Amazon HQ2: Atlanta Ranks High On Real Estate Study

ATLANTA, GA — With Amazon ready to narrow down the list of potential homes for a new, second headquarters, Atlanta ranked high on a look at the housing market in each of the cities still in the running.

Atlanta ranks No. 2 in overall real estate market among the finalists for Amazon's HQ2 project in a new study by ATTOM Data Solutions, which analyzes numbers about the housing market. Raleigh, N.C., finished in first.

According to the study, Atlanta didn't finish first in any of the eight categories included. Instead, it consistently was in the top few cities when ATTOM looked at things like home affordability, crime rates, five-year home value appreciation and environmental hazard risks.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

ATTOM says that landing HQ2 will be "a game changer" for whichever venue lands the project, which will bring as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs and millions in new construction work to the area.

Since Amazon announced plans for HQ2 in September, Atlanta has consistently been mentioned by analysts as a likely contender for the new headquarters. Moody's Analytics, the economic-research arm of the business and financial services company, ranked the Atlanta area No. 2 among the many localities striving to become home to a second headquarters for the Seattle-based online-retail giant. Austin, Texas, which is also on the short list, was ranked No. 1 by Moody's.

Amazon said it plans to spend $5 billion on the new headquarters, creating as many as 50,000 jobs in the process. In its call for proposals, the company said the project is expected to create tens of thousands of additional support jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the community where the new headquarters land.

The company estimates that its investments in Seattle, where its current 33-building campus is located, pumped $38 billion into the city's economy from 2010-16.

In January, Atlanta was officially named one of 20 finalists for the new headquarters, out of 238 applicants. Since then, the city is believed to have made a cut narrowing down the legitimate contenders even further, though Amazon has made no official announcement to that effect. A shorter short list could be forthcoming in the next few weeks, some observers believe.

City and state political officials have made wooing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a major priority, with staffers for Republican Gov. Nathan Deal recently complimenting Atlanta's Democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, for her work on the effort.

Photo courtesy Amazon