Two hotels I know of in the area with their distance from the con hotel and listed rates according to Travelocity.com:
Amerisuites Atlanta Galleria - 0.3 miles, $70-$90
Wellesley Suites Atlanta Windy Hill - 0.9 miles, $66
Use the con hotel as a center address and do a search of hotels on sites like Travelocity.com and see what you can find. If you're soloing then you will pay more than if you have travel companions, con hotel or not. The con hotel isn't really that bad with roommates. If you have one buddy you'll pay $52 a night. If you get with three other people you'll only pay $36 a night.
AWA this year is in a real nice part of town. The down side is prices are just going to be naturally higher than they were when AWA was on the south side of the airport. Believe it or not the con prices for the Waverly hotel are real nice (wait until you see the place). My advise would be to enlist some local friends or hit the
AWA message board and find some roomies. More fun is always had the con hotel anyway.