A new round of analysis suggests that housing affordability remains strong in all but one county in Atlanta.
Creative Commons: Haha169, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Covington_square.JPG
As if we didn’t already have enough indicators on the housing affordability here in Atlanta, here comes perhaps the most encouraging analysis yet.
In an exhaustive study of 475 U.S. counties, RealtyTrac found that Clayton, Newton and Douglas Counties are now more affordable than their averages from 2000 to 2014 – meaning that if we balance out the soaring marketplace of the boom years, all three of those counties are now the most affordable than they’ve been at anytime this century.
In fact, Clayton is 35.6 percent more affordable; Newton is 19.7 percent more affordable; and Douglas is 20.3 percent more affordable.
The one exception to those trends is Forsyth County, where affordability is actually 20.6 percent worse than historic averages. Of course, Forsyth was hardly alone. RealtyTrac found that 21 percent of the nation’s counties (98 in total) are less affordable than their historic averages, including Los Angeles County, Harris County (Houston metro area), Orange County and Kings County (Brooklyn).
Check out our graph below for some additional perspective: