$40,092.12. That’s the amount you need to earn annually in order to afford a median-priced house in Atlanta, according to mortgage-tracker HSH.com.
That number’s up 5.79 percent in the 12-month period the company measured.
But economist Tom Smith with Emory’s Goizueta Business School says: this change is good. Or, more accurately, it’s neither good nor bad. It simply indicates the economy re-balancing itself after the recession.
Just after the housing market bubble collapsed, he says, metro Atlanta saw a typical pattern: “Rental rates start to climb, and the mortgage that you’d be required to have a house, would start to fall. Then they catch back up once the economy starts going in a good direction, and I think that’s what you’re seeing here, as well.”
He adds that when it comes to costs of living, a snapshot like this survey shouldn’t be mistaken for the big picture.
