St. Bourke, an Atlanta-based asset management and property development company, reveals a big picture snapshot of the Atlanta real estate market in 1Q2022. Home prices continue to rise, homebuyers continue to push out toward the suburbs and exurbs and inventory continues to decline.

“The upward trajectory of Atlanta’s economic recovery flattened during Q1 as the market began to feel more significant impacts from issues around pricing and affordability, inflation and housing inventory,” St. Bourke President Ben Simpson said.

The median home price in metro Atlanta is up 25.4% YoY, which is much higher than the 15.7% growth seen nationally. Juxtapose increased prices with the fact that Atlanta wages only increased by +3.5% over that same time.

The market share of homes at $400,000+ has grown from 22.6% to 40.6%, and new home closings above $400,000 have grown from 53.3% to 72% over the last year.

In a race for attainable homes, homebuyers have pushed out into the exurbs. Currently nine of the top 10 best-selling communities in Atlanta are located more than 30 miles from downtown, and of these, eight are concentrated in the Northeast corner of the Metro area (Gwinnett, Hall, Barrow, Forsyth and Jackson counties; even Dawson County made the list).

At the end of Q1, all 10 of the top-performing communities had less than a 1-year supply of finished lots, and it is extremely likely that six of these communities will close out by the end of the year. Over the last 12 months, an astonishing 540 communities in Atlanta have closed out.