Housing affordability has risen to the top of the list of concerns for metro Atlanta residents, according to new findings from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s (ARC) Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey that were presented at the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum on Dec. 3.
The survey reflects responses from more than 4,000 residents across the region’s 11 counties, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale, along with the City of Atlanta. Sam Shenbenga, managing director of community development at ARC, underscored that the survey captures what residents say they are experiencing, not what an analyst might model from market indicators.
“This is what residents perceive to be the cause,” Shenbaga said, adding that the findings reflect perceptions “not based on some analytical data that we’re providing.”
When asked about the biggest problem facing metro Atlanta, 28 percent of respondents said housing affordability, followed by traffic at 24 percent and crime and the economy at 13 percent each. Those results track with what Shenbaga described as a growing regional reality, that housing stress is no longer confined to the city’s core or a handful of high-cost neighborhoods.
The survey also points to what residents believe is driving the affordability squeeze. Forty-four percent of respondents said the main reason for the lack of housing affordability is developers building new homes that are too costly. Shenbenga noted that concerns about investors buying properties to rent out also surfaced prominently in the responses.
A second pressure point is mobility, not just getting around the region, but the ability to stay rooted in a neighborhood. More than six in 10 respondents, 61 percent, said they could not afford to move to another house or apartment in their current neighborhood, about the same as last year.
Housing and transportation remain intertwined in how residents describe regional life. “These two things can never be talked about differently,” Shenbenga said, pointing to the link between where people can afford to live and the commutes that follow.
ARC is responding by launching its first regional housing strategy, an effort designed to set a shared vision for housing across metro Atlanta and establish clearer goals for what should be prioritized, including housing production, housing preservation and long-term stability. The strategy is also expected to outline the steps needed to reach those goals, identify responsible parties across jurisdictions and partner organizations, develop new regional tools and actions and establish accountability mechanisms to track progress and results. Shenbenga described ARC’s role as convening, data-driven support and facilitation rather than direct housing implementation.
For everyday residents looking to get involved, ARC leaders emphasized that public participation matters because regional goals still depend on local decisions. Residents can attend city council and county commission meetings where housing plans and zoning changes are debated, participate in public comment periods for comprehensive and transportation plans, and engage with neighborhood associations and civic groups that work on housing stability and affordability.
For more information, read the full Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey Report.
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