Atlanta housing market makes up 53% of statewide value, data shows

ATLANTA — The Atlanta real estate market surged in value alongside the national market trend, according to new data from real estate company Zillow.

The latest report on housing market trends released by the company said the U.S. housing market rebounded in 2023, increasing its overall value by $2.6 trillion in the past year.

Atlanta’s housing market jumped $41 billion, according to Zillow’s data, continuing an upward trend that returned after a slight dip near the end of 2022.

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Nationally, the overall housing market value increased 49% since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Atlanta’s housing market value increased by 50.9% since the pandemic. Georgia’s statewide housing market value rose 61% since before the pandemic, dating back to levels in the beginning of March 2020.

June 2022 was the previously reported peak for home prices in the U.S. until this past summer.

Zillow’s market data shows Atlanta’s housing stock was worth $721.7 billion as of June 2023, compared to the previous year’s peak of $692 billion. The increased growth has reportedly been due to a combination of higher mortgage rates and a subsequent decline in residential investment, according to Zillow.

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From Zillow’s data, price proportions show the Atlanta metro makes up more than half of Georgia’s overall market value.

The state’s most recently reported market value was from June 2023, where Georgia homes were collectively worth about $1.36 trillion, while Atlanta’s market value was $721.7 billion.

Effectively, that means Atlanta homes together are worth 53% of the state’s entire market value. Changes in the market for buying and selling homes means prices for renters are also changing.

Per reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the prices are only going up when it comes to housing and Atlanta is no exception.

Discussing rising mortgage rates, and their impacts on the market, an economist working for federally-backed mortgage company Freddie Mac said the rates are affecting buyer and seller mentalities.

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has hit the highest level since the year 2000,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist, said. “However, unlike the turn of the millennium, house prices today are rising alongside mortgage rates, primarily due to low inventory. These headwinds are causing both buyers and sellers to hold out for better circumstances.”

In early June 2022, the mortgage rate was a reported 5.09% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, according to Freddie Mac.

The same time period in June 2023 had a mortgage rate of 6.79%. The latest reported rate from Freddie Mac is 7.31%, which the company said was a 23-year high.

Khater’s sentiment was echoed by Zillow’s own report on the housing market. They said the higher rates are influencing who is choosing to buy new homes and even changing the way home builders are approaching addressing new builds.

“With many homeowners opting to stay put and hold onto their low mortgage rate, new home sales should make up a bigger piece of the home sales pie moving forward,” Zillow said in their report. “That’s especially true with builders adapting to the needs of today’s home buyers who are navigating higher mortgage rates — namely with smaller, more affordable homes and by offering incentives like interest rate buydowns to tempt buyers off of the fence.”

Affordability remains a concern, even based on older data. A new set of home affordability numbers for the Atlanta metro were released by the Federal Reserve on Sept. 20. According to their ranking, published in the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor, only one county in the Atlanta area was affordable as of July, the most recent data available.

With the exception of Paulding County, the core and outlying counties that make up the Atlanta metro area were all unaffordable, though not always as significantly out of reach for buyers.

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