Atlanta Chat Thread (how much, houses, luxury)

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

How has the job market and pay been in comparison with the average rent in Atlanta area?

Originally Posted by DreamerD

Rent definitely isn't what it used to be. I think the rent is pretty high. As for the job market, that's a loaded question. Do you want to be a little more specific? Someone working in tech will have a totally different answer than let's say someone who is a teacher.

DreamerD makes some excellent points about both the rental market and the job market.

Rents in the Atlanta area have been rising significantly over the past 2-3 years as the housing market as a whole has grown increasingly competitive as the Atlanta area economy (along with the national economy) has recovered from the Great Recession downturn of the late-2000's and early 2010's and transitioned upwards into what feels like a near-economic peak here in the late 2010's.

Rents are generally highest near clusters of the highest-paying jobs and event/activity centers (which is generally north of Interstate 20 in and near areas like the City of Atlanta (Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead and Emory University), Cobb County (Cumberland and Smyrna areas), all of North Fulton County and North DeKalb County (including Perimeter Center/Dunwoody, Chamblee and Brookhaven). Rents are also rising throughout much of the rest of the Atlanta metro area in a housing market where demand for rental dwellings has been high and supply has not been near as plentiful as in the past.

Meanwhile, in the job market, pay is generally good if one is in booming fields like Tech, TV/Film Production and Corporate Management and pay is above-average to adequate in fields like Law/Legal Services, Real Estate and Financial Services... But the pay is generally so-so throughout much of the rest of the job market in an Atlanta metro area where the Cost-of-Living is noticeably on the rise.

Though, Atlanta is still a relative bargain when compared with the significantly more expensive markets of the Northeast and the West Coast.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by floridarebel

How has the job market and pay been in comparison with the average rent in Atlanta area?

Rent isn't high. It is "high" by Atlanta standards in heart of the city in the new high-rises but if you live in the suburbs you can still get a one bedroom in a safe neighborhood for $800 per month. Contact promove

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Rent isn't high. It is "high" by Atlanta standards in heart of the city in the new high-rises but if you live in the suburbs you can still get a one bedroom in a safe neighborhood for $800 per month. Contact promove

Lord, my first rental - a one bedroom, one bath - cost me $475 / mo in 1990. Times be a changin'

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

Lord, my first rental - a one bedroom, one bath - cost me $475 / mo in 1990. Times be a changin'

I remember in my college days (1976, to be exact) renting a lakefront furnished 1 BR cottage for $150. Boy, that was sweet...and my pot dealer lived next door!

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

I remember in my college days (1976, to be exact) renting a lakefront furnished 1 BR cottage for $150. Boy, that was sweet...and my pot dealer lived next door!

Our first apartment cost $90 -- for three months!

Laid out the first Benjamin I ever had in my life and we were set. We even had the extra $10 to play around on.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

I remember in my college days (1976, to be exact) renting a lakefront furnished 1 BR cottage for $150. Boy, that was sweet...and my pot dealer lived next door!

I used to rent an apartment out in the suburbs for $650 about 6 years ago and this was a pretty nice apartment in a decent neighborhood. Rent isn't expensive obviously if one earns a high salary but a few months ago, I was considering getting into education. Assuming I graduated and started teaching, I don't know if my salary would be enough to rent an apartment nowadays with the apartment being nice and decent neighborhood. The reason for this is a lot of apts. now ask that you earn at least 3 times the amount of rent in order to qualify.

Then again, if I'm paying that much for an apartment, it would make sense to consider buying a house if I can hahaha.

And I guess this needs to be said. I've always noticed my co-workers having a boyfriend or a girlfriend they live with or 4 other people they share a house with. That makes a huge difference. Rent would then be affordable obviously but single people have to bear the cost of their one bedroom/two bedroom on their own.

[Need4Camaro]

Rent for a single person for a studio / 1 BR will range between $700 and $900 MO in most of the Metro which overall isn't bad.

As far as the job market, overall - while jobs are plentiful and the cost of living in Atlanta is still pretty low in comparison to most major cities, Jobs are not compensating for the slowly increasing cost of living and that is what makes Atlanta "seem" expensive is that employers are not reinforcing the COL.

Example, recently I had an offer to move to San Francisco for $120k a year which here in Atlanta would be overkill. In San Francisco it was pretty much barely enough to make ends meet. In Atlanta here average employer is wanting to pay around $40 - 45k a year but the COL to live comfortably here is closer to about $50k (for a single person with no additional financial help.) so there is a slowly increasing gap in that respect.

[Need4Camaro]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FOLKS.

Noting this as this is the first day where driving to work was pretty much among empty streets.. ..guess thats my christmas present, an easy commute to work!

[Iconographer]

I hate sounding like one of those old people that yammers on about how much easier the youngsters have it than we did, but I really thought that living in squalid housing was a rite of passage for college students. If I had had this to look forward to, I would have signed up for Early Enrollment.

https://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/12/1...a-tech-midtown

[Atlanta Scientist]

Such is progress.