Powder Springs, GA vs Lithonia

[Chukwudi Motanya]

Hey BP Family,

I'm taking a look at the two areas above. I already invest in the Lithonia part of Georgia, but I am seeing that the Powder Spring area has better school districts than Lithonia on average. But the rental comps I have checked in the Powder Springs area seem to be more or less similar to the rental comps in Lithonia. 

Am I completely wrong in my initial analysis? If I'm not, is there a reason that this might be the case?

Thanks all,

Chudi

[Richard Balsam]

I don't think there is a straight line correlation between school ratings and home rentals - to a point. I believe when schools are far superior- it creates a higher demand - resulting in higher rents ( and higher property taxes, etc). When locations have either average schools or just slightly above - it doesn't affect rents nearly as much. I would think the critical factors here would be employment and traffic drive times. If no big employment in the immediate area, no big demand for housing.  

For exaample - I would bet that rents in Roswell, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, parts of Duluth, etc would be much higher than parts of East Point, College Park, Atlanta, etc- and they are in the same county - the schools make the big difference here- since drive times from the north are extreme as you know.