ATLANTA — Atlanta calls itself the City in the Forest, the Big Peach and the Hollywood of the South, but the city has a new claim to fame: the No. 1 city in the U.S. for Generation Z.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports the title was given by real estate listing service CommercialCafe, which published a study late last month ranking 45 U.S. cities based on the characteristics Gen Z are looking for in places to live. These characteristics include affordability, greenspace, school enrollment and the existing Gen Z population, among others.
Atlanta’s leading factors were its affordability, low unemployment and education enrollment numbers. Despite this, it wasn’t the highest ranking in any of these categories — particularly affordability, as the metro Atlanta's housing market was officially deemed unaffordable by the Fed in March of this year. The median rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Atlanta is $1,760, which does not chart in the top 10 highest for U.S. cities, but it's pricier than rents its Sun Belt competitors Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, according to real estate listing and research database Zumper.