"Metro Atlanta" consists of either 5 counties or 10 depending on which definition you go by. There is so much sprawl in Atlanta and so much undeveloped land that builders will jump at the chance to build. This is still the South. The government doesn't make builders jump through as many hoops to build.
The weather point is, of course, tough. Seattle summers are bloody amazing. The winter sorta blows.
Says nobody that's been to Atlanta or has taken two minutes to use the internet to check preconceived notions about Georgia against the city.
https://www.myajc.com/atlanta-neighborhood-2016-presidential...
Lived in Atlanta for many years. It is much more liberal than surrounding areas, true. However, Seattle is in another league when it comes to this sort of thing.
Which is not to say that we don't have a ways to go, either. In particular, we have some really hard problems to consider out here.
Seattle has one bad season, one good season. Atlanta is the same.
Now, the winter is much darker. The shift in sunset and sunrise is much more pronounced. This is somewhat offset by how much bloody sun we get in the summer. Which is truly insane. Sun is up by 4:30 most mornings, and you can see outside till near 10 most evenings. (Sunset, I think, is well earlier than that, but our twilight is bright. I am likely mistaken on this understanding, though. Haven't taken a journal or kept records, etc.)
https://www.matrixres.com/resources/salary-survey/
If I can make $140K in metro Atlanta, where a newly built 3000 square foot house can be had for less than $350K in a nice neighborhood, why would I want to live in Seattle?