“I like living around neighbors I know,” said Riverdale resident Keene Walker. “We believe in the concept that it takes a village. Now it’s like the houses are occupied but we’re not serving in the capacity of the village. The connection with neighbors is gone. ”
Walker is seeing more new faces in his subdivision, and many of them belong to renters. It’s a reality that has him and others worried. Transient neighbors don’t have the same vested interest in the community, he said.
» INTERACTIVE MAP: See which company owns the most rental homes in Clayton County and where they're located
» INTERACTIVE CHARTS: See how Clayton County ranks in rental homes versus the rest of Metro Atlanta
Walker’s concerns are echoed throughout Clayton County, where nearly a third of the single-family homes are occupied by renters. In Clayton and other metro Atlanta counties, the numbers have doubled since 2000. It’s a trend driven, in part, by the influx of rental companies that bought homes on the cheap during the economic downturn and are holding onto them.
On average, more than one in five — 22 percent — of metro Atlanta’s single-family homes are rentals. At 31 percent, Clayton has the highest percentage of renters living in single-family homes in the region. That’s more than twice the rate of Cobb County, and close to double the rate of Fulton and Gwinnett. DeKalb County, with 22 percent, also doesn’t come close.
To read more about the increase in single-family homes being used as rental properties, click here.
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