Apartment Rents Still Taking Missteps

Average apartment rents in Atlanta took another beating this month, according to stats from an apartment listing service. But that was after a pretty good run of rents through the middle of the year.

Average rents on one-bedroom apartments in Metro Atlanta fell 4% to $1,366/month in October, according to Abodo. But the rents were still up year-over-year, when they were $1,322/month for a single bedroom, says Abodo's Sam Radbil.

The rental performance came in light of increasing apartment supply, mainly inside I-285. According to a Q3 Haddow & Co report, 41 apartment projects encompassing nearly 11,500 units were under construction, and another 10,500 units are in the proposal pipeline.

Luckily, Sam says those new units are being offset by the 70,000 new residents who moved to Atlanta over the past year. And even Abodo is tracking better rental performance in Q3; we reported how in April, rents fell to $1,305/month.

Preserve Properties is the latest to come out with plans for an apartment project, this time in the heart of Buckhead (above), as we reported here. 

And its not just Adobo showing declines. Another apartment metric tracker, Axiometrics, has shown a $2/SF decline in rents to $1,116/month in September—the first decrease after eight straight months of rent hikes.

But Axiometrics' Jay Denton (above) downplayed that blip. “A $2 decrease is not all that significant on a one-month basis,” he says. “Atlanta rents are still increasing by a robust 5% year-over-year, and job growth continues to be strong, creating demand.”