Atlanta Regional Commission released its annual Metro Atlanta Speaks survey at the Oct. 24 “State of the Region,” where over 4,000 people ranked issues facing the region – and affordable housing topped the list.
28 percent of the people who responded to the survey put housing affordability as the top issue facing the region, and this is the first year the ARC has even included the topic as a choice on the annual survey. Last year the economy topped the rankings.
ARC partnered with Kennesaw State University to conduct the annual survey, which gathers information on key issues facing the 11-county, 75 city region. The region includes Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties.
After housing affordability, 24 percent of people ranked traffic first, and 13 percent each ranked crime and economy as the key issue.
“As we do every year, we asked respondents to identify the biggest problems facing Metro Atlanta, and this year we added a new option: housing affordability,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said. “Wouldn’t you know it, that one came out on top.”
Dickens said the results weren’t a surprise. According to the mayor, one in three households is “cost burdened.” That means the residents spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, which leaves little room for food, medicine and emergencies. Half of all renter households in the region are cost burdened.
A lot of this comes down to housing costs. The ARC found the region’s median home costs over $400,000, and the average rent is nearly $1,700. Dickens pointed out these numbers are some of the highest among major metropolitan areas in the country.
High rents and stagnant wages explain why 62 percent of survey respondents said they couldn’t afford to move to another house or apartment in their top neighborhood. But the survey also asked people from the 11-county why they think homes are so expensive.
44 percent said developers built units that were “too expensive” and 35 percent blamed investors buying up homes to rent out.
A host of studies point to these recent housing problems in Atlanta. Earlier this year, the ARC found that the metro area lost more than 200,000 affordable housing ($1,500 rent or less) units in five years.
“What does that mean for young professionals, working families and older adults on fixed incomes in Metro Atlanta?” ARC Executive Director and CEO Anna Roach said. “It’s a troubling trend that threatens to weaken our region’s economy and erode our competitiveness.
Part of it comes down to investors. Atlanta has staggering rates of investor ownership – 30 percent of all single-family rental properties in the region, or 70,000 homes, are owned by investors. That’s almost ten times the national average, and only three corporations own about 19,000 of those homes.
Respondents also trended negative when looking at the next few years. Nearly half of the surveyed residents said they expected living conditions to get worse over the next three to four years, while 16 percent said things would get better. That’s a grim increase from last year, when 33 percent expected things to get worse and 28 percent expected it to get better.
Still, regional leaders are optimistic. Atlanta Mayor and ARC Board Chair Andre Dickens has kept up efforts inside the city, like a “blight tax” forcing absentee owners to maintain their homes and a lofty goal to add or preserve 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
CEO Anna Roach also pointed to the ARC’s Metro Atlanta Housing Strategy. The resource outlines six strategies: increase supply, preserve affordable supply, reduce housing and transportation costs, expand capital, promote stability and develop leadership.
The strategy has a toolkit to promote housing steps that work for each county. The ARC also offers grants for planning assistance and technical support. Roach said things like adding density “where it makes sense” will promote more affordable housing, too.
“Our region is making meaningful progress on this challenge, but there’s no doubt we have more work to do,” Dickens said.
A big factor with this being their issue is the Atlanta economy doesn’t create the wealth needed to sustain these costs. California costs with Kansas City wages/opportunities doesn’t work.
The effect of this dynamic will be booming regional smaller metros, which is exactly what is happening. Aren’t the out of town CA developers asking 4~5k to rent in the shiny new Downtown? That might be more than the yearly income of the residents of that area.