Study: Homeownership Will Decline Without Zoning, Lending Changes

In Georgia, total homeownership is expected to decline by more than 2.5% by 2040, according to a report from the Urban Institute.

JOANN VITELLI / Courtesy of Atlanta Business Chronicle

A new report from the Urban Institute finds that homeownership will decline in the coming decades unless zoning policies and lending requirements change.

In Georgia, total homeownership is expected to decline by more than 2.5% by 2040, according to the report, which was funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation. Buyers of color will drive the housing market over the next 20 years, but institutional barriers that disproportionately lock out minorities will account for the overall decline.

“If nobody does anything different, this is the situation we’re going to be in,” Eileen Fitzgerald, head of Wells Fargo’s housing affordability philanthropy, told Atlanta Business Chronicle.