Residential Real Estate

When I moved to Augusta over 20 years ago, one of the selling points was its affordability, especially for housing. Unfortunately, that may be changing. According to the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, housing in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has been unaffordable since May 2022. Housing unaffordability is defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development as annual costs of home ownership exceed 30 percent of the annual household income. Costs include principal and interest on mortgage loans, associated

It has been a while since I updated the Augusta Leading Economic Index (LEI) and there have been some interesting developments. In September and October, there were 572 and 545 new residential building permits issued for the August Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The September number is the second highest, and the October number the fourth highest, since records began in January 2000. This represents good news for the construction industry and the supply of housing to help ensure affordable housing. Initial claims for unemployment insurance took a hit in October,