In Atlanta, home rental is up a staggering 67 percent

Given the proliferation of cranes marking the location of new apartment towers in Midtown and Buckhead, it should come as no big surprise that rental numbers are up in the metro.

But a new study indicates that leasing isn’t confined to towers and the ubiquitous mixed-use developments popping up across the metro during this long development cycle.

According to research by Georgia State University, single-family home rentals in a five-county swath of the core metro area are up a staggering 67 percent between 2010 and 2015.

The trend is not unique to Atlanta, with the 50 largest metro areas in the country seeing an increase of for-lease single-family homes of around 50 percent between 2006 to 2016.

However, Atlanta leads the pack in terms of rental growth.

GSU

As WABE reports, the trend of renting homes became prevalent following the Great Recession, after many houses slipped into foreclosure and were purchased by investors. The neighborhoods impacted the most by this were often demographically diverse, inner suburbs in areas like Cobb, DeKalb, and Fulton counties.

The changed patterns of for-rent versus for-sale homes in the metro will likely have a lasting impact on not only rental options, but home prices. By constricting options for sale, the trend of rentals could help to fuel a continual rise in the cost of homeownership in metro Atlanta.

So the outlook is both good and troublesome, depending on your current living situation.

• Renting the Dream: The Rise of Single-Family Rentership in the Sunbelt Metropolis [GSU]
• Atlanta Area Sees Spike In Single-Family Home Rentals [WABE]