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Home ownership is often seen as essential to achieving the American Dream. Owning a home can be a key step in creating and building wealth for yourself and your family. Home ownership provides some stability by allowing owners to build equity over time, anticipate regular monthly fixed costs, and reduce their taxable income by deducting mortgage interest and property taxes. These benefits are not shared by those renting their homes, who indirectly pay for property taxes and can see their rent increase yearly without building any equity through property ownership.

The homeownership rate in Bulloch County is 51.1%, which is below the average for the State of Georgia and the United States. The low ownership rate is likely due to the prevalence of rental homes around the Georgia Southern University Campus that provide student housing.

Home affordability is a key factor determining who can purchase and live in a home of their choice. Housing prices have increased in Statesboro and Bulloch County, but these increases mirror the rise in housing costs across the region, state, and country. Despite increases, Bulloch County remains more affordable than Bryan, Chatham, and Effingham Counties in terms of median costs and price per square foot. The graph below shows the median list price and median sales price for homes in each county as of January 2025.

What does Affordable Mean?

Housing programs in the United States have long measured housing affordability in terms of percentage of income. In the 1940s, the maximum affordable rent for federally subsidized housing was set at 20 percent of income, which rose to 25 percent of income in 1969 and 30 percent of income in 1981. Over time, the 30 percent threshold also became the standard for owner-occupied housing, and it remains the indicator of affordability for housing in the United States. Keeping housing costs below 30 percent of income is intended to ensure that households have enough money to pay for other nondiscretionary costs; therefore, policymakers consider households who spend more than 30 percent of income on housing costs to be housing cost burdened.

Across all counties, the average renter is paying at or near 30% of their income towards housing. The average homeowner with a mortgage only spends about 20% of their income on housing costs. This means that, on average, renters are spending a greater percentage of their income on housing while also not building equity for the future.

Georgia Department of Community Affairs: 2023 Georgia Housing Needs Assessment

  • In 2019, 29.03% of all Georgia households were estimated to be cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of household income on monthly housing costs. Overall, 43.4% of all renters were cost-burdened compared to 19.3% of all homeowners.
  • The Housing Gap Analysis revealed a deeply inadequate supply of housing that is affordable and available for all income levels, but especially for the lowest and highest income renter households. Since there is a gap of nearly 395,000 units affordable and available to the highest income tier, these households are forced to rent down-market. This effect has the greatest impact on Georgia’s lowest income renters who have the fewest resources and are the most vulnerable to housing instability.
  • Comparable to the renter market, there is an extreme shortage of units at the higher end of the sales market that is contributing, in large part, to the shortage at the lowest end of the market

Resources

Georgia Dream Homeownership Program

The Georgia Dream Homeownership program provides affordable mortgage financing for eligible homebuyers. One of the biggest hurdles for homeowners is coming up with the money for a downpayment. The Georgia Dream program helps remove or reduce this barrier. There are three programs available - Georgia Dream, Peach Plus, and Peach Select Veterans Assistance. Visit the website to find eligibility criteria and how to qualify.

Georgia Housing Choice Voucher Program

The Georgia Housing Choice Voucher Program is a tenant-based rental assistance program that assists very low income families with renting safe and affordable rental units on the private housing market. Visit the website to find more information on eligibility requirements and how to apply.

USDA Rural Development Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program

This program assists approved lenders in providing low- and moderate-income households the opportunity to own adequate, modest, decent, safe and sanitary dwellings as their primary residence in eligible rural areas. Eligible applicants may purchase, build, rehabilitate, improve or relocate a dwelling in an eligible rural area with 100% financing. The program provides a 90% loan note guarantee to approved lenders in order to reduce the risk of extending 100% loans to eligible rural homebuyers – so no money down for those who qualify! See the website for details on eligibility criteria and find a list of approved lenders in your area.