REAL ESTATE
FORECAST 2022 51
they’re not freeing up another house to come to the market.
So, our largest buyer pool is not creating more housing.”
ose millennials are competing with early empty-nesters
for the same product, something Hill calls a “barbell eect.”
Hubs such as e Battery Atlanta and Marietta Square are
particularly aected.
“ey’re trying to buy the same property, because they want
to be able to go out and to explore, they want to walk to their
brewery, they want to be able to walk to dinner,” Hill said.
“And so the demand in those hubs in Cobb are really high
right now.”
Many people still move to Cobb because of its school
districts, Hill said, which could draw people to east or west
Cobb. Hubs like downtown Marietta and Cumberland are
more popular for people seeing live-work-play opportunities.
e supply chain issues in the economy have also slowed
down new construction, Hill said.
“If you’re trying to buy a house, you’ve got to be smart,
you’ve got to be open minded and you’ve got to be ready to
act quickly,” Hill said.
Another factor driving demand are low interest rates for
mortgages, with rates ranging from 2 to 3.5%. In response
to ination, the Federal Reserve may increase rates this year,
which could slow down borrowing and thus, the housing
market. at might not be a bad thing, Chambers said.
“If things slow down, it would make things a bit easier on
buyers and sellers. It would be a leveling out, a slowdown of
price increases,” Chambers said.
Even if rates go up a bit, Chambers said they will still likely
be historically low. Hill echoed that, saying 2022 is likely to
bring more of the same trends.
“I think it’ll still be busy,” Hill said. “It just won’t be the 40,
50 oers per house like it has been in the last 12 months.”
e commercial real estate business was hit by COVID-19
forcing workers to stay home. Dan Buyers, a partner at
McWhirter Realty Partners, said new forms of the virus have
slowed down the return to work that many expected when
vaccines became available.
“is time last year, I was certainly hopeful that COVID
would be behind us,” Buyers said. “And then all of our largest
employers would have most of their employees back in oces.
And so due to the lingering COVID issues, we’ve still got a lot
of oce buildings that are largely vacant.”
e industrial market, however, is as strong and healthy as
ever, Buyers said. Retail is more of a mixed bag.
Malls and big box retail have suered due to the rise of
online shopping. Restaurants, bars and other experiential
retail are performing well, though.
“Long before I had ever heard of COVID or coronavirus,
real estate experts nationally have long said that America and
Atlanta are over-retailed. We have more retail space than we
need as a country,” Buyers said.
e pandemic exacerbated this problem. It’s still about
location, but Buyers said places that oer something you’re
less likely to nd online, such as shops, boutiques, food, drink
and entertainment, are better positioned than the big box
stores.
e Battery and Marietta Square are highly popular for
retail space, Buyers said. e same is true, to a lesser extent,
for downtown Smyrna, Acworth and Kennesaw.
“e walkable, pedestrian-friendly environments remain
very attractive and popular,” he said.
Metro Atlanta remains an attractive option for relocation,
Buyers said, citing the new Microso oces being built in
Atlanta and the Papa John’s headquarters relocation to Cobb.
“I think that our universities continue to attract employers
that are looking to hire a diverse and qualied workforce,”
he said.
As Cobb has continued to grow, a slew of new housing
developments were given the OK by Cobb County and other
local governments in 2021. Some of these are listed below.
February saw the county approve a subdivision that
will bring up to 44 single-family homes to a 30-acre area
on Garden Road in Powder Springs, as well as the city of
Marietta approve a 303-unit complex near Cobb Parkway and
Windy Hill Road.
In May, the county approved a subdivision of up to 110
new homes on a lot around the corner from McEachern High
School, and the city of Powder Springs approved a mixed-use
development with 348 apartments near the intersection of
Brownsville and Oglesby roads.
The controversial Sprayberry Crossing development was
approved by the county in June. The development will add
132 senior apartments and 102 townhomes. Also in June,
Powder Springs sold its city hall to a developer that plans
to construct a mixed-use development with 221 multifamily
apartments.
In July, Smyrna approved a mixed-use development near
Truist Park and e Battery Atlanta which will include 300
multi-family apartments.
In September, the city of Kennesaw greenlighted
332 apartments and 63 townhomes to be built off Old
41 Highway as the second phase of the Kennesaw
Marketplace development. In the same month, the county
approved a 44-home project bordering the Silver Comet
Trail in south Cobb.
In October, the county signed o on a 92-home subdivision
on Ebenezer Road in northeast Cobb, and Marietta approved
19 townhomes and 21 detached homes to be built at the
corner corner of Saine Drive and Roberta Drive.
Finally, a 200-unit apartment complex at the nexus of I-75
and I-575 was approved in November by the county, as was
a 378-unit complex on the site currently occupied by the
abandoned Regal Cinemas at Town Center Mall.