Metro Atlanta has the lowest rate of homelessness of the 50 largest metro areas in the country, according to a recent study from Clever Real Estate published on Home Bay that looked at home values vs homelessness rates.
Metro Atlanta has a homelessness rate of 33 per 100,000 people. That’s a relatively low number compared to 637 per 100,000 people in San Jose, Calif., the city with the highest rate of homelessness. The national average is 176 per 100,000 people.
The study used a “point-in-time” count to obtain their data on homelessness, which measures a snapshot of homelessness people in the streets from a selected night in January along with about a week of data from volunteers and homeless shelters. That number fell from about 3600 people in 2017’s point-in-time count to around 2000 in the most recent 2022 count, according to Matt Brannon, data analyst at Clever Real Estate.
The purpose of the study was to find any trends between rates of homelessness and home values across the 50 largest metros. The trend that emerged was clear — higher home values typically led to higher rates of homelessness.
This would help explain why the cities with the lowest and highest rates of homelessness — Atlanta and San Jose, respectively — have a large difference in average home value, with Atlanta at $325,680 compared to San Jose’s $1.39 million.
“The five metros with the lowest homeless rates average home prices at $255,860 — 15 percent lower than the U.S. average of $301,466,” according to Clever Real Estate, which aligns with the trend between increased homelessness rates and higher home values.
The western United States — especially cities in California — had the worst rates of homelessness according to the study, and conversely typically had the highest home values. In fact, five of the seven worst metro homelessness rates were in the state of California.
Likewise, the eastern half of the U.S. fared better with home…
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