor whose firm sells in the area.