Metro Atlanta is having a great run. The area is now home to more than 6 million people, according to latest Census Bureau estimates. According to experts, this represents a 50% increase from 20 years ago.
Dan Immergluck, a professor of urban studies at Georgia State University, remarked, "It's a massive rise in population" has put a strain on the environment in the area.
Tech and financial companies are still moving to metro Atlanta. The city's robust logistics, entertainment and film, and health care sectors are strengthened by this.
There is a growing shortage of high-quality housing in the area, especially in the city centre.
According to Zillow's Home Values Index, the median house in Atlanta was worth roughly $400,000 in September 2022. With an average household income of $64,179 per year in recent years in the city of Atlanta, such an amount would be out of reach. Also slightly rising above the national median are rents.
Some Atlantans think that large-scale urban redevelopment initiatives like the BeltLine are to blame for the city's rapidly increasing housing costs.
The BeltLine is a 22-mile loop of walking and cycling trails that was created through a public-private partnership and is mostly constructed on former rail lines.
It was designed to link the city's many neighbourhoods together and to develop walkable communities along the route so that locals could have access to a range of services without needing a car.
“We’ve put about $700 million into the BeltLine to date,” said Atlanta BeltLine Inc. CEO Clyde Higgs. “What we’ve seen is roughly an $8 billion private investment that has followed the BeltLine. That has caused a number of good things and also a number of pressures within the city of Atlanta.”
Numerous community leaders are starting initiatives to maintain housing affordability as the area changes.
