Good news for Atlanta home builders, Builder Online, in conjunction with new data from Metrostudy, recently named Atlanta one of the Top 10 Markets for New Residential Construction. Across the country, housing starts remain strong, with numbers up 15.7 percent this year according to data from Metrostudy. And across the South, new home starts are up in several markets, including Atlanta, which was the fourth strongest market for housing starts in the country.

In Atlanta, both detached and attached new home starts are up by nearly 1,000 homes for the second quarter of 2014 when compared to the first quarter. When compared to the same quarter in 2013, starts are up by more than 500 homes. The metro Atlanta real estate market has also seen around 15 percent growth in year-over-year change, while there has been around 30 percent quarter-over-quarter growth.

The exurbs of Atlanta were hurt the most during the economic recession, but demand in the “Golden Triangle” is now extremely strong. This area consists of parts of Cobb, Cherokee, North Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb and South Forsyth counties, particularly those areas bordered by I-75 and I-85 to the east and west and the start of the Connector to the south. New home sites are finally being developed throughout metro Atlanta, especially in these areas. This was unheard of just a year or two ago, as the recession left behind 140,000 vacant developed home sites around Atlanta.

Metrostudy predicts that the housing market will continue its strong growth, with an 18 percent increase in single-family housing starts expected for next year. This is a significant increase in this year’s expected six percent increase.

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