While cities like Miami, Nashville, and Austin saw unprecedented growth as a result of COVID, Atlanta has quietly emerged as one of America’s hottest real estate markets. Ranked as the 4th best real estate investment market for 2024 by PwC, and the 6th by Zillow, The ATL is cementing itself as the next boom-town for real estate investors, but Atlanta didn’t get Joe Rogan as its spokesperson, The Wall Street Journal hasn’t glowingly profiled the city, and the Falcons haven’t made the playoffs in six years, so why does everyone want to live there? Why is Atlanta’s real estate market so hot?

A Thriving Job Market

Last year, the state of Georgia added 98,100 jobs, a 1.9% increase from 2022 and almost double that of Illinois, a state with a population almost two million people bigger than Georgia’s. Because it’s the heartbeat of the state’s economy, Georgia owes a great deal of its success to Atlanta, which boasts the 18th largest city-economy in the world with a GDP of $525.89 billion.  The city has always been a hotbed for corporate headquarters; for the past ten years, it’s been ranked as the number one city to do business in, and in recent years, this reputation has only grown stronger. In 2023, Assurant joined a long list of Fortune 500 companies to make Atlanta its home; and now, with seventeen Fortune companies headquartered there, Atlanta is home to everything from Coca-Cola to UPS. Since COVID, Metro Atlanta has seen the fifth-largest percentage increase in new jobs in the U.S., trailing only Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Orlando.

Funny enough, the big corporations aren’t the only ones driving job growth and elevating wages. Atlanta was recently named the number one city to start a business by LinkedIn, as the city has jumped head-first into the world of entrepreneurship and tech. Entrepreneurs, including sole proprietors, in metro Atlanta filed 75% more new business applications from 2020 to 2022 than in the three years before COVID. Just look at how many more self-starters Georgia has compared to almost twenty-years ago!

WalletHub, one of America’s leading personal finance companies, comes out with an annual report ranking the best and worst cities in the US for people to start their careers. Out of 182 eligible cities, Atlanta placed first. 

Population Growth

Atlanta's population boom, fueled by a thriving job market, is propelling demand for housing. Atlanta issued close to 12,000 residential permits last year alone, which shouldn’t come as a shock considering that between 2022 and 2023, Fulton County added 18,500 new residents. Which group of people is moving to the ATL at the highest rate? Young people.

Affordable Housing

Compared to other coastal cities, Atlanta's real estate market offers affordability, enhancing the city's appeal for investors seeking favorable returns. Numbeo, known for illustrating cost of living comparisons between cities, showcases the significant cost-of-living difference.

Atlanta has everything you’d want in a city: great night life, sports teams, a good sense of community, and a modern downtown, but unlike Los Angeles, New York, and DC, it’s affordable. Rather than living paycheck-to-paycheck, people who live in Atlanta have more opportunity to save money than almost any other group of coastal urbanites in America.

Ambitious Transportation Improvements

In 1999, Ryan Gravel wrote a graduate thesis, titled Belt Line — Atlanta: Design of Infrastructure as a Reflection of Public Policy that proposed reclaiming a 22-mile (35-kilometer) ring of mostly abandoned and underused rail corridor and transforming it into a new public transit system combined with economic development and connectivity strategies. Gravel’s thesis sat on a shelf for a few years after graduation before it inspired a grassroots movement to build the most ambitious public works project in the city’s history: the Atlanta BeltLine.

The BeltLine, a transformative urban redevelopment project, continues to expand, creating a network of trails, parks, and transit. As it connects neighborhoods, it sparks economic development and increases property values. Investors eyeing areas along the BeltLine are well-positioned for long-term gains.

Atlanta and the Film Industry

Often called “The Hollywood of the South,” Atlanta has established itself as a titan in the film and television industry. Atlanta offers great diversity in filming locations as well as very attractive tax incentives- this includes a 20% tax credit to any film company that spends $500,000 or more on projects over the course of one year, plus another 10% tax credit if they include the “Made in Georgia” logo in the credits of the final production. 

With $4.1 billion directly spent on film in 2023 alone, the film industry brings in actors, crew members, and other personnel from projects that creates a need for temporary housing and contributes even further to the economic growth of Atlanta. 

The demand for housing combined with the steady presence of the film industry in the city offers short term rental opportunities for investors as well as potential steady incomes, making Atlanta even more desirable for real estate investment.

You can own a piece of Atlanta with Roots

There’s no better place to invest in real estate than Atlanta, and with Roots, there’s no better way to do it. With only a $5 entry fee and a minimum investment capital of only $100, Roots gives everyone the opportunity to claim ownership of a piece of Atlanta.

Specializing in residential rental properties, Roots offers its tenants the chance to grow their wealth alongside investors by participating in the “Live Like You Own It®” program which gives residents quarterly rebates to invest in the fund for paying rent on time, taking care of the property, and being a good neighbor.

With as little as $100 and five minutes, you can join Roots and own a piece of Atlanta, one of the best cities for real estate investment, all while making a positive impact.