June is American Housing Month. Housing has obviously been in the national (and global ) news quite a lot in recent years and months. While Atlanta’s housing market has cooled off slightly from pandemic highs, demand remains strong and inventory low. Getting into a home at all but the highest price points is difficult, from the demand and supply side. And persistent factors continue to make homeownership a greater challenge for people of color, due to investor-driven purchases and families spending a larger percentage of their income on housing costs. Our Regional Snapshot this month takes a look at homeownership rates by race and ethnicity for the 11-county Atlanta region.
Highlights
- Among the fifteen most populous metro areas, metro Atlanta ranks fourth in overall homeownership rates
- Homeownership rates by race (in the 11-County ARC Region) are highest among Asian residents in Forsyth, Henry, and Cherokee Counties; such rates were lowest, regionally, among Hispanic and Black residents in DeKalb and Fulton Counties.
- Cobb and Gwinnett Counties feature the largest differences in homeownership rates between Whites and Blacks; White homeownership rates are nearly 30 percentage points higher than Black rates in Cobb and Gwinnett.
- In contrast, Fayette County features a much more equal distribution in homeownership between White and Black residents, with only a gap of 9 percentage points between the two racial groups.
- When considering recent Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, we find that a relatively large number of White homebuyers have purchased primary residences in majority Black Census tracts south and southwest of Decatur in DeKalb County, along with some areas of central Fulton County.
60 years ago, older people (those aged 65+) comprised just over 6 percent of the 11-County Atlanta region. In 2020, that figure almost doubled to nearly 12 percent!
For more information, click through the slides below or download the Regional Snapshot: Homeownership (June 2023).