Report: New Atlanta apartments have shrunk considerably during boom

As the City of Atlanta has densified with tens of thousands of new apartments over the past decade, the roominess of most of those rentals has been shrinking, defying a national trend, according to a new study. 

Atlanta apartments completed between 2016 and last year shed 47 square feet overall and now average 902 square feet, according to an analysis of the top 100 U.S. metros by RentCafe.com, a national apartment search website.  

The good news? In terms of sheer size, Atlanta’s new rentals still rank in the top half nationwide at No. 45—above many significantly smaller metros. 

ATL’s apartments “punch above their weight nationally in every category,” according to a RentCafe summary provided to Urbanize Atlanta. 

As polar plungers can attest, shrinkage isn’t necessarily a bad thing. More studio and one-bedroom apartments in growing, in-demand markets typically mean more options overall. 

The tradeoff, as RentCafe notes, is axed square footage. In Atlanta, new studios have taken the biggest hit—losing 62 square feet on average, yet still ranking at No. 15 largest in the U.S. with 515 square feet. 

One-bedroom rentals in Atlanta—now accounting for 55 percent of all new-builds—have shrunk by 40 square feet to 741 overall, on average. 

Two-bedroom apartments were cut back to 1,132 square feet on average but still rank as 18th largest in the nation. 

The lone bright spot, in terms of floorplan growth, was Atlanta’s relatively rare, big-baller three-bedroom pads, which have swelled to more than 1,400 square feet on average—among the largest of their type in the U.S., per analysts. 

A separate RentCafe analysis last year found that Midtown and downtown alone had packed on more than 11,100 new apartments between 2020 and 2025—bested only by the “downtowns” of Washington D.C., Chicago, and Denver, respectively. 

However, new-construction hot zones such as Buckhead, Atlantic Station, and Old Fourth Ward were excluded from that 2025 tally.    

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