What it costs to own a home in Georgia
A median-priced Georgia home costs about $2,282 a month to own with 20% down at today's 6.65% thirty-year rate. That covers $1,919 of principal and interest, $246 of property tax and $117 of homeowners insurance. Staying inside the 28% front-end ratio lenders use takes a household income of roughly $97,802 a year.
- Median home price
- $373,700
- Monthly cost
- $2,282
- Income needed
- $97,802
- Property tax rate
- 0.79%
What sets the payment in Georgia?
| Input | Georgia | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Effective property tax rate | 0.79% | 25th highest of 51 |
| Median home price | $373,700 | 29th highest of 51 |
| Average annual premium | $1,400 | on a $250k dwelling |
| Assessment cap | none | assessments track market value |
| Price level vs national | 96.3 | BEA price parity, 100 = US average |
| Appreciation, past year | +0.49% | FHFA index |
| Appreciation, past five years | +55.5% | FHFA index |
What makes Georgia different
Georgia gained 55.5% over five years and then stopped almost completely, adding 0.49% over the past twelve months. That is the sharpest deceleration of any high-growth state in the country, and it makes the purchase date unusually decisive here. A 2019 Atlanta buyer is sitting on a transformed balance sheet. A 2022 buyer at the peak has, on these numbers, gained essentially nothing from the market and holds only what the loan has paid down.
Metro Atlanta absorbed an extraordinary volume of institutional single-family purchasing during that run — among the highest concentrations of investor-owned detached housing anywhere in the United States. Where those buyers concentrated, the appreciation was steeper than the state figure suggests, and the subsequent flattening has been steeper too.
On tax, the 0.79% effective rate is moderate, but Georgia's homestead exemption structure is unusually fragmented. Beyond the modest statewide exemption, individual counties and school districts layer on their own, and several of the metro counties operate floating or inflation-indexed exemptions that hold taxable value down for as long as the owner stays put. Where one of those applies, the real bill can sit well under the figure shown here — and it resets when the house changes hands.
How much income do you need to buy a house in Georgia?
All four rows buy the same $373,700 house at today's 6.65% rate. The difference is entirely the down payment and the mortgage insurance it does or does not trigger.
| Down | Cash at closing | P&I | PMI | Total monthly | Income needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5% down | $13,080 | $2,315 | $285 | $2,963 | $127,002 |
| 5% down | $18,685 | $2,279 | $207 | $2,849 | $122,100 |
| 10% down | $37,370 | $2,159 | $129 | $2,651 | $113,609 |
| 20% down | $74,740 | $1,919 | — | $2,282 | $97,802 |
What is a Georgia home bought in 2020 worth now?
Working backwards from today's median along the FHFA path for Georgia: what that same house would have cost at the time, the rate available then, and where the loan and the equity stand today at 20% down.
| Bought | Price then | Rate | P&I | Balance now | Equity now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-2010 | $141,766 | 4.74% | $591 | $71,847 | $301,853 |
| Mid-2015 | $163,975 | 3.98% | $625 | $99,241 | $274,459 |
| Mid-2018 | $200,496 | 4.57% | $819 | $135,679 | $238,021 |
| Mid-2020 | $232,263 | 3.16% | $800 | $160,502 | $213,198 |
| Mid-2022 | $310,122 | 5.52% | $1,412 | $232,927 | $140,773 |
| Mid-2024 | $357,122 | 6.92% | $1,885 | $279,045 | $94,655 |
How do wages vary across Georgia?
Wages track local price levels closely. These are the metropolitan areas in Georgia the calculator recognises from a ZIP code, and the pay adjustment it applies to national occupation wages there.
| Metro area | Price level | Pay adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 99.4 | -1% |
Run a real address. These are state medians. Put in an actual Georgia address, the date it closed and the price paid, and the calculator will work out that home's payment, its mortgage-insurance dates and the equity behind it.