Rents have risen across metro Atlanta as residents continue to feel a squeeze on their monthly budgets, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau this month.
The median monthly price of rent across the Atlanta metropolitan area was $1,563, according to the census’ American Community Survey data, which measures a five-year span between 2019 and 2023.
That represents a more than 41% increase compared to the previous five-year period from 2014 to 2018, a trend driven in large part by rent increases across many of the suburban and exurban counties surrounding Atlanta.
In DeKalb County, renters saw a 42.5% increase over that time period as the median rent price went from $1,116 to $1,591, census data shows. Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties saw a similar increase of roughly 42%.
Clayton County, on the other hand, featured the smallest increase (37%) among the five core metro counties with a median rental rate of $1,307 in the most recent census data.
Georgians outside the Atlanta metro didn’t fare much better, the data shows. The statewide median monthly rent increased by 35% in the same time frame, to $1,306 per month.
And as rents climbed, the data also reflects the strain high housing prices have put on renters throughout the metro area.
More than a quarter of households renting in the five core counties, about 152,000, spend more than 50% of their income on rent. In DeKalb and Clayton, 29% of households spend more than half.
Financial experts say households should spend no more than a third of their income on rent. The U.S. Census Bureau refers to households who spend more than that amount on rent and other housing costs as “cost-burdened,” and those who spend more than half their income as “severely cost-burdened.”
By that metric, 56% of local renters and 48% of renters statewide are cost-burdened or severely cost-burdened, according to the census data.
This trend matches what renters are seeing nationwide, said Chris Salviati, a senior housing economist at Apartment Lists. Wages in most areas have yet to catch up to the skyrocketing rents that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by rising inflation, renter migration to the suburbs and low housing supply.
In fact, Salviati said the number of cost burdened renters decreased for several years following the Great Recession that ended in 2009.
“If you look at the 2010s, it was actually improving,” Salviati said.
The new data come months after the census released an annual market snapshot in September, which found that rents grew at a faster pace in 2023 than any other year since 2011.
And while household incomes appeared to grow to match these increases in many states, Georgia, Arizona and Florida all saw a significant increase in the share of renters’ income going to rent.
A June report by real estate brokerage firm Redfin found the majority of U.S. households cannot afford a house or apartment listed at the median rent price. But in Atlanta, that gap was smaller and experts noted that while prices are still climbing, the rate they are increasing has slowed significantly since the pandemic.
But there has been some cause for optimism in the short term.
Salviati said more recent data from this year reflects a slight cooling in the rental market. Low interests rates throughout 2021 and 2022 drove a lot of new apartment projects which have come online this year. Salviati cautions, though, that this may not last as rising inflation has pushed interest rates back up over the past two years and fewer projects are being built.
“We’re probably close to the peak of new supply hitting the market,” Salviati said.
