Courtesy of St. Bourke/Metrostudy.
Gwinnett County remained well ahead of its Atlanta-metro neighbors in terms of housing starts and sale closings in the fourth quarter, with Cherokee County coming in a distant second, according to a new report from asset manager and developer St. Bourke.
During the quarter, housing starts in Gwinnett slid to 3,147 from 3,636 in the preceding quarter, while Cherokee saw starts slide to 2,054 from 2,234. Gwinnett closings totaled 3,490, compared to 3,483 in the third quarter, while Cherokee saw 2,033 closings, up from 1,961. Lot deliveries in Gwinnett fell to 3,804 from 4,165, while South Fulton County followed with 2,067 deliveries.
Of the 23 counties analyzed by St. Bourke, 20 experienced year-over-year declines in housing starts, and 17 saw declines in closings, while 12 saw lot deliveries decrease. Meanwhile some counties saw dramatic swings in deliveries, with deliveries in Rockdale, Douglas and Newton surging well over 100% over the last year. However, in Fayette, Hall and Carroll they fell by high double-digits.
“We will face a tricky combination of headwinds (inflation, affordability, lot and home supply) and tailwinds (relative affordability, resilient and diverse local economy, favorable demographics) over the next 12 months,” the report states. “The St. Bourke team continues to support a ‘glass half-full’ mentality in regards to Atlanta’s housing market, and we believe that both homebuilder production and home sales will improve as the year progresses.”
By community, Twin Lakes in Jackson County was the most active for new construction in the fourth quarter, with 71 starts, followed by the new Enclave at the Flat Rock Hills development in Dekalb County with 43 starts. The Mallory Park townhome community in South Fulton was third with 42 starts.
By builder, D.R. Horton again led the way in the Atlanta metro, with 2,903 new-home closings in 2022, followed by Lennar Homes with 1,504 homes closed and Starlight Homes/Ashton Woods entering the top three with 1,228 units sold during the year.
Courtesy of St. Bourke.