Housing in North Fulton - A Realtor View
5 years ago, I decided to make a complete career change out of Human Resources into the crazy world of residential real estate. My sole personal source of income is now based on selling people homes. This income is 100% commission based, i.e., the more I sell, the higher a home sells for, the more money in my pocket. So, you’re probably asking why in the world am I writing a blog about the need for affordable housing?
“For households earning
$75,000 to $100,000, there’s
one affordable listing available for every 65 households”
This is a very valid question, and one that I once would have asked myself. To start, I’d like to share a story about one of my current buyer clients. The husband is a financial analyst for a global automotive company, the wife is a pharmacist, and their combined income is well over $200,000. They moved here from another state to enjoy all that the North Fulton area has to offer. The husband’s office is in Alpharetta, so their original plan was to purchase in Johns Creek or Alpharetta so they both could be close to work. After being out bid out on several houses in the $450,000-600,000 range, they diverted their search to north Cumming and parts of Gwinnett county, where houses are slightly more “affordable”. The wife is now working on transferring from her pharmacy in Fulton county to one in Forsyth or Gwinnett, depending on which house they end up buying. The husband now faces a 15 mile+ commute each way. Unfortunately, this is more and more common for buyers these days. People are having to adjust their criteria and move further away from where they work just to be able to afford a house.
For those not currently in the market for a home, you may ask why should I care? It is tempting to enjoy seeing the “Zestimate” of your home constantly increase, knowing your equity seems to be rising by the day. The lack of inventory and affordable housing hits home to every single North Fulton resident if you take a minute to reflect.
Firstly, the more people commuting into north Fulton from outside the limits means increased daily traffic. Imagine GA 400 or Hwy 9 even more bottlenecked than it already is. In addition, people like my client who can easily transfer job locations are choosing to work where they live, and leaving their jobs in North Fulton. Imagine showing up to your local pharmacy, restaurant or bar to find out your favorite employee no longer works there because they chose another location closer to home. This unfortunately will continue to be the reality until we find a solution to affordable housing, and this is not a problem solely faced in North Fulton. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) “For households earning $75,000 to $100,000, there’s one affordable listing available for every 65 households – a stark decrease in availability from one affordable listing for every 24 households in 2019 for this income group.”
In North Fulton, those households earning $75,000-100,000 are our nurses, teachers, retail managers. We should want the best workers in all of those industries to be able to live in our communities so our healthcare, education and businesses can thrive.
So, what can we do to help? To start, please take some time to visit the North Fulton Improvement Network (NFIN). They have a plethora of data and information on current issues, and how we can help. While you’re there, make sure to sign the North Fulton Promise. We have a long way to go, but if we all work together, we can help keep North Fulton a wonderful place to work, live and play for generations to come.