Buckhead Housing and Commute Study

In our Buckhead REdeFINED planning effort in 2018 a mismatch between the housing available in Buckhead and the needs of the workforce was identified as one of the root causes of our traffic congestion problem. This housing stratification effort was launched to further analyze the situation and to develop a plan of action to provide opportunity for more of our workforce to live in the community.

Partners:

STUDY AREA

There are two different study areas that form the basis of this effort.

  • Workforce is looked at specifically in the commercial core of the community using the Community Improvement District boundary as the basis for the area.
  • The Housing Shed is defined as a larger area that takes into consideration transit accessibility proximate to the commercial core.

HOUSING INVENTORY – EXISTING

  • The current housing inventory in the study area includes 54,000 total units including both single family and multi-family options.
    • 40% (20,400) are in the commercial core
    • 60% (30,600) are in the larger area
  • 2,600 (2%) of the existing housing units in the study area are vacant.
  • 55% (29,700) of all units in the study area are multifamily rental units (apartments)
  • Only 1,500 units (3%) of the existing housing inventory is priced with rents affordable to households making $35K per less per year.
  • 1 in 3 units (16,830) have rents that are affordable to people making less than $50K per year.
  • Rents in Buckhead have gone up 19% since 2011.
  • 58% of units in Buckhead are luxury.
  • Only 9,600 (18%) of the units in Buckhead are at or below $1,260 per month which is the citywide average rent.
  • Buckhead has a higher percentage of cost-burdened households than the rest of the City – If you live in Buckhead you are more likely to be spending more than 30% of your income on housing than the rest of the City. A Buckhead household making less that $25K per year spends an average of 70% of their income on housing.
  • There isn’t much variety in types of housing options in Buckhead – 68% of the existing units are in large 250+ unit developments.
  • 75% of households making less than $50K per year are renters.

HOUSING INVENTORY – FUTURE

  • The housing pipeline has 5,800 new units planned for construction by 2029, which is an 11% increase in the housing inventory. By comparison, Buckhead’s population is projected to grow to 60,174 households by 2040 – that’s an increase of approximately 9,943 households over 2018
  • 5,046 (87%) of the planned units are slated to be at price points only affordable to households making $50,000 or more each year.
  • There is no plan to provide other types of housing typologies – 91% of the proposed housing stock will continue to be in the same 250+ large scale type development style.
  • New development is increasingly catering to singles – with 23% of the proposed units slated to be studios.

WORKFORCE

  • There are 75,700 jobs in the commercial core of Buckhead
  • 92% of the workforce in the commercial core does not live in Buckhead so commutes in from somewhere outside of Buckhead.
  • 5% (6,100 people) live and work in Buckhead
  • 18,000 (24%) of the total workforce in Buckhead is service sector workers who earn less than $35K. The average rent affordable to them is $750 per month.
  • The median income in Buckhead is up 5% since 2010, but that is largely due to the addition of higher end jobs not rising wages.
  • Low and moderate income families in Buckhead spend an average of 70% of their income on housing – this should be 30%.
  • Transportation costs are the second largest household expenditure coming in at 15 – 20% of a typical household’s budget.
  • The average transportation costs for an Atlanta resident are $10,689 – 25% higher than the amount of a typical household budget that “should” be spent on transportation.
  • The typical person who both lives and works in Buckhead makes between $50K and $75K per year.
  • Finance & Insurance and Professional and Technology Services are the top two employment sectors in Buckhead.

GENERAL

  • Buckhead traffic counts have grown 76% since 2009.
  • There are 10 jobs for every household in Buckhead.
  • 6,000 units could be absorbed at the moderate to low end (<$50K) and 6,000 units could be absorbed at the high end/market rate (>$75K).
  • Buckhead is losing households that make under $50K per year while it is adding households that make over 50K by nearly triple.

RECOMMENDATIONS & IMPACTS

Recommendations

  • Connect workers to existing housing
  • Preserve existing workforce housing
  • Develop new housing units aligned with existing transit infrastructure
  • Expand housing typologies
  • Develop incentive programs to offset costs of developing affordable/workforce housing
  • Enhance commute management services
  • Plan and build for a less auto-centric Buckhead
  • Align regulatory tools to incentivize non-car commutes

Impacts

  • Triple the number of Buckhead workers who live in Buckhead
  • Reduce miles traveled by Buckhead commuters by 300,000 EVERY DAY
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