Atlanta, Georgia

General Overview

State population: 9.7 million
Population greater metro area: +6 million
Population centre: 5.3 million

Counties: Fulton and DeKalb

City demographics:
According to the 2010 census, the racial composition of the city of Atlanta was as follows:
▪ Black or African American: 54.0%
▪ White: 38.4% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 36.3%)
▪ Asian: 3.1%
▪ Native American: 0.2%
▪ Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.0%
▪ Some other race: 2.2%
▪ Two or more races: 2.0%
▪ Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 5.3%

The city of Atlanta is seeing a unique and drastic demographic increase in its white population, and at a pace that outstrips the rest of the nation. The proportion of whites in the city’s population, according to Brookings Institution, grew faster between 2000 and 2006 than that of any other U.S. city. The demographic changes are due to an influx of whites into gentrifying intown neighborhoods, such as East Atlanta and the Old Fourth Ward, coupled with a movement of blacks into adjacent suburbs, such as Clayton County.
According to the 2000 United States Census (revised in 2004), Atlanta has the twelfth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, which was at 38.5%.
According to a 2000 daytime population estimate by the Census Bureau, over 250,000 more people commuted to Atlanta on any given workday, boosting the city’s estimated daytime population to 676,431. According to census estimates, the city of Atlanta was the 13th fastest growing city in the nation, in terms of both percentage and numerical increase.

Brief overview of city:
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta’s population is 420,003. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with 5,268,860 people, is the third largest in the Southeastern United States and the ninth largest in the country. The Atlanta Combined Statistical Area, a larger trade area, has a population approaching six million and is the largest in the Southeast. Like many urban areas in the Sun Belt, the Atlanta region has seen increasing growth since the 1970s, and it added about 1.1 million residents between 2000 and 2008.
Atlanta is considered to be a top business city and is a primary transportation hub of the Southeastern United States – via highway, railroad, and air. Metro Atlanta contains the world headquarters of corporations such as The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, AT&T Mobility, UPS, Delta Air Lines, and Turner Broadcasting. Atlanta has the country’s fourth-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies have business operations in the metropolitan area, helping Atlanta realize a gross metropolitan product of US$270 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of Georgia’s economy. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been the world’s busiest airport since 1998.
Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County and the location of the seat of government of the state of Georgia. A small portion of the city of Atlanta corporate limits extends eastwards into DeKalb County. Residents of Atlanta and its surroundings are known as “Atlantans”.

Brief overview of state:
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. Georgia was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. It is named after King George II, of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 21, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870.
The 2010 US Census reported 9,687,653 residents, making Georgia the ninth most populous state. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia’s counties ranked among the nation’s 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta is the capital and the most populous city.
Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina; on the west by Alabama; and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mountain range in the vast Appalachian Mountains system. The central piedmont extends from the foothills to the fall line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the continental coastal plain of the southern part of the state.
With an area of 59,425 square miles (153,909 km2), Georgia is ranked 24th in size among the 50 U.S. states. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River in terms of land area, although it is the fourth largest (after Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin) in total area, a term which includes expanses of water which are part of state territory.

Average annual income per capita: $59, 711
Average annual income per family: $47,464
Current unemployment rate: 9.8%

Economy background:
Atlanta is one of ten U.S. cities classified as a “beta world city” by a 2008 study at Loughborough University, and ranks fourth in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within city boundaries, behind New York City, Houston, and Dallas. Several major national and international companies are headquartered in metro Atlanta, including four Fortune 100 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, United Parcel Service, and Delta Air Lines. The headquarters of AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless), the second largest mobile phone service provider in the United States, is located near Lenox Square. Other headquarters for some major companies in Atlanta and around the metro area include Arby’s, Chick-fil-A, Earthlink, Equifax, Gentiva Health Services, Georgia-Pacific, Oxford Industries, RaceTrac Petroleum, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, Mirant, and Waffle House. In early June 2009, NCR Corporation announced that they will relocate its headquarters to the nearby suburb of Duluth, Georgia. Over 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta area, and the region hosts offices of about 1,250 multinational corporations. As of 2006 Atlanta Metropolitan Area ranks as the 10th largest cybercity (high-tech center) in the US, with 126,700 high-tech jobs.

