Savannah Chamber

30 number of direct domestic and international flights. Multi-state and multi-national companies based in Atlanta are flying executives and salespeople everywhere almost every day. Production sites near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and/or near cold storage facilities appeal to manufacturers of perishable biomedical products (e.g., plasma-based pharmaceuticals) that require cold storage and cold shipping. Lightweight, highly perishable, or time-sensitive products are well suited to air transportation, and therefore many high-tech production companies consider the extensive air cargo facilities at Hartsfield-Jackson to be essential to their operations. The airport also makes Atlanta an excellent hub from which to manage operations or provide business services to a geographically disperse client base. Due to its large meetings and convention industry, Atlanta is the sixth most-visited city by U.S. visitors – behind only Orlando in the South. The metro Atlanta market ranks seventh among U.S. cities in terms of its inventory of hotel rooms. The Georgia Aquarium is Atlanta's most popular attraction. A major expansion of the Georgia Aquarium is in the works, which should boost its popularity even further. Atlanta is also a popular destination for international visitors. Cyclical improvements in the national and regional economies will boost Georgia's hospitality industry. Hotel occupancy rates are at or near record levels, but growth in the supply of new rooms will exceed increases in the demand for rooms, reversing the upward trend in occupancy rates that the industry has benefitted from for several years. Airport improvements will help Atlanta to become even more popular as a destination for tourists, persons attending business meetings & conventions, trade shows, as well as sporting/cultural events. The Atlanta MSA is highly specialized in transportation, logistics, warehousing, and wholesale trade, with employment concentrated these inherently cyclical industries. The continued growth in U.S. and global GDP in 2020 will support these industries and in turn Atlanta's economy, but the slowdown in the pace of GDP growth implies that this sector will grow more slowly in 2020 than in recent years. Recent project announcements in the Atlanta MSA include Stitch Fix, Kroger & Ocado Solutions, Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Chick-Fil-A, Dematic, PVH Corp, POP Displays, Norfolk Southern, and Hapag-Lloyd America. In 2020, Atlanta will continue to develop as an inland port for transportation, distribution and warehousing products. The connectivity of Georgia's ports to the interstate system, rail, and air cargo is excellent. Among major U.S. metros, Atlanta is a relatively low-cost, low-risk place to operate a warehouse. A substantial amount of high-tech warehouse/distribution space is under construction, which will provide the capacity for additional growth of Atlanta transportation and logistics cluster. Given the federal budget situation, one major long-term plus for Atlanta is that the metro area is not very dependent on federal government jobs. Only 2.9 percent of the Atlanta area's non-farm earnings come from federal employment versus 5.1 percent for the state and 3.9 percent for the nation. The Atlanta MSA's only sizable federal employer is the CDC – about 9,200 employees. Atlanta is not the home of a major military base. Only 0.3 percent of non-farm earnings come from military jobs versus 1.9 percent for the state and 1.1 percent for the nation. State and local government accounts for only 8.4 percent of earnings in metro Atlanta versus 10.7 percent for the state and 12.0 percent for the nation. Thus, public-sector restructuring should be less problematic for Atlanta's growth than for growth elsewhere in Georgia or the nation. Due to above average growth in employment and population, the housing recovery is stronger in the Atlanta MSA than in most large markets. Existing single-family home prices peaked in the second quarter of 2007 and bottomed out in the second quarter of 2012. From peak to trough, the metro area's existing home prices declined by 27 percent, which exceeds the decline experienced by the nation. However, home prices recovered relatively quickly in the Atlanta market. As of mid-2019, Atlanta's home prices were 26 percent above their pre-recession peak levels. The most recently posted year-over-year price increase – between 2018 Q3 and 2019 Q3 – was strong, 5 .3 percent. In 2020, home prices will continue to increase, but the rate of home price appreciation will slow. Nonetheless, sustained increases in home prices will support growth in consumer spending – especially on home improvements – and entrepreneurial activity. Business expansion and formation requires cash and the typical entrepreneur obtains the funds needed to start, or expand, their business by borrowing, using their home as collateral.

• Cover