As Atlanta continues to experience a surge in millennial and executive population growth, the city has turned into the meeting spot for the South’s best and brightest individuals. The urban core of metro Atlanta is dominated by rental housing, and this market has maximized in growth, resulting in Atlanta taking the title for the third best market for rental real estate investment in the Southeast and the fifteenth in the country.

Atlanta achieved this ranking in Seattle-based All Property Management’s first quarter 2015 Rental Ranking Report primarily due to its year-over-year home value appreciation of 8.87 percent, an appreciation almost 60 percent larger than the national average. This represented a solid return on investment for rental property owners. Rental housing remains in high demand, and the apartment-building crane has become a permanent fixture in the Atlanta skyline.

This strong home value appreciation can clearly be attributed to impressive annual job growth: about 3.89 percent. Also driving the demand for Atlanta is the area’s low median age of housing inventory at 53 days. This shows the demand is not only strong, but is also likely to increase.

San Francisco, Denver, Raleigh, Seattle, Austin and Minneapolis are among the other rental markets currently offering high returns on rental housing. Although Atlanta’s rental real estate market continues to grow, returns on rental housing investment are currently far better in the Western U.S. than in any other region.

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