Atlanta monthly mortgage payments up nearly 113% since 2020, Zillow says

Sam Sachs
·2 min read

Real estate company Zillow’s latest report on home affordability in Atlanta shows the costs for a monthly mortgage, and how much you need to earn to live comfortably, have both gone up dramatically since 2020.

On Thursday, Zillow reported Atlanta homebuyers need to earn almost double what they needed in 2020 to buy a house and afford it comfortably, or spend no more than 30% of a household’s income on a house with a 10% down payment.

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In 2020, Atlantans who were looking to buy a house could get away with earning about $59,441 to afford a typical monthly mortgage, the real estate company said.

In 2024, Atlanta residents need to earn more than 94% more to achieve the same goal.

“Atlanta home shoppers today need to make $115,430 to comfortably afford a typical home,” Zillow said.

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The company said that was a $55,989 increase for the needed salary. Based on their data, Zillow said it would take about eight years to save up enough at that income level for a 10% down payment.

Assuming they’ll make that proportional down payment, prospective Atlanta home buyers face an even sharper increase on potential monthly mortgage payments, compared to 2020.

Zillow’s latest data report showed “a monthly mortgage payment on a typical Atlanta home has risen sharply since January 2020, up 112.7% to $2,364,″ if you’re making that 10% down payment.

Home prices weren’t the only real estate trend to surge upward since 2020. Rental prices nationally were up close to 30% since pre-pandemic, according to Zillow.

In Atlanta, Zillow reported people living in the city needed to earn at least $76,000 to afford market-rate rent. According to the company’s observed rent index, the typical rent per month as of January 2024 was $1,900, a 0.3% increase year over year.

However, the same measure in January 2020 was $1,493, according to archival data available from Zillow. From 2020 to 2024, rent prices increased more than 20%.

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