Netflix star of 'Owning Manhattan' opens Atlanta office as Georgia real estate heats up
Georgia is a hot real estate market right now for homebuyers.
SERHANT CEO and star of the Netflix series, ‘Owning Manhattan,’ Ryan Serhant told FOX Business in an interview that his real estate brokerage has "lot of clients that are in Georgia" that are "either moving to Georgia or their companies are moving to Georgia or they want a secondary home in Atlanta or Savannah" – and that was a major reason SERHANT entered the Peach State’s real estate market last year.
His New York-headquartered real estate company announced the launch of SERHANT Georgia in February of last year starting with Savannah. More recently, in November, SERHANT set up shop in Atlanta.
The state’s vibrant economy was a factor too, with Serhant saying many Fortune 500 companies have "some kind of operations" in the capital city.
"In Savannah, you have significant amounts of jobs being created right now," he also told FOX Business, highlighting Hyundai’s past multi-billion-dollar investment to develop its Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America near Savannah. That plant is supposed to hold its "grand opening" celebration later this week.
On Monday, the automaker unveiled plans to improve Kia Autoland Georgia and other American production facilities as part of a new massive investment in the U.S.
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In 2024, Georgia’s economy posted 3.1% growth, according to the University of Georgia Selig Center for Economic Growth. The number of jobs in the state rose by 60,400 during the year, the Georgia Department of Labor said in January.
Over the course of last year, Georgia notched over 121,500 closed sales of homes and nearly 121,900 pending sales, figures that represented 0.3% and 0.5% increases from the prior year, per the Georgia Association of Realtors.
The median sales price of homes in the Peach State posted a 2.9% increase year-over-year.
There is demand in the Georgia real estate market in urban and suburban areas, according to Serhant.
"It’s a little bit of both, which is interesting because typically you have really strong demand for land while the urban market tends to slow down," he said.
"We’re seeing kind of like a 50-50 split, and I think that’s also in part due to kind of the time of the decade that we’re in right now," he continued. "It’s 2025, we’re coming off of any type of COVID housing buzz, and so you have people who moved out of the urban areas who are saying, ‘You know what, it’s time to go back. I miss the access, I miss the concrete, I miss the restaurants.’ And then you also have people who’ve had a good living, they’ve now settled down, they’ve gotten married, they’re having kids, and they want more space."
For Atlanta specifically, the entertainment industry present in Atlanta has also helped drive interest in the city’s real estate market on top of the economy and job market, according to Serhant.
"Altanta is also Hollywood of the East, with the amount of entertainers you have, the music scene, you have the studio scene, with the amount of work and jobs that people like Tyler Perry have brought to the marketplace," he said. "There is a kind of really, really growing Hollywood in the state of Georgia, in Atlanta specifically, that is a much better tax state than the state of California, that has incredible safety … and so you see that, which we haven’t seen, you know, 10 years ago."
Georgia saw an estimated $2.6 billion in spending from film and television producers in 2024, according to the state’s film office. Including 2024 and the prior years, some $11 billion from the industry has poured in.
Serhant said that it’s "really the job market coupled with [interest] rates," noting Atlanta "has an incredible jobs market" that "doesn’t look like it’s going to be slowing down anytime soon."
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The city experienced a 4.9% increase in pending home sales during 2024. For closed sales, it had a jump of 3.4% for the year, Georgia Association of Realtors showed.
While in many markets people have been holding back to see whether interest rates will drop, Serhant said "we’re not necessarily seeing that" in Atlanta.
"We’re seeing still a really, really healthy opportunity," he said.
While Serhant also said he was "not a market prognosticator" himself, he told FOX Business he thinks a "roughly tenfold" increase in the Georgia real estate market "over our closest competitors" could be in store over the next five years.
"It’s hard to really guess and see where we’re going to be from 2030 to 2035, but if the job growth holds, and if that’s coupled with a lowering of rates … that the real estate market will explode kind of upon the scene throughout the state of Georgia," he said.
Last week, the Federal Open Market Committee forecasted two 25-basis-point interest rate cuts this year, followed by two cuts of that size in 2026 and one in 2027.
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In February, the most-recent month with available data, Georgia saw nearly 8,200 closed homes sales and over 9,300 pending, according to the Georgia Association of Realtors. Sales prices averaged $430,171 last month.
The Selig Center for Economic Growth predicted Georgia’s population will "grow at an annual pace that is double the national average" in 2025. Its inflation-adjusted gross domestic product will rise by 2.4% this year, it also forecasted.
By 2050, the Atlanta region is poised to see its population go up by 1.8 million, the Atlanta Regional Commission separately estimated.