by Nahlah Abdur-Rahman
July 30, 2024
A new study has found that the average home in Atlanta is overpriced, making the city the second most inflated in the country.
Economists at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have calculated that Atlanta's housing premiums are at 40.4%, with the median home price reaching $430,000, Fox 5 reports. One economist, Ken H. Johnson, Ph.D., attributes the inflated price to the region's population growth. U.S. Census estimates also put the city as the third fastest-growing metropolitan area in 2023, according to WSB-TV.
The FAU study came to this conclusion after comparing home prices on Zillow, which provided a more accurate estimate than the homes' sale prices. However, Johnson believes the inflated prices are due to a supply and demand issue. Still, he does not expect the city's housing market to collapse.
“I don't think there's going to be a collapse,” Johnson told WSB-TV. “What you're going to see in Atlanta and elsewhere is a lull in real estate appreciation.”
Johnson said homeowners may not see an increase in the value of their properties and may sell them for the same price. On the other hand, the city has introduced new affordable homeownership programs to increase the number of homeowners among its residents.
Additionally, Atlanta currently ranks fifth in the nation in terms of black homeownership rates. However, the gap between black and white homeowners in the U.S. remains. According to Statista, this difference was 28.6 percent in 2023.
Despite these concerns, Atlanta has made significant progress in providing affordable housing, particularly given its large black population.
“Atlanta, like every other major metropolitan area in the country, has a racial gap in homeownership, wealth and income,” Rob Warnock, senior research associate at Apartment List, told Saporta Report. “But relatively speaking, in Atlanta, where the black homeownership rate is over 50 percent, there are only a handful of them, and Atlanta is one of them.”
However, the rising cost of home ownership continues to weigh on residents. Against this backdrop, housing is becoming a major issue throughout the state of Georgia.