Atlantans need a six-figure income to afford a home this year

How much do Atlanta houses cost in 2025?

According to the Atlanta Realtors Association, home prices are only slightly on the rise year over year. The ARA reported a 0.6% increase in average sales price for March 2025 within metro Atlanta, compared to March 2024. It’s a huge improvement from the previous month, when homes experienced eight times greater price hikes from the previous year.

But don’t pop a cork over the slowly cooling market quite yet. Today’s prices still don’t give many reasons to celebrate.

Homes around Georgia’s capital city cost a whopping $528,500 on average last month. And it’s not just Buckhead’s lavish mansions disrupting the grade curve either.

Credit: J. Scott Trubey

Credit: J. Scott Trubey

The median, or most common, price tag for residential properties across 11 counties of metro Atlanta was $425,000 in March, the ARA reported. The latest citywide salary data available shows the median household income for Atlanta residents was $81,938 in 2023.

Simply put, Atlanta homes are unaffordable to most this year.

How much to afford an Atlanta house in 2025?

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a home is considered affordable when its annual costs are no more than 30% of the household’s yearly income. From property insurance to mortgages, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta estimated that metro Atlanta households most often spent around $2,960 monthly on their homes in February 2025.

This gives us an answer to the big question: What does it cost to be a homeowner this year? To afford an Atlanta home in 2025, families need annual household incomes of at least $118,400.

Another glance at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s data also reveals a major truth about this six-figure income challenge to homeownership. Metro Atlanta homes haven’t been affordable since January 2022 — which ended a 15-year streak of affordable housing that started in 2007.

Based on February 2025 data, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reported metro Atlanta households will likely make around a median $89,565 this year, for instance. It’s just barely three quarters of what they need to buy homes of their own.

But do Atlanta homeowners have it the worst? It’s surprisingly more affordable than the national average.

How does Atlanta affordability compare elsewhere?

Nationwide, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, households are spending around 46% of their incomes on homeownership right now. Many regional areas have it better off than Atlanta though, where residents are spending around 40%.

Memphis, Tennessee, homebuyers are spending much closer to the 30% “Goldilocks zone” of affordability at 33%. The Charlotte area spends around 42%. In certain Southern cities, such as New Orleans and Jacksonville, Florida, homeowners are paying more than Atlanta buyers at 44% of their incomes.