Landlords and Housing Quality in Rural Georgia: Assessing the Relationship

Jerry Shannon, Kim Skobba and Jermaine Durham

Housing Policy Debate, 2025, vol. 35, issue 2, 243-264

Abstract: Landlords play a key role in maintaining the quality of rental properties. Similarly, over the last decade, the growth of financial instruments such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) along with widespread use of LLCs allow landlords to consolidate holdings with little local oversight on housing quality. Research on both these trends has focused mainly on urbanized areas. Rental properties are also common in many rural communities, but patterns of property ownership have been understudied. This article draws from community-generated data on local housing conditions and property records to describe patterns of property ownership in five rural Georgia communities using exploratory statistical and geographic analysis. We then use statistical models to assess how housing quality is related to landlord characteristics including landlords’ locations, number of total holdings, and LLC status. Our analysis finds that large, corporate ownership is limited in these communities, and that property ownership is largely local or regional, commonly including owners residing in the Atlanta metropolitan area. We also identify that properties owned by landlords with five or more properties have a significantly greater risk of dilapidation. Policies that support rural communities’ assessment of local property conditions and increase tenant protections may improve local affordable housing options.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10511482.2023.2273345 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:houspd:v:35:y:2025:i:2:p:243-264

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RHPD20

DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2023.2273345

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Policy Debate is currently edited by Tom Sanchez, Susanne Viscarra and Derek Hyra

More articles in Housing Policy Debate from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().