This story popped yesterday when Forbes ranked the nation’s “emptiest” cities and Atlanta came in third behind housing-hedonist Las Vegas and car-dependent Detroit in terms of vacant rental units and single-family homes.  The AJC’s print edition led with the story in this morning’s paper and does a pretty good job at taking apart the data, citing many local experts.

So, why does Atlanta have more available property than almost every other U.S. city?  The AJC article states that some of it has to do with the vastness of the metro-area (28 counties) and our particularly potent combination of an overbuilt market with a high rate of foreclosures.   From that it sounds to me like Atlanta might just be the victim of its own early 21st century popularity.

But probably the most interesting trend cited is that the census data is also showing that the city’s population is still growing.  Sound impossible?  Apparently, more people are moving in together instead of buying their own property.

This trend helps the AJC article end on a high hote… “As the economy stabilizes, [Emory Prof. Frank] Alexander said, demand should rebound quickly, unlike in No. 2 Detroit, where population has been steadily declining.”

And when will that be?  Unfortunately, people much smarter than myself keep talking more and more about a “lost decade”.