Atlanta Highlights
While Atlanta has managed to post two consecutive quarters of mildly positive demand for apartments, the absorption tally seen during the April-September time frame just barely outpaced completions. Thus, overall occupancy hasn't made any real progress, with the 3rd quarter rate still among the nation's lowest at 88.4 percent. Effective rents dropped another 1.2 percent during 3rd quarter, pushing loss during the year-ending September to 5.6 percent. Most of Atlanta's recent demand for apartments has been captured in urban core communities across the Intown/Midtown, North Atlanta/Buckhead and Chamblee/Dunwoody submarkets. That pattern suggests some bounceback of renters to traditional apartments from shadow market condos offered for lease. The performance premium for urban core apartments versus suburban developments in Atlanta is expected to become more pronounced moving forward, as the market seems headed toward a period where properties in places like Gwinnett and Cobb Counties will be very vulnerable to losing renters to the purchase of now drastically more affordable single-family homes.