Metro Atlanta’s already distressed housing market now must absorb a new blow: the closing of one southside military base and deep cutbacks at another, adding thousands more homes for sale as families move.
Atlanta’s 126-year-old Fort McPherson closes Sept. 15. Its Forest Park counterpart, Fort Gillem, will become a much smaller post. The moves are part of a federal plan -- known as the Base Closure and Realignment Commission or BRAC -- announced in 2005 to phase out or drastically cut back military installations nationwide.
The final phase of this drawdown -- which has shrunk the combined workforce of the two bases from nearly 10,000 in 2008 to less than 1,500 now -- couldn’t come at a worse time for the region and real estate professionals.
“It puts a lot more houses on the market than we’d normally have,” said Sandra McCrary, managing broker with ReMax Advantage in Henry County.
Nearly 65 percent of the military and civilian workers tied to the bases at their peak lived in Clayton, Fulton and Henry counties. The rest were spread across 11 other metro counties.
Many owned homes because post housing was limited, and now most have moved to Illinois, North Carolina and South Carolina, leaving empty houses behind.
As with all military pullouts, the long-term consequences aren’t fully known yet.
But it’s clear that hundreds of families are trying to sell quickly in a market where homes languish. Those able to sell are taking heavy losses, even with the federal government’s Housing Assistance Program, or HAP, set up specifically to help military familiesby covering the expected financial shortfalls they incur from home sales.
The Army Times recently reported that, according to an internal audit by the Army Corps of Engineers, nine out of 10 military homeowners affected by base closings and realignments most likely do not qualify for HAP. Eligibility depends on a number of factors, such as a community’s economic reliance on a base and the amount of time homes are on the market before and after a BRAC announcement.
The corps estimates 56,110 service members and 37,649 civilian employees live in areas affected by the closings, according to the article. Of those, about 7 percent, or 6,510 people, own homes and would apply for help.
Some military people and real estate professionals in metro Atlanta who’ve used HAP say its arduous eligibility process, which can take months, scares off potential buyers.
But Dottie Wise, a McDonough-based associate broker with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Metro Brokers, said HAP “was worth the effort” for a couple she recently worked with. They have since moved to Fort Bragg. The family took a loss of nearly $15,000, but without the program it could have been much worse, Wise said. She said the family will eventually recoup some of that loss through HAP.
“They get cash back into their pockets,” Wise said.
But a lot of military people feel they are in limbo.
Reservists Nicole and Edward Hill have tried to sell their Locust Grove home since 2009. They’re not directly affected by the BRAC, but they want to sell because they know they won’t be in the Atlanta area more than another year or so.
Their home almost sold twice, but last-minute glitches scotched the deals. They recently took the home off the market after learning HAP had run out of money for the remainder of its fiscal year, which ends in September. They plan to try again in the fall.
“It’s frustrating,” said Nicole Hill, who works for the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Morrow. The subdivision where they live with their three children had homes whose values ranged from $200,000 to more than $1 million about five years ago.
“Houses on the golf course were selling for half a million when we bought our house in 2005. Now, many are in foreclosure and selling in the $200,000 range,” Hill said. “It’s disappointing that the market has gotten so low and there’s no outlet for it to rebound anytime soon. We’re just sitting on toxic property.”
Some sellers, like Master Sgt. Ryan Barr and his wife, Kimberley, have defied the odds. The couple, transferring from Fort McPerson to Fort Jackson in Columbia at the end of the month, recently sold their three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home in Stockbridge in about a month.
The house listed for $124,900 and sold for $114,000. There are about a half dozen other homes for sale in the Barrs’ subdivision, but their home is the first to sell in three years.
The couple did not use the HAP. They staged the home, painted the inside a warm earthy brown, added a new refrigerator, installed dark slate to the kitchen floors and matching backsplash, and updated light fixtures and ceiling fans, all for under $2,000.
“As long as you make your place move-in ready,” Barr said, “you’re more likely to sell.”
Fort McPherson
Location: Atlanta
Established: March 4, 1885
Tenants: 3rd Army, also known as 3rd Army/U.S. Army Central; U.S. Army Reserve Command; and U.S. Army Forces Command, or ForceCom
Workforce: 5,831 at peak in 2008
Size: 488 acres
What happens on Sept 15: The base will permanently close.
Future plans: Creating a live-work-play complex that would include a “bioscience crossroads” where scientists and researchers can collaborate.
Fort Gillem
Location: Forest Park
Established: Nov. 1, 1941
Tenant: First U.S. Army and various support units
Workforce: 3,780 at peak in 2008
Size: 1,427 acres
What happens on Sept 15: The base will be reduced in size and personnel.
Future plans: It will keep its crime lab and other services vital to the military; redevelopment plans call for creating industrial, warehousing and manufacturing facilities.
to sell their Locust Grove home since 2009. They're not directly affected by the BRAC
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