In the running debate over Georgia’s inflated housing prices, there are the usual suspects: high interest rates, the cost of building materials, Wall Street investors. But while Georgians seek to assign blame for why “starter homes” are increasingly unattainable, a lesser known culprit remains the cost of time.
Across the state, research shows that the cost of regulatory delay is no longer just a bureaucratic headache for builders; it has a direct impact on the bank accounts of families trying to purchase a home. Unfortunately, the sheer length of time it takes to gain approval has become a significant tax on new homeowners.
For a typical single-family home in Georgia, the average cost of permitting delays is less than one percent of the final purchase price. But on a $350,000 home, even that 0.8% equates to a “waiting fee” of $2,800. This is money unavailable to be spent on brick facades, sturdier foundations, or even energy-efficient windows – it is wasted capital.
To understand why time is so expensive, consider how a house actually gets built. Most developers rely on construction loans to fund their projects, which accrue interest the moment the first dollar is drawn.
For context, Georgia law currently requires local governments to approve a building permit within 45 days. But when a local government sends required changes back to the builder or developer, this “shot clock” resets – even, or especially, if not all departments involved in reviewing the plan have seen it yet. As a homebuilder once put it, “I build in five metro Atlanta counties. In one county, I can break ground within two days of submitting my permit. In another, it takes seven months.”
Read more in this week’s commentary.
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest 🗞️
Data centers have been an integral part of energy infrastructure for much longer than they’ve been a ubiquitous topic in public policy conversations. But the rapid advance of artificial intelligence over the last few years has meant increased demand for more data centers.
Recently, President Donald Trump cheered many self-styled consumer advocates by saying that credit card interest rates should be capped at 10%, and later gave his backing to a proposal aimed at curtailing the power of Visa and Mastercard. Both proposals would in fact harm the very consumers they are intended to help, but their negative effects would go further.
Georgia lawmakers have raised transparency concerns over federal “guidance” communicated to the state Department of Education (GaDOE). While this issue might seem like the ultimate in esoteric “inside baseball,” it reflects a serious challenge to state and local governance in education and has far-reaching consequences for Georgia’s students, parents and educators.
The Promise Scholarship is enjoying a successful first year with 7,744 participating students. Each one gets $6,500 for private school, homeschooling or another non-public educational option.
At the beginning of each year, thousands of taxpayers rush to support Georgia families by submitting an application for the Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit. Through the Tax Credit and participating scholarship organizations, Georgia is expanding K-12 educational access, increasing diversity in private school communities and saving Georgia taxpayers millions.
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With affordability a top concern heading into the elections this year, Georgia’s Senate Republicans are proposing billions of dollars in cuts to the state income tax. A study committee assigned by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican and advocate for abolishing the 5.19% tax, approved recommendations on Wednesday that would eliminate it for lower-income earners starting in January, eventually abolishing it altogether.
Since the 1980s, the percentage of individuals that move to a different state has dropped from well over 10% to single digit metrics, says the United States Census Bureau. Georgia ranks among the top states for in-migration—but lowest among its neighbors—according to U-Haul’s 2025 Growth Index.
House Speaker Jon Burns is backing a plan to ban cellphone use during the school day for Georgia high school students. The Republican said he expects House lawmakers to pass a measure during the session that begins next week extending Georgia’s K-8 cellphone ban to high school students.
A $3.7 billion project in Spalding County called Wallace Jackson Data Center Campus was outlined Tuesday in a state infrastructure filing. The project is slated to include 10 data center buildings spanning nearly 5 million square feet, which is more floor space than three Lenox Square malls.
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns (R- Newington) laid out his new priorities as the legislative season set to kick off. Foremost, Burns said, was tackling a literacy crisis that’s seen one in three Georgia students lack reading proficient by the all-important third grade benchmark.
Featured Report
Institutional investors have become a central focus in debates over housing affordability in metro Atlanta, but the evidence tells a more complicated story. This report evaluates investor activity in context, showing how underlying housing shortages and post-recession policy changes have played a far larger role in shaping today’s market.
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One More Fact 💡
Housing affordability has become a growing challenge in Georgia, but the primary cause is simple: the state is not building enough homes. Today, Georgia produces fewer homes each year than it did in the 1990s, even though millions more people now live here. When housing supply fails to keep pace with population growth, higher prices are inevitable.
Our research estimates Georgia’s housing shortage at roughly 365,000 homes, with 48 counties lacking at least 1,000 units each. A key reason for this shortfall is government regulation. Studies show that about one-quarter of the cost of a new home — whether single-family or multifamily — comes from regulatory requirements that increase construction costs and slow development.
These supply constraints have also drawn attention to large institutional investors purchasing homes to rent, particularly in metro Atlanta. But the data show investors are largely responding to the housing shortage rather than causing it. Homeownership rates have risen across every metro Atlanta county, including those with the strongest investor presence.
Research further indicates that institutional investors can expand rental supply and help moderate rents, while representing only a small share of overall single-family homes. Their impact on home purchase prices appears minimal compared to the broader supply shortage.
If policymakers want to make housing more affordable for Georgians, the focus should be on removing barriers that make it harder and more expensive to build new homes. Increasing supply remains the most effective path to lasting affordability.