Nolan Scott Team

Nolan Scott Team Business Broker and Commercial Advisor with offices in Atlanta and Chattanooga.

Hawaii residents spend 50% of their income on housing. Iowa residents spend 17%. That 33 percentage point gap determines...
06/01/2026

Hawaii residents spend 50% of their income on housing. Iowa residents spend 17%. That 33 percentage point gap determines who builds wealth and who treads water.

Georgia households spend 24% of median income on housing and Tennessee 25%, both comfortably below the 30% threshold that defines cost-burdened.

California consumes 43% and Massachusetts 34%, leaving residents with little margin after housing alone.

Iowa leads the nation at just 17%, but most Americans do not live in Iowa, they live in states spending 25% to 35%.

When housing takes less than a quarter of your income, the remaining dollars do real work. In Georgia and Tennessee, that margin funds down payments, retirement accounts, and increasingly, business acquisitions. The math is straightforward. A household spending 24% on housing instead of 43% frees up roughly $1,500 per month on a median income. Over five years that is $90,000 in capital that California households never accumulate. This is why the Southeast is seeing growth on two fronts simultaneously. Buyers are purchasing homes at price points that still make financial sense while a growing number of entrepreneurs are using that same cost advantage to acquire small businesses. A profitable service company in Atlanta or Chattanooga can be purchased with an SBA loan for less than a down payment on a California home, and it cash flows from day one. Business owners considering an exit in Tennessee and Georgia are meeting a deeper buyer pool than ever because the cost of living allows people to actually deploy capital instead of just surviving.

Housing affordability is not just about where people live. It is about whether they have enough left over to invest in anything else.

The U.S. is projected to grow at 2.0% in 2025 while India grows at 6.6%. America is still expanding, but the rest of the...
05/28/2026

The U.S. is projected to grow at 2.0% in 2025 while India grows at 6.6%. America is still expanding, but the rest of the world is expanding faster.

India leads all major economies at 6.6% growth in 2025 and 6.2% in 2026, more than triple the U.S. pace.

China is forecast at 4.8% in 2025 and 4.2% in 2026, slowing but still doubling American growth rates.

Germany and Japan are barely moving at 0.2% and 1.1% respectively, making the U.S. look strong by Western standards.

Two percent GDP growth is fine until you realize what it means for the average American. Moderate national growth does not distribute evenly. It concentrates in the regions attracting population, investment, and business formation. Tennessee and Georgia are growing faster than the national average because they are absorbing people and companies from states that are effectively stagnant. For real estate and business buyers, national GDP growth is background noise. What matters is local economic velocity. Atlanta added nearly 589,000 residents since 2020 while Tennessee added over 400,000, and both states are seeing business formation rates that outpace the national number. When national growth is modest, the markets capturing a disproportionate share of that growth become the only markets worth watching. The Southeast is not growing because the U.S. economy is booming. It is growing because it is taking share from the rest of the country.

65% of American households cannot afford a new home in 2026. Even in Mississippi, where the median new build costs $267K...
05/27/2026

65% of American households cannot afford a new home in 2026. Even in Mississippi, where the median new build costs $267K, a majority of residents are priced out.

Georgia ranks among the most accessible states with just 62.5% priced out and a median new home price of $374,579 requiring $109,329 in qualifying income.

Tennessee sits at 67.7% priced out with a median new home price of $399,580, still below the national average and most of the Northeast.

New Hampshire leads the wrong direction at 83.4% priced out, where buyers need $211,000 in income to afford a $678K median-priced home.

This data tells two stories at once. For real estate, Georgia and Tennessee remain among the shrinking number of states where new construction is still within reach for working households, which is why builders keep breaking ground and buyers keep relocating to Atlanta and Chattanooga. But the bigger story might be for business ownership. When homeownership becomes unattainable, more Americans redirect capital and ambition toward building or buying businesses instead. Business acquisition is becoming the alternative wealth-building vehicle for people locked out of housing appreciation. In Tennessee and Georgia, where a profitable small business can be acquired for less than a median new home in New Hampshire, the math favors entrepreneurship. Business brokers in the Southeast are seeing increased buyer interest from exactly this demographic: people who cannot buy their way into housing wealth in their home state and are exploring ownership through a different asset class entirely.

When the front door to homeownership closes, the side door to business ownership opens. The Southeast offers both.

Health insurance premiums jumped 21% nationally in 2026, and Tennessee saw one of the steepest increases in the country ...
05/25/2026

Health insurance premiums jumped 21% nationally in 2026, and Tennessee saw one of the steepest increases in the country at 39%.

