Gentrifying Atlanta: Investor Purchases of Rental Housing, Evictions, and the Displacement of Black Residents

ABSTRACT

Displacement of Black communities through gentrification is a major concern among policymakers, community groups, and advocates. This research investigates whether investor purchases of multifamily rental housing predict evictions and the displacement of Black residents from Atlanta, Georgia, between 2000 and 2016. In a series of quantitative analyses, we identify the financialization of rental housing and subsequent eviction-led displacement as key neighborhood-level processes in racial transition and the gentrification of Atlanta. We find that eviction judgments grew by 8% annually in the Atlanta region, and same-site apartment sale prices increased by an average of $5.5 million. Investor purchases of rental housing in a neighborhood predict a spike in eviction judgments in the same year, and presage racial transition. Neighborhoods with investor purchases of apartment buildings lose 166 Black residents and gain 109 White residents over a 6-year period compared with adjacent neighborhoods with no investor purchases.

KEYWORDS:

• gentrification
• financialization
• race
• eviction

Acknowledgments

We thank Brian Mykulyn and Megan Conville for research assistance on this article; Chris Wyczalkowski and three anonymous reviewers for thoughtful comments and suggestions; and Enterprise Community Partners for funding associated with this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We chose the threshold of $999/month because it is close to the 60% AMI affordable rent for a family in the Atlanta metropolitan statistical area during the time frame. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Income Limits Briefing Materials from 2004 and 2016 show that median family income in Atlanta did not change much from 2004 to 2016; it fell slightly, from $69,000 to $67,500. A rent of $999 represents an affordable rent for families earning nearly 60% (more precisely, 59–58%) of median income during this period (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2004, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Enterprise Community Partners [AWD-000140].

Notes on contributors

Elora Lee Raymond

Elora Lee Raymond is an assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Ben Miller

Ben Miller is a senior lecturer in the English Department and the Department of Quantitative Theory and Methods at Emory University.

Michaela McKinney

Michaela McKinney is a graduate student in the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jonathan Braun

Jonathan Braun is a graduate of the School of City and Regional Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology.