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Georgia’s high housing costs draw new scrutiny | Georgia

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-23 11:30:00


High interest rates and a housing shortage in Georgia are forcing many families to rent, but the rental market strains family budgets. The 2024 Housing Impact report states 592,000 Georgians face housing challenges, worsened by rapid population growth. With fewer than 170,000 affordable rentals for 300,000 low-income households, the shortage is dire. Build-to-rent homes, developed by large corporations for appreciation rather than rent income, are growing but face local opposition due to fears over property values and corporate control. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff criticizes large corporate landlords in Atlanta for rent hikes and tenant abuses. Legislative responses include new onsite management rules for out-of-state landlords.

(The Center Square) – High interest rates and a shortage of available residences have forced some families to rent, but some lawmakers say the rental market is also putting a strain on family budgets.

The 2024 Housing Impact report from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs said housing challenges affect 592,000 Georgians and renters face the brunt of those challenges. The state is also facing a shortage in rental homes, due in part to the state’s population growth from 5 million in 1980 to 11 million today. 

For Georgians who earn less than 30% of their area’s median income, there are fewer than 170,000 affordable rental units available for 300,000 households, the report said.

James Burling, vice president for legal affairs with the Pacific Legal Foundation and author of “Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis,” said the housing shortage is a nationwide issue.

“We’re roughly around two million to 20 million, depending on who you ask, homes short in this country and we used to build on a per capita, per year basis a lot more than we’re building now,” Burling said in an interview with The Center Square. “We’re building fewer homes today than we were building in the 90s and our population has gone from 200 to close to 350 million people.”

A relatively new form of rental, build-to-rent houses, is also drawing attention, mainly on the local level. The developments are houses, not apartments, that present a new option for families.

“Large corporations have the capital they they can put into building these homes,” Burling said. “They may not be making a huge amount of money on renting them but on the appreciation, because every year the houses become more and more expensive because of laws of supply and demand, they’re making their money through appreciation more than they are through rent.”

A January report from Point2Homes shows that the Atlanta area has more than 6,800 build-to-rent homes in the pipeline, the third-highest number among metro areas.

But the build-to-rent communities have not been welcome everywhere in Georgia with opposition to the developments going as far back as 2022, according to a report from Mercatus Center of George Mason University. Some counties banned build-to-rent and others put limitations on them.

The Douglas County Planning and Zoning Board will hear a request on June 3 for a new build-to-rent development that has stirred up nearby residents, according to a story on Fox5 Atlanta.

“It’s going to bring our property value down,” Alonzo Hunter told the television station. “Here in 30135, we have no apartments. People chose this community for that reason.”

The fear of the unknown may be behind some of the policies and concerns over build-to-rent homes, according to Burling.

“I don’t think they understand how the market works and it’s something new and novel and so naturally they’re a little afraid of it,” Burling said. “They see ‘corporations are going to take over everything and that would be a bad thing,’ well not really if they allow more home building to be built in the first place and got rid of some of the exclusionary zoning, there’s probably be less of a demand for that.”

Burling said he thinks the battle over build-to-rent could end up in the courts.

“Because the right to use one’s property is important and the property rights of the people being restricted and the ability of building a home and renting it out, it seems to be extreme,” Burling said. “So it’s an infringement on people’s property rights.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is blaming large corporations in the Peach State for higher rent costs. He pointed to a May 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that shows 25% of rental homes in metro Atlanta are owned by large companies.

“The very same families who are priced out of the housing market because it is so dominated by these large, out-of-state corporations are forced to rent from these same companies who in some neighborhoods own more than 90% of single-family rental homes,” Ossoff said in a video posted on X.

Ossoff said since launching an investigation earlier this month, he has talked to more than 160 witnesses and sources that include reports of abuse by out-of-state landlords. He has also asked for more information from four of the largest corporations that own single-family homes.

State lawmakers also housing legislation in the 2025 General Assembly. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bipartisan-backed bill last week that requires out-of-state rental property owners to have onsite management. But the General Assembly failed to pass a bill that would have banned corporations from owning more than 2,000 single-family residential properties and more than 10 multifamily residential properties.

The post Georgia’s high housing costs draw new scrutiny | Georgia appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article primarily reports on housing challenges and various policy responses without overtly endorsing a partisan viewpoint, maintaining a largely factual tone. However, the framing and source selection—such as quoting James Burling of the Pacific Legal Foundation (a libertarian-leaning legal group) emphasizing property rights and opposing zoning restrictions—reflect a perspective aligned with market-oriented, property-rights advocates often associated with center-right ideology. The article also includes Senator Jon Ossoff’s (a Democrat) critique of corporate landlords, presenting a counterpoint but without deep analysis or advocacy. Overall, the piece leans moderately center-right by highlighting market and property-rights issues while acknowledging some progressive concerns on corporate housing ownership.