Tennessee's average monthly Silver plan now costs $775, a 39% jump year over year and the 4th largest annual increase nationwide.

Georgia premiums climbed 32% to $729 per month, while Arkansas led the country with a 67% spike.

The U.S. average hit $752 monthly, up from $621 just one year ago, as enhanced ACA subsidies expired and healthcare costs climbed.

Health insurance is quietly becoming one of the largest line items in household budgets, and it directly affects how much home buyers can afford. A family seeing premiums jump from $560 to $775 per month in Tennessee just lost roughly $35,000 in mortgage qualifying power at current rates. That is the difference between qualifying for a $300K home and a $265K home. For real estate professionals in Atlanta and Chattanooga, this matters because affordability calculations are no longer just about home prices and interest rates. Healthcare costs are eating into the same monthly budget buyers use to qualify for loans. Sellers and lenders who understand this dynamic will adjust expectations accordingly, while buyers may need to recalibrate price ranges before house hunting in 2026.

Premiums are the silent variable rewriting buyer affordability, and most agents are not adjusting for it yet.

It took 68 years to reach $10 trillion in national debt. By the 2050s, the U.S. will add that same amount every one to t...
05/21/2026

It took 68 years to reach $10 trillion in national debt. By the 2050s, the U.S. will add that same amount every one to two years.

U.S. federal debt sits at $39 trillion today and is projected to hit $182 trillion by 2056, a 4.6x increase in 30 years.

The next $10 trillion milestone arrives around 2028, just two years from now, under assumptions that include no recession and no new wars.

Interest payments are consuming a growing share of the federal budget, crowding out infrastructure, defense, and housing programs.

This trajectory has direct consequences for anyone buying a home or a business. Rising debt keeps upward pressure on interest rates, which means the sub-4% mortgage era and cheap SBA loan environment are likely gone for good. Buyers in Atlanta and Chattanooga need to stop waiting for rates to drop back to 2021 levels and start underwriting deals at current numbers. If the math works at 6.5%, it works. If it only works at 4%, it never really worked. The same applies to business acquisitions. SBA 7(a) loans priced at prime plus a spread are not getting cheaper while the government borrows $10 trillion every couple of years. Sellers considering an exit should understand that today's buyer pool has access to capital at rates that will likely only climb over time. Waiting for better conditions may mean waiting for conditions that structurally cannot return. For both real estate and business transactions, the window of relative affordability is now, not next year.

The debt clock does not pause. Neither should your decision to buy, sell, or invest.

In 2000, only 33 countries traded more with China than the United States. By 2025, China became the top trading partner ...
05/20/2026

In 2000, only 33 countries traded more with China than the United States. By 2025, China became the top trading partner for most of the world. The map flipped in 25 years.

China went from regional trade power to global dominant partner, overtaking the U.S. across South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Japan, Australia, Brazil, and India all now trade more with Beijing than Washington.

The U.S. still holds Canada, Mexico, and parts of Western Europe, but the blue on that map shrank dramatically.

This trade realignment is creating two massive opportunities in the Southeast. First, reshoring. As companies rebuild domestic supply chains, Georgia and Tennessee are winning site selections because of Savannah port access, affordable land, and lower operating costs. Every new facility means industrial real estate demand and the residential housing that follows. Second, and less obvious, reshoring creates demand for the local service businesses that support manufacturing corridors. Welding shops, staffing agencies, equipment suppliers, fleet maintenance, and commercial cleaning companies all see revenue growth when facilities move in. For business buyers and investors in Atlanta and Chattanooga, this means small business valuations in logistics-adjacent industries are climbing as revenue pipelines strengthen. Business owners in these sectors who built during the growth wave are now sitting on companies worth more than they realize, creating acquisition and exit opportunities across the region.

Global trade realignment is not just a policy debate. It is a site selection conversation and a business valuation catalyst, and the Southeast keeps getting chosen for both.

San Diego residents spend 47% of their income on food and housing. San Jose residents spend 18.3%. Same state, completel...
05/18/2026

San Diego residents spend 47% of their income on food and housing. San Jose residents spend 18.3%. Same state, completely different financial lives.

Atlanta ranks 8th at 34.3% and Nashville sits at 30.6%, both in the "stretched" category but well below the worst offenders.

Miami eats 45.4% of income on just food and rent, making it one of the most financially strained cities in the country despite its tax advantages.

San Jose spends the least at 18.3% because sky-high tech wages offset sky-high costs, proving affordability is a ratio, not a price tag.

