Black Entrepreneurship and generational wealth are under attack in Atlanta Young people buying land and building tiny homes instead of renting from 3 companies seeking a monopoly. “Atlanta has more of these properties than the next couple of metros combined,” Taylor Shelton, a professor at GSU, said. Many people in the Atlanta area see this as an attack on young potential homeowners to keep them from wealth building opportunities other communities take for granted!
Invitation Homes, Pretium Partners (owner of Progress Residential), and Amherst Holdings (owner of Mainstreet Renewal) collectively possess approximately 11 percent of the total single-family rental properties in the metro Atlanta area. Shelton mentioned that in certain smaller communities, this ownership share can reach as high as 50 percent. In these BIPOC neighborhoods, Shelton noted that these companies have significant influence over rental rates.
An analysis in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers reveals that three major firms—Invitation Homes, Pretium Partners, and Amherst Holdings—own over 19,000 rental homes, which is nearly 11% of the rental properties in the central counties of Metro Atlanta. "The properties these companies are acquiring are the same types of starter homes that would have been bought by first-time homebuyers 15 to 20 years ago," the report notes. This trend has not gone unnoticed by potential homebuyers. "Competing with these corporations is exhausting for an average first-time buyer; they're essentially taking away our future," a Gen Z individual remarked. For the residents of Atlanta, a city deeply connected with the Black middle class, this situation is perceived as a direct threat to their community and future generations.
Data indicates that this phenomenon is occurring nationwide, yet cities with predominantly black populations, such as Atlanta, are, for reasons not fully understood, the largest markets for corporate landlord activity in the nation. This strategy is also observed in Canadian cities with significant black populations, like Toronto, representing a new form of gentrification. This comes as the white middle class is burdened by debt, preventing them from buying homes in many of these neighborhoods, which have seen their value enhanced over decades by the communities themselves.
The increasing and evident disproportionate effects of corporate landlords on Black and low-income communities are undeniable, particularly in cities polarized by income, which are becoming more accessible only to a select group of wealthy individuals. It is widely known that the Fair Housing Act, signed into law on April 11, 1968, prohibited housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin. However, current U.S. Census data reveals that the percentage of Black Americans who own their homes today is virtually unchanged from when the Fair Housing Act was enacted in 1968. The 1970 census reported that 42% of Black households were homeowners. By 2017, this figure had slightly decreased to 41%. As of 2024, the rate has only risen to 44%, marking an increase of just 0.4% over the past decade and nearly 29 percentage points lower than that of White Americans (72.7%), signifying the widest Black-White homeownership gap in ten years.
For the first time in over a decade, home ownership in metro Atlanta has been deemed "unaffordable," as stated in a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank. The Atlanta Fed has developed an interactive tool called the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor (HOAM), which assesses whether a household with median income can manage the estimated yearly expenses of owning a home at the median price.
Housing affordability is already being affected by climate impacts. In many areas around the country, homeowners are facing repeated damage to their homes that often requires costly repairs. Homeowners in vulnerable locations will need to enhance their resilience by retrofitting their homes, but costs to do so can be out of reach for many homeowners. Those who cannot afford to repair and rebuild will continue to be forced out or remain in deteriorating conditions.
Homeowners in physically vulnerable areas are also facing rising insurance rates as the industry responds and protects itself from climate change impacts.
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