KB’s Alpharetta Rental Housing History. By 2014, the City of Alpharetta had experienced 20 years of significant growth. So, the City hired KB Advisory Group to analyze its rental housing market. Why did Alpharetta hire KB?

Rental Housing in Alpharetta

Rental Housing in Alpharetta

An icon of a house from the Noun Project

Location: Fulton County, GA

 

Client: City of Alpharetta, GA

 

Services provided: Research and Demographic Analysis, Rental Housing Market Assessment, and Needs Analysis

 

Timeframe: 2014 to 2022

KB’s Alpharetta Rental Housing History

By 2014, the City of Alpharetta had experienced 20 years of significant growth. So, the City hired KB Advisory Group to analyze its rental housing market.

 

Why did Alpharetta hire KB?

The Alpharetta Comprehensive Plan set a goal of 85% of units permitted as for-sale housing. Another goal was 15% of all approved housing should be for-rent housing. Alpharetta wanted to know what that meant in actual rental housing numbers. The City was also curious to know it compared to other North Fulton and North Atlanta regional markets in the rental-to-owner housing ratio.

 

The first Rent Study for Alpharetta

The 2014 KB study determined the policy’s effect on the owner and renter housing mix. The analysis indicated a decline in the overall inventory of rental housing over time. That resulted from Alpharetta’s policy. It was also due to changing market conditions—specifically the significant expansion in single-family construction.

 

What were things like in the 2014 rental market?

Following the Great Recession, the City saw a rapid increase in applications for multifamily housing. Alpharetta did not realize rentals were occurring outside its multifamily inventory. KB discovered much of the rental inventory was in the townhome and single-family home rentals.

 

What did that mean for Alpharetta?

Given Alpharetta’s role as a commercial employment center, KB predicted that ratio was closer to the actual equilibrium the City would achieve over time. The approximately 40% rental and 60% ownership housing ratio seemed likely to remain for some time.

 

The Results

As a result of the 2014 Rent Study, KB continued to work with the City on potential changes. The firm updated the 2014 Study findings for the 2016 Alpharetta Comprehensive Plan Update. See the live link below for more information. KB performed another Rental Housing Analysis Update for the City of Alpharetta in 2019.

    • 2016- 2017 Rent Study Update for the City of Alpharetta – Live link to the KB deliverable

 

So what happened next? The 2022 Rental Housing Study Update*

In 2022, KB provided Alpharetta with a benchmark update to the 2019 version of the Rent Study (also an update of previous KB work). The firm’s 2022 Update will help the City determine the current and future mix of housing for renters and owners. To do that, KB examined the historical relationship between rental and owner housing. It also analyzed the potential proportion of future rental housing in Alpharetta utilizing newly released figures from the 2020 Decennial Census and 2020 American Community Survey (US Census).

 

What was new in 2022?

Finally, the 2022 Update incorporates current market data that reflect the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local and regional housing situation. Findings include seniors downsizing and parents of Gen X and Baby Boomer households moving or staying in metro Atlanta to be near middle-aged or older children. Those trends are creating even more demand for senior housing near affluent areas with a high presence of these households, like Alpharetta.

 

Live link to the 2022 KB deliverable

To learn more about KB’s Housing Studies, see this overview