Affordable housing is vanishing in Athens. Here's why.

Housing seems to be growing less and less affordable in Athens, Georgia with rent and home prices going up quickly. Why is that happening? What does it mean to say that housing is affordable or not?

Local news. Georgia politics. National policy.
APN is funded by individual donors like you and is completely independent.

[Jo-yeye]

Great video!

Something I learned about the place I rent now in Athens is that in 2013, the rent for my 3 bedroom place was $450 a month, for the whole place. Now it is $1150 a month for the whole place because my current landlord bought the house and increased the price.

[grantfulcotton]

Our local government needs more transparency. You provide that transparency. Salute.

[ClassicCityMinistry]

Born and raised in this town its sad...I been pushed out and homeless because of this!!!

[adamla]

I learned so much from this!

Biggest takeaways:

a) We need to end the exclusionary zoning that pushes rents up higher than would happen under more "free market" conditions. (For a supposedly "free market" society, there's an incredible amount of central planning that sets the rules for how we provide shelter, and generally in ways that make housing less affordable.)
b) We also need to use public money to build permanently affordable housing, because market conditions are such that even with a large reduction in exclusionary zoning, market forces alone still wouldn't lead to enough affordable stock. (Much like how capitalism on its own doesn't provide affordable healthcare or education to anywhere close to all people, but perhaps even more so because land is a tradable, speculable commodity .)