In recent blog posts, we’ve examined population growth in the Atlanta region both in comparison to other major metros and in terms of the components of change. But where are these additional residents settling? We full?
To add population, people need somewhere to live. So to address this question, we will shift to housing and utilize a relatively new data source courtesy of the Census Bureau called the Current Address Count Listing Files (CACLF).[1] Comparing counts in the most recent release (December, 2024) with those from April, 2020 will tell us how much housing we have added over the last few years and also reveal where within the region housing has been gained or lost.[2]
The most recent CACLF shows an increase of 97,855 housing units (4.9%) between April, 2020 and December, 2024 for the 11-County ARC region. Figure 1 that follows presents this growth, broken down by county:
Figure 1: Net Change in Housing Units by County, April 2020 – December 2024
As this chart above shows, the largest amounts of growth, at least in absolute figures, are concentrated in four of the five core counties.[3] In fact, just two counties– Fulton and Gwinnett– account for just over half of the housing unit growth since 2020 (49,951 or 51%). Fayette, Clayton, and Rockdale have added rather few housing units during this same period (3,023, or about 3% of the total increase).
Of course, absolute change only tells part of the story. Figure 2 shows the same data in relative, i.e., percentage terms. The reference line in this graph shows the percent change (4.9%) for the 11-county region as a whole:
Figure 2: Percent Change in Housing Units by County, April 2020 – December 2024
Figure 2 above demonstrates that, as they had fewer total housing units to begin with, Henry, Cherokee, and Douglas counties grew faster in percentage terms than either Gwinnett or Fulton. Forsyth County rounds out the group of counties in which the growth rate for housing units exceeded that of the region as a whole.
How is this housing unit change distributed within the region? Figure 3 below presents a dot density map showing housing unit change at the Census tract level. One green dot represents a net increase of five housing units in a given tract, while one red dot represents a net decrease of five housing units in a tract.
Figure 3: Net Change in Housing Units by Census Tract, April 2020 – December 2024
As the Figure 3 map above shows, the greatest increases in housing units are concentrated in the city of Atlanta, especially (but not exclusively) around the Atlanta BeltLine. [4] Atlanta has also seen housing growth around Buckhead, especially NPU B. Other notable areas of housing unit gains include the area around Truist Park, northern Douglasville, along the Buford Highway corridor running northeast starting Chamblee, Stonecrest near I-20, and along I-75 West of McDonough. There also appear to be a few tracts that have seen net housing loss since April, 2020: but this is most likely due to older multifamily complexes, especially in Brookhaven, coming down in favor of new developments– rather than indicative of a long-term loss.
We full? Not even close. New housing development in the city demonstrates that we have the capacity to increase housing density, perhaps in ways that will spur increased use of transit and other forms of mobility besides the automobile. And more housing construction would combat the affordability crisis brewing in our region.
Want to explorer further? The Census Bureau has a Housing Unit Change Viewer tool that allows you to drill down to the block group.
Notes
[1] Nerd alert: The Census Bureau maintains an up-to-date inventory of the all known living quarters in the country. This listing, called the Master Address File (MAF), constitutes important infrastructure not only for the Decennial Census, but also for the Bureau’s ongoing data collection efforts such as the American Community Survey. The Current Address Count Listing Files are exactly as their name implies– a count of living quarters from the MAF by Census block, which the Bureau is now releasing twice a year– one with December counts and another with July counts. The first release in the biennial cycle was for December, 2023; the Census Bureau also released an April, 2020 count to provide a baseline.
[2] The Current Address Count Listing Files track both types of living units: “housing units” such as houses, apartments, and condominiums and “group quarters” such as prisons, dormitories, and nursing homes. This blog post’s analysis focuses on housing units, but the group quarters data are included in the spreadsheet linked to at the end of this post.
[3] By “core counties” we mean the five that were part of the Atlanta MSA as far back as the late 1950s: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett.
[4] The city of Atlanta saw a net gain of 23,710 housing units, or 24% of the total gain regionwide.
Link to county-level data used in the graphs: Housing Unit Change 2020-24 x County
Link to the tract-level data found in the map: Housing Unit Change 2020-24 x Tract