Atlanta Highlights
Atlanta ended 2009 with three consecutive quarters of demand back in positive territory. However, absorption once again failed to keep pace with completions during 4th quarter, sending occupancy a little further downward. The year-end occupancy rate of 88.2 percent was off September's reading by three-tenths of a percentage point, taking the total loss for calendar 2009 to 1 full point. Occupancy actually rose a little during 2009 in Atlanta's properties from the 2000s and 1990s, but the progress in those niches couldn't fully counter mild occupancy loss in the 1980s product segment and huge downturns in occupancy among properties from the 1970s and earlier. Measuring change on a same-store basis, effective rents in Atlanta came down another 1.3 percent during 4th quarter, pushing the metro's annual loss in pricing power to 5.5 percent. Ongoing apartment construction in Atlanta has cooled to about 3,600 units. But it's still going to be tough for the metro's overall performance to establish much momentum in the immediate future, since economists still are calling for some significant further job loss. Also slowing recovery here, locales like Gwinnett and Cobb Counties have become very vulnerable to the loss of renters to home purchase, now that for-sale housing prices are well within reach for many apartment residents.