For Patrick and Allison Liber, the housing crunch that has seized metro Atlanta in recent years is not theoretical. In their early 30s, the Libers managed to buy their first home late last year—which is still a distant dream for many of their peers. It was no fairy tale: “We really learned that if we were able to afford a home, especially in this market, we weren’t going to have this huge house,” Allison says. “As first-time homebuyers, I think keeping our expectations realistic helped a lot.”
Buying a home is more expensive today than it’s been at any time in U.S. history: Over the past four decades, the median home price has risen 117 percent more than the rate of inflation. Because wages haven’t kept pace, Americans are pushing off buying a home until much later than they used to. The typical first-time homebuyer in this country is now 40 years old—a record high, according to the National Association of Realtors. (In 1995, it was 31.)
In fast-growing metro Atlanta, residents feel the pressure. A 2025 survey by the Atlanta Regional Commission found that affordable housing topped the list of Atlantans’ concerns, ahead of traffic, crime, and the economy. It’s disproportionately affecting young Atlantans, as they tend to have lower incomes and less savings. To get into the game, they are settling for fixer-uppers, scraping together down payments, and taking on higher insurance premiums. More and more are giving up on the homeownership dream altogether.
The increase in home prices has been squeezing young homebuyers for nearly two decades, but in the past five years, the situation has become notably dire. “The increase from December 2021 to today. . . is almost 20 percent extra in the price, plus the extra cost in the mortgage,” says Sergio Gárate, director of the real estate program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “And all that drives the cost of ownership really high.” Buyers, he adds, often have sticker shock when faced with related costs, including higher property taxes, ballooning insurance premiums, and escalating maintenance costs.
For the Libers, both 32, limiting their priority list helped soften the blow. Patrick, a wholesale plumbing manager, and Allison, a pediatric ICU nurse, met several years ago on Instagram. Last fall, as their wedding day approached, they launched a search for their first home, opting for the Smyrna area because of its proximity to their jobs and its quiet, walkable communities. After the first house they loved fell through during inspection, the couple found a 1,100-square-foot starter home that checked most of the boxes on their wish list. It was also under budget—which Allison’s mother, Jill Jackson, who served as their real estate agent, recommended in case Allison opted to stay home with kids down the line and they needed Patrick’s salary to cover the mortgage.
A less expensive home also helped offset mortgage interest rates, which shot up after the pandemic and remain stubbornly high. “We’re not going to have 2 and 3 percent again,” Jackson says. “It’s tough on [Allison and Patrick] because of the pricing of homes these days. But [even] if interest rates drop, everybody’s going to come out, and the prices of homes are going to go up even more.”
Photograph by Audra Melton
After a brief back-and-forth negotiation—and with another buyer also bidding for the home—the sellers accepted the Libers’ offer of $465,000. Pooling together Patrick’s bonus and returns from Allison’s cryptocurrency investments, the couple placed a 3 percent down payment on their home and secured a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at just under 6 percent. Because their down payment was less than 20 percent of the purchase price, Liber and Jackson also pay extra-pricey private mortgage insurance, an increasing trend among first-time homebuyers with less cash to spare for a down payment.
Nationwide, the housing affordability crisis is turbocharged by low inventory. Older homeowners are staying put longer: The average family lives in their home 11.9 years, as opposed to 6.5 years two decades ago. But there are also fewer starter homes, thanks to a drop in homebuilding after the 2008 financial crisis.
In the 2025 Atlanta Regional Commission study, some respondents pointed to the issue of private investors driving up home prices: In popular markets such as Atlanta, families compete against large corporations, which are increasingly scooping up single-family homes to be used as rental properties. A recent analysis by a Wall Street watchdog group ranked Georgia as the state most at risk of disruptions caused by private equity. “It’s very difficult for Georgia families trying to purchase their first home to compete with huge out-of-state companies who have massive resources and are buying up tens of thousands of single-family homes,” said Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff in a statement touting a bipartisan bill passed in March that, among other things, caps the number of residential homes private equity firms can purchase.
For Pablo and Rosemary Mora, buying their home required navigating an additional obstacle common among young buyers: heavy student loan debt. Pablo, 32, a dentist, and Rosemary, 35, a periodontist, began searching for a home in Sandy Springs last year, drawn by the promise of a strong school district for their daughter, now two years old. They found a fixer-upper in their budget, but heavy student loan debt from dental school, including forbearance on those loans, altered their debt-to-income ratio, making it difficult to get financing.
To get around the issue, the Moras secured a special loan program for medical professionals who have high debt but substantial income potential in the future. This “physician mortgage,” as it is called, capped the Moras’ student loan debt at a reduced percentage of their income, allowing them to qualify for an adjustable-rate mortgage with no money down and no increased insurance penalty.
“We both recognize that what we do for a living was helpful for us being able to afford a home,” Rosemary says. “[Everyone’s] circumstances are different, with how expensive everything is. I feel very fortunate.”
For those still trying to get their foot in the homeownership door, there might be brighter days ahead. Garate says that, in the future, several factors could loosen up the housing market, including lower interest rates, reduction of red tape for builders, and an end to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on construction materials, which have created a surge in costs.
Courtesy of Anna Agyao and Brandon Goodwin
But some younger Atlantans are simply moving on. Anna Agyao, 33, a registered nurse, and her husband, Brandon Goodwin, 36, a respiratory therapist, currently rent a home in Decatur. In 2022, two years into their marriage, the couple met with a broker and were disappointed to learn they could afford a mortgage of just $150,000. The broker recommended they shop for a condominium.
“We kind of gave up,” Agyao says. “Then, in 2023, I found out I was pregnant . . . and I kind of shifted my view of owning a house.” Renting, she says, offers them flexibility to try out school districts and find a good fit for their son, now two, when he starts school.
“You don’t have to own a house to be a good parent,” Agyao says. “That’s kind of the American dream that you’re sold.”
This article appears in our June 2026 issue.
