ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — For many in the Good Life City, the path to homeownership has hit a dead end. High interest rates are freezing potential homebuyers in place, forcing them to stay in the rental market longer and driving local rental demand to historic highs.

An investigation by WALB Investigates reveals a deeper, more complicated layer to the housing crisis: property owners are opening their mailboxes to skyrocketing property