Affordable Housing in Georgia

The state of Georgia's population has been rapidly growing in the past few years. This has had both, positive and negative outcomes. One of the most evident consequences of this population growth is the supply and demand for housing. Prices have been increasing not only for house buyers, but for rent as well. The unaffordable prices throughout the state is making people live at a great distance from where they work increasing traffic, which is now one of the major concerns for Georgians. Housing in Georgia has become an issue in the past years that has been adversely affecting its people and must be addressed before it gets worse.

Georgians have been using government funded vouchers because housing is very expensive. Sally Sears claims that in Atlanta, approximately 8,600 families use these vouchers to pay the rent. Additionally, the unbalanced prices throughout the state make people have to live in different counties from where they work. The biggest issue with living far from work is that increases traffic throughout Georgia, states Grace Walker for 90.1 FM WABE. Another factor that contributes to the correlation between housing and traffic are the wages people earn. For instance, most of the jobs in Midtown are in hotels, restaurants and offices. However, people who have these jobs do not earn enough to actually live in Midtown where the average home price is of $222,300.00 according to AreaVibes which is a reliable cost of living calculator. As a matter of fact, the same website states that the cost of housing in Midtown is 59% higher than the national average (Midtown, Atlanta, GA Cost of Living). Overall, this mismatch between job and house locations is causing conflicts throughout the state such as traffic, and increasing housing prices requiring people to use the government funded vouchers in order to pay the rent.

With an average of 6.2 percent, the state's capital prices have been increasing faster than the national average which is 4.9 percent according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Natisha Lance focuses on the rent and mortgage increase in Buckhead communities. She addresses that the rent in North Buckhead now tops $2,500 a month with a 1.7 percent increase since last year. Morningside is another community with high rent prices where the average rental is approximately $3,600 a month. The neighborhood Mount Paran has also incredibly high rent price ranges where the average rent is $6,165 according to Lance in the 11Alive news report article. The unbalance housing prices throughout Georgia has also left most homeowners paying and owing a higher mortgage that the actual worth of their house. In 2015, there were approximately 11,000 apartments being constructed and an additional 9,000 proposed, stated the Atlanta Magazine. From 2012 to 2014, according to the CoStar Group, 95 percent of rental units built in Atlanta were luxury units. These luxury units are out of the price range for much of our workforce (Commentary: Atlanta Is Becoming Increasingly Unaffordable. Here's How We Change That.). Construction industries keep constructing new houses and apartments every year. However, they do not keep in mind that most of the population in Georgia can not afford those mortgages and the very high rent prices. New constructions are disproportionately high priced.

The pattern of increase in rent prices has been rising yearly and will keep increasing. Tanisha Lance claims that experts predict rent will continue to go up in the next year because the demand will be higher, especially if more people move here and more jobs (like Amazon) come to the city (Lance). As a matter of fact, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution states that for every 18 employers, there is only one affordable apartment available. Economical housing around the state has been disappearing. Atlanta has such solid job and population growth that the demand has gotten ahead of supply something that the market will adjust to over the next several years (Kannel, Atlanta Home Prices up). The high demand for housing contributed to the unbalanced pricing of houses and apartments, especially in the busiest areas of the state such as Midtown and Metro Atlanta.

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