Real Estate 101

Atlanta’s real estate investment market has shown it’s ready for 2021

Atlanta’s housing market is booming – Here’s how real estate investors can profit

Atlanta metro’s home prices rebounded quickly during and post-COVID. Comparatively, it took the capital of Georgia and its real estate market nearly eight years to rebound after the Great Recession of 2008. Home prices have surged since mid-summer of 2020, the number of homes being listed has dropped and the average days on the market has dropped as well.

Atlanta has long been a popular real estate investment market, and it remains red hot heading in 2021. Experts are seeing:

• The median home price increased nearly 16% between Nov. 2019 and Nov. 2020.
• The number of homes listed for sale dropped 34.9% from January to November 2020.
• The average days on market fell from 57 days to 36 days in that same timeframe.
• Rental occupancy jumped to 94.7%.

These stats drive home the point that, like other markets across the country, Atlanta is experiencing tight inventory. Buyers are flooding the market, and a decrease in homes for sale has caused prices to surge.

In a balanced market that gives buyers and sells equal power, the number of homes listed for sale in Atlanta should equal the demand for six months of sales. Instead, by late fall, the Atlanta, Georgia, real estate market inventory carried less than two months of sales.

The big reason was fewer homes for sale—down by 34.9 percent. The reasons varied: for example, during the pandemic, sellers may have been hesitant to have showings that let visitors into the home. In addition, people who found themselves working from home and setting up classrooms in their home became aware of how much – or little – space they had.

These pandemic-specific factors resulted in Atlanta amplifying the same national trend of families wanting to move to less-dense suburbs and into larger single-family homes. The tight market sliced margins for real estate investors, resulting in Atlanta ranking lower than national averages on investments opportunities.

New construction real estate is hot, as single-family permits have increased. But Atlanta matched the national trends of actual building taking longer because of labor delays during COVID plus spiking lumber prices. On the other hand, multi-family construction permits have decreased.

Given these trends, single-family rental purchases and single-family new construction is currently the best investment in the Atlanta area as a whole. But it’s worth noting that the southern suburbs are still doing well in all facets of housing investments (including FixNFlips).

Market experts predict that Atlanta’s housing market will remain hot in 2021. While inventory might be harder to find, real estate investors with strong strategies can still profit. So it’s more important than ever to have a real estate team that helps you close properties quickly and certainly, and run your construction or rehab projects smoothly. That’s what Lima One Capital provides to investors in Atlanta and around the country. Get started today and let Lima One supercharge your investment success.