That Cheap Atlanta Housing Comes With Big Transpo Costs
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The hidden costs of transportation in car-centric sprawl are considerable. Atlanta draws people to its suburbs by way of home prices that are relatively affordable. BUT… when you factor in transportation costs, studies show that sprawling Atlanta region is one of the least affordable places in the US for moderate-income households (based on Area Median Income).This page on the Atlanta Regional Commission website has more info on the numbers. Here’s a quote:“Moderate-income” households…in metro Atlanta spend 63 percent of their income on transportation and housing costs.The cost of purchasing, maintaining and fueling a car (plus buying insurance for it) can make for an expensive way of life in places like Atlanta — the most sprawling metro in the US.It’s a situation that may not affect the wallets of the most affluent residents of the region too much, but medium and low income Atlantans feel the pinch in a big way. That’s why it’s increasingly important to look at housing and transportation
costs together when measuring the affordability of an area. Below is a map that shows the per-capita vehicle miles driven by people in metro Atlanta (source). The dark orange areas are places where residents drive the most number of miles per day.If you live in the most car-centric outer regions of Atlanta and are thinking to yourself, “but I’m not broke! I can afford my lifestyle” — that may be due to the way that we’re all subsidizing your housing, helping to offset the costs of car ownership and use. The image of north Georgia below, taken from a Pew study, shows where housing is subsidized the most. That dark blue
doughnut shape is the suburbs of Atlanta, all relying on mortgage
interest deductions at a rate that is far higher than the national or
state average. So if you aren’t feeling the pinch of those transportation costs, you’re welcome! It’s because we’re all helping to shoulder your housing costs.
I often hear people from the Atlanta region talk about where they live in terms of how many minutes it takes to drive somewhere. Their home is a “15 minute drive” from a store or some other amenity and only a “30 minute drive” to work. To which the usual kind reply is, “oh, that’s not bad at all!”As a point of reference, the livability of walkable places like my neighborhood (and I realize I risk sounding smug here, though I certainly don’t intend to) can often be measured in terms of how many blocks you are from an amenity or how many minutes it takes to walk to a certain destination. That’s a measurement tool that signifies something good for physical and economic health.
