Political Insider
Political Insider

Housing prices could help explain Hillary Clinton's victories in Cobb, Gwinnett

Gwinnett County residents in a long line to vote on the last day of early voting in November. Hyosub Shin,hshin@ajc.com

Credit: Jim Galloway

Credit: Jim Galloway

Gwinnett County residents in a long line to vote on the last day of early voting in November. Hyosub Shin,hshin@ajc.com
By Jim Galloway
Dec 29, 2016

Over at the Washington Post's Wonkblog, Max Ehrenfreund has a unique explanation for why Republican counties like Cobb and Gwinnett, which went for Mitt Romney in 2012, were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Voters there had largely recovered from the Great Recession and its housing bubble burst. A paragraph:

Obama–Trump counties were no different from the other counties that Trump won, at least in terms of typical housing prices. Romney–Clinton counties were especially affluent, though, with a median home price above $300,000 — twice that of the typical county carried by Trump. These well-heeled places included traditionally conservative communities such as California's Orange County, Utah's Salt Lake County and Georgia's Gwinnett County, which is outside Atlanta.

About the Author

Jim Galloway, the newspaper’s former political columnist, was a writer and editor at the AJC for four decades.

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