News from the South - Georgia News Feed

Lithuanian president honors 4 fallen Fort Stewart soldiers

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www.wsav.com – Natasha Young – 2025-07-10 22:57:00

SUMMARY: Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis to four 3rd Infantry Division soldiers who died in Lithuania during a mission earlier this year. Staff Sergeants Jose Duenez Jr., Edvin F. Franco, Troy S. Knutson-Collins, and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano were found deceased near Pabradė after repairing and towing an immobilized armored vehicle. Their M88A2 Hercules was recovered from a peat bog. The ceremony honored their sacrifice during NATO exercises, highlighting U.S.-Lithuania partnership and commitment to freedom. The soldiers were deployed for Operation Atlantic Resolve but stationed at Fort Stewart.

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News from the South - Georgia News Feed

History voter purge in Georgia: What you need to know | FOX 5 News

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www.youtube.com – FOX 5 Atlanta – 2025-07-10 22:48:03

SUMMARY: Georgia is canceling nearly half a million voter registrations as part of a routine cleanup to maintain accurate voter rolls. The Secretary of State’s office began mailing letters to 478,000 inactive voters, who have 40 days to respond or risk removal. This is required by federal and state law and targets those inactive for over four years due to reasons like moving out of state or returned mail. Voting rights groups, including the ACLU, call it a purge, warning it could disenfranchise eligible voters, particularly younger, lower-income, or mobile residents. Georgia currently has about 8.25 million registered voters.

Nearly half a million voter registrations in Georgia are about to be cancelled. The Georgia Secretary of the state’s office began mailing out letters to hundreds of thousands of voters. If you get one the clock is ticking to stay on the voter rolls. It’s one of the largest cancellations of voter registrations in history.

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News from the South - Georgia News Feed

Georgia lags far behind other states in the number of journalists, says new report 

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georgiarecorder.com – Amber Roldan – 2025-07-10 20:05:00


A new report from Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack reveals a 75% decline in local journalists nationwide since 2002. The study introduces Local Journalist Equivalents (LJEs) to measure local journalism strength, showing a drop from about 40 to 8.2 journalists per 100,000 people nationally. Georgia ranks 46th with 5.8 LJEs per 100,000, below the national average, while Vermont leads with 27.5. The decline affects both rural and growing urban areas. Experts warn this erosion threatens democracy, citing shrinking ad revenue and social media’s rise. Nonprofit news models like The Current and Macon Melody may offer solutions.

by Amber Roldan, Georgia Recorder
July 10, 2025

The decline of local news continues on the national level and here at home in Georgia. A new local journalism report from Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack reveals a 75% decline in local journalists across the country since 2002. 

“The goals of this new report and project is to try to create a measure of journalists per population and an index that could be recreated each year down to the county level,” Rebuild Local Journalism Founder Steve Waldman said during a webinar Thursday. “The reason that we all felt that that was important is that at the heart of the local news crisis is the lack of coverage and the lack of reporters in communities.”

The report, which was released Thursday, found that the shortage of local journalists is both severe and widespread. This shortage is measured by a new metric called Local Journalist Equivalents (LJEs), which uses a formula to evaluate the strength of local journalism. LJEs were determined by outlet types, verifiable bylines and reporting capacity based on factors like publishing frequency. This data was then used to show nationwide trends and state specific metrics.

In 2002, there was a national average of about 40 local journalists per 100,000 people. Today, that figure has dropped to an average of 8.2 Local Journalist Equivalents. Georgia’s average currently sits well below that number, landing Georgia at No. 46 on this year’s ranking.

With a statewide population of 11 million people, Georgia has an average of 5.8 Local Journalist Equivalents per 100,000 people. This average was significantly less than the No. 1 ranked state of Vermont that has an average of 27.5. Nevada trailed four places behind Georgia with the lowest ranked average of 4.8 local journalists.

While the decline of local news is not a new phenomenon, the report confirms that rural areas are not the only communities underserved by local news. Many fast growing areas including Los Angeles and Las Vegas also scored below the national average.

Richard T. Griffiths, a retired reporter and president emeritus of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, said continued decline of local journalism goes beyond local journalists.

“It’s not the industry that is the future casualty of this, it’s democracy itself,” Griffiths said. “If you have a populace that doesn’t understand what’s going on in its community because there are no reporters able to go to the meetings to figure out what’s going on, then you have a collapse of the institutions that underpin our society and our democracy.”

Griffiths cited waning advertising dollars and the rise of social media as notable factors behind the demise of local news. In a world of subscriptions and paywalls, Griffiths said he believes that the business model of local journalism needs to be re-evaluated. He points to nonprofit models like The Current on the Georgia coast and The Macon Melody as potential ways to revitalize local news.

While the new report may not identify clear-cut solutions, the creators behind the report hope their findings can help improve the viability and sustainability of local journalism.

“We think we made a real significant contribution here, and that this really gives a very meaningful picture of the sort of journalistic horsepower in counties across America and will help all of us to better understand both the crisis and how to solve it,” Waldman said.

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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

The post Georgia lags far behind other states in the number of journalists, says new report  appeared first on georgiarecorder.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The content presents a factual report on the decline of local journalism in the United States, particularly highlighting statistical data and expert commentary without partisan language or ideological framing. It focuses on the democratic importance of local news and explores potential nonprofit models as solutions, showing concern for community engagement and transparency. Given the balanced presentation of information and absence of overt political viewpoints, the content leans toward a centrist perspective.

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