Delta Air Lines is the city’s largest employer and the metro area’s third largest. Delta operates one of the world’s largest airline hubs at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and, together with the hub of competing carrier AirTran Airways, has helped make Hartsfield-Jackson the world’s busiest airport, both in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft operations. The airport, since its construction in the 1950s, has served as a key engine of Atlanta’s economic growth.
Atlanta has a sizable financial sector. SunTrust Banks, the seventh largest bank by asset holdings in the United States, has its home office on Peachtree Street in downtown. The Federal Reserve System has a district headquarters in Atlanta; the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which oversees much of the deep South, relocated from downtown to midtown in 2001. Wachovia announced plans in August 2006 to place its new credit-card division in Atlanta, and city, state and civic leaders harbor long-term hopes of having the city serve as the home of the secretariat of a future Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Atlanta is also home to a growing Biotechnology sector, gaining recognition through such events as the 2009 BIO International Convention. The World of Coca-Cola museum reopened at a new location near the Georgia Aquarium on May 26, 2007.
The auto manufacturing sector in metropolitan Atlanta has suffered setbacks recently, including the closure of the General Motors Doraville Assembly plant in 2008, and the shutdown of Ford Motor Company’s Atlanta Assembly plant in Hapeville in 2006. Kia, however, has opened a new assembly plant near West Point, Georgia.

The city is a major cable television programming center. Ted Turner began the Turner Broadcasting System media empire in Atlanta, where he bought a UHF station that eventually became WTBS. Turner established the headquarters of the Cable News Network at CNN Center, adjacent today to Centennial Olympic Park. As his company grew, its other channels—the Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, Turner South, Turner Classic Movies, CNN International, CNN en Español, HLN, and CNN Airport Network – centered their operations in Atlanta as well. Turner Broadcasting is a division of Time Warner. The Weather Channel, owned by a consortium of NBC Universal, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital, has its offices in the Cumberland district northwest of downtown Atlanta.

Cox Enterprises, a privately held company controlled by James C. Kennedy, his sister Blair Parry-Okeden and their aunt Anne Cox Chambers, has substantial media holdings in and beyond Atlanta; it is headquartered in the city of Sandy Springs. Its Cox Communications division, headquartered in unincorporated DeKalb County, is the third-largest cable television service provider in the United States; the company also publishes over a dozen daily newspapers in the United States, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Unincorporated DeKalb County is also home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adjacent to Emory University, with a staff of nearly 15,000 (including 6,000 contractors and 840 Commissioned Corps officers) in 170 occupations, including: engineers, entomologists, epidemiologists, biologists, physicians, veterinarians, behavioral scientists, nurses, medical technologists, economists, health communicators, toxicologists, chemists, computer scientists, and statisticians. Headquartered in DeKalb County, CDC has 10 other offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition, CDC staff are located in local health agencies, quarantine/border health offices at ports of entry, and 45 countries around the world. Originally established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center, its primary function was to combat malaria, the deep southeast being the heart of the U.S. malaria zone at the time.

Public transportation:
From the airport – the Atlanta Airport Shuttle ($16.50 – $20.50) also transports passengers to hotels all over the city in a nine-passenger shuttle (from 6am to midnight). Desk on the baggage claim level.

Around the city – The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (Marta) rail line travels to/from the airport to downtown, along with a few less-useful routes used mostly by commuters.

—

Property analysis

Zillow median home value index: $127,700
Trulia median home value index: $215,500

Background/Summary:
Average price per square foot for Atlanta GA was $143, an increase of 18.2% compared to the same period last year. The median sales price for homes in Atlanta GA for Feb 11 to Apr 11 was $215,500 based on 392 home sales. Compared to the same period one year ago, the median home sales price increased 28.3%, or $47,473, and the number of home sales decreased 80.4%. There are currently 16,012 resale and new homes in Atlanta on Trulia, including 15 open houses, as well as 5,776 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. The average listing price for homes for sale in Atlanta GA was $389,685 for the week ending May 18, which represents an increase of 0.4%, or $1,739, compared to the prior week. Popular neighborhoods in Atlanta include Midtown and Virginia Highland, with average listing prices of $276,741 and $521,976.

–

The increase in home sales projected by Housing Predictor from the government backed federal tax credit for home buyers proved to be another government incentive that turned out to be just a temporary measure, but at least it gave the market a sense of improving for some time. Without additional federal dollars housing markets in Georgia are projected to see higher home price deflation. In Atlanta, the market has seen a massive drop in sales since the credit’s expiration and that trend should continue, despite near record low mortgage rates. Consumer confidence and weak employment prospects for those out of work or under-employed is discouraging news for the regional economy. Home sales should see an increase in the Atlanta metro area towards summer, but are still forecast to experience average housing price deflation of 8.2% in 2011.

Suburb Report:
Refer to excel spreadsheet Atlanta Suburb Report

Rent trend data (Apartments):
As of April, 2011, average apartment rent within 10 miles of Atlanta, GA is $915. 

One bedroom apartments in Atlanta rent for $786 a month on average and two bedroom apartment rents average $932. 


The average apartment rent over the prior 6 months in Atlanta has increased by $14.5 (2%)

One bedroom units have increased by $9 (1%) and two bedroom apartments have increased by $63.5 (7%)

.

The most expensive Atlanta neighborhoods to rent apartments are Home Park, Midtown, and Atlanta-Inman Park. 

The cheapest Atlanta neighborhoods to rent apartments are Thomasville, Grove Park, and West End