Axios Atlanta

July 05, 2023
🙀 It's Wednesday. Have your pets recovered from the fireworks?
Today's weather: Thunderstorms likely. High of 86°.
🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Atlanta member Jeffrey Babcock!
Today's newsletter is 839 words — a 3-minute read.
1 big thing: It takes nearly a decade to save for a down payment

It'll take Georgians 9.4 years to save up for a 10% down payment on the typical home, Zillow data shows.
- That would require saving 5% of the median household income every month. Homebuyers would need to save 10% of the median household income to generate a 20% down payment in the same amount of time.
Why it matters: Affordability could be a "major driver of cross-country moves," Zillow says, as buyers seek a lifestyle within their means.
By the numbers: In the metro Atlanta area, the length of time drops just slightly to 9.2 years.
- The U.S. average is 8.9 years, with Iowa the lowest state at 5.2 years and Hawaii the highest at 18.4.
Between the lines: The share of first-time buyers in the U.S. has shrunk to a record low as inventory and affordability issues persist, according to the National Association of Realtors.
- First-timers are also waiting longer to buy. The median first-time buyer age jumped from 33 to 36 from 2021 to 2022, the latest data shows.
Of note: A record share of Americans believes it's a bad time to buy a house.
The big picture: Saving enough for a down payment is the biggest barrier to entry, says Brandi Snowden, a director at the National Association of Realtors.
- Many would-be-buyers are saddled with debt, including student loans, car loans and credit card debt.
- Homebuyers aren't putting as much money down as they were at the height of the housing frenzy, Axios' Emily Peck reports.
The intrigue: 37.6% of metro Atlanta home sales were made in cash in April — a drop of nearly 8 percentage points from the same time the previous year, new Redfin data shows.
- Nationwide, the share of U.S. cash buyers reached a nine-year high.
Fresh openings from the job board
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2. Those damn calatheas
My calathea ornata (left) was doing okay in November 2022. By April 2023, it was a mere shadow of what it used to be. Photos: Kristal Dixon/Axios
👋🏽 Kristal here. Every houseplant enthusiast has at one point fallen for the calathea scam. Whenever I'm at a plant shop and see someone pick up a calathea, I get this urge to run over, put the plant back on the shelf and tell the person that they won't win that battle.
- But we all gotta learn the hard way, right?
These magnificent beauties — collectively referred to as prayer plants because their leaves open in the mornings and close in the evenings — lured me in with their eye-catching designs, but have been the source of so much frustration.
Here's why: These cranky babies enjoy moist soil but are sensitive to overwatering.
- They don't need much light, but their leaves can burn if they get too much.
- Calatheas hate the minerals in your tap water, so you gotta buy distilled water.
- They need more humidity than what's in the average home.
- They're prone to spider mites, a brutal lesson I learned last year when dozens of them in my office were afflicted.
State of play: I currently have four calatheas and six of their cousins: four marantas, a ctenanthe setosa "grey star" and a stromanthe triostar. After last year's battle with pests and my third calathea ornata losing nearly all of its leaves, I'm calling it quits on these plants.
- I’ll maintain the ones I have, but if they can't survive in my apartment’s conditions, then that’s on them.
Yes, but: If you're determined, here's a pretty good overview of caring for a calathea.
📬 Tell us: Reply with your hot takes on calatheas — or tell us what house plant questions you want to be answered.
3. 🏃Pic du jour: Don’t stop
Charles Langat of Kenya finishes first at the Peachtree Road Race. Photo: Kevin Morris/Courtesy of the Atlanta Track Club
Thousands of racers pounded the pavement and wheeled through Buckhead and Midtown streets yesterday in the 54th annual Atlanta-Journal Constitution Peachtree Road Race.
Details: The winners in the men’s and women’s divisions — Charles Langat, 27, of Kenya and Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay, 25 — were running their first Peachtree.
- Langat’s victory was nearly a photo finish, with the top four finishers crossing the finish line within a second of one another.
Daniel Romanchuk and Susannah Scaroni won their races in the men’s and women’s wheelchair division, respectively.
- It was the sixth consecutive win for Romanchuk, 24, who is tied for division trophies with Craig Blanchette.
Of note: The 10K drew participants from Kirkwood to Kenya. They included Betty Lindberg, running her 34th Peachtree at age 98, and 92-year-old Bill Thorn, the only person to have run in every Peachtree since the event began in 1970.
- Other VIPs included Mayor Andre Dickens, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Atlanta) and former Atlanta Hawks player Kyle Korver.
Intrigue: Peachtree Road Race officials shut down the course — and stopped keeping runners’ official times — roughly 30 minutes early over lightning and storm concerns. The decision affected roughly 500 runners, officials said.
4. Five-ish Points: Sorry, folks. Chattahoochee’s closed.
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
GDOT says metro Atlanta had 171 wrong-way crashes from 2013 through 2022. (AJC)
Chick-fil-A leaders say a proposed standalone location in Buckhead’s commercial center won’t include a drive-through. (Urbanize)
City Hall is creating what’s essentially a development corporation to build affordable housing. (Atlanta Civic Circle)
High E. coli levels forced the closure of 11 miles of the Chattahoochee River, throwing a wrench into tubers’ and outfitters’ July 4 plans. (WSB)
🎆 Kristal is happy to report that Hannah was unbothered by the storms and fireworks.
🏝️ Thomas loves sandbars, the optical illusion of the beach.
This newsletter was edited by Jen Ashley and copy edited by Brad Bonhall and Alex Perry.
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