This chart exposes why Florida's migration story is starting to crack. Tampa at 34.4% and Orlando at 37.7% are no longer the affordable Sun Belt havens they were pitched as three years ago. Atlanta and Nashville still sit in a range where residents can cover the basics and have room to save, invest, or qualify for a mortgage. That margin is everything. When food and housing consume more than a third of income, every interest rate increase or insurance hike pushes buyers out of the market. Chattanooga and secondary Georgia and Tennessee markets that fall below these metro averages offer even more breathing room, which is why investor and buyer demand keeps expanding beyond just the headline cities.

Affordability is not about price. It is about what percentage of your income walks out the door before you decide how to spend it.

A family in Iowa keeps 35% of their paycheck after bills. A family in California keeps 11%. Same country, completely dif...
05/13/2026

A family in Iowa keeps 35% of their paycheck after bills. A family in California keeps 11%. Same country, completely different financial realities.

Tennessee families retain 28.3% of their income after essentials, ranking 14th nationally and well above the U.S. average of 24.7%.

Georgia sits at 25.3%, still above average and ahead of states like Texas at 23.6% and Florida at 18.1%.

California families keep just 10.9% and Hawaii just 9.0%, meaning over 90 cents of every dollar goes to bills and taxes.

This is the number that connects every other data point. Migration, home prices, rent growth, tax burden, and cost of living all funnel into this single metric: what do you actually keep? Tennessee at 28.3% means families have real margin to save for a down payment, invest, or absorb a rate increase. Florida at 18.1% explains why the state that attracted millions of pandemic movers is now seeing those same residents reconsider as insurance and housing costs eat their supposed savings. For buyers and investors evaluating Atlanta and Chattanooga, this data confirms what the migration numbers already suggest. The Southeast does not just offer cheaper housing. It offers a wider margin between earning and spending that compounds into wealth over time.

Income is what you make. Income after expenses is what you build with. The Southeast still leaves room to build.

New York produces $123,000 in GDP per person. Georgia produces $82,000. But when you adjust for what those dollars actua...
05/11/2026

New York produces $123,000 in GDP per person. Georgia produces $82,000. But when you adjust for what those dollars actually buy, the gap nearly disappears.

Tennessee generates $81,000 in GDP per capita and Georgia $82,000, both trailing the national leaders but outperforming most of the Southeast.

New York leads at $123,000 and Massachusetts at $115,000, driven by finance, biotech, and professional services.

Mississippi sits lowest at $56,000 while Washington D.C. distorts the chart at $278,000 thanks to commuters inflating output without being counted in the population.

Raw GDP per capita is a misleading metric without context. A dollar earned in New York buys far less than a dollar earned in Atlanta or Chattanooga after you account for taxes, housing, and cost of living. Tennessee and Georgia are not low-output states. They are efficient ones. Both are growing GDP while simultaneously attracting residents with lower costs, meaning economic productivity is expanding alongside population rather than being diluted by it. States at the top of this chart are often the same ones losing residents to the Southeast because high output per capita means nothing when most of it gets consumed by rent, taxes, and insurance. The real wealth creation happens where income outpaces expenses, and that equation still favors Tennessee and Georgia.

GDP per capita measures what a state produces. Cost of living determines what its residents actually keep.

The median New Jersey homeowner pays $9,358 per year in property taxes. The median Tennessee homeowner pays $1,488. That...
05/06/2026

The median New Jersey homeowner pays $9,358 per year in property taxes. The median Tennessee homeowner pays $1,488. That gap funds a second mortgage.

Tennessee ranks 45th in the country with a median property tax bill of just $1,488 annually.

Georgia comes in at 31st with a median bill of $2,554, still below the national median of $2,937.

New Jersey leads at $9,358, followed by New Hampshire at $6,707, Connecticut at $6,573, and New York at $6,542.

This is one of the most overlooked numbers in real estate decision-making. A buyer purchasing a $400,000 home in New Jersey faces nearly $800 per month in property taxes alone, before principal, interest, or insurance enters the equation. That same buyer in Tennessee pays roughly $124 per month in property taxes on a comparable home. Over a 30-year mortgage, the tax differential alone exceeds $240,000. For real estate professionals in Atlanta and Chattanooga, this is not just a talking point. It is the actual financial mechanism converting Northeast equity into Southeast purchasing power. Transplants selling a modest home in New Jersey can buy significantly more house in Tennessee or Georgia and still cut their annual housing expenses dramatically.

Property taxes are the recurring cost most buyers underestimate, and the Southeast keeps that line item small enough to actually build wealth around it.

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1372 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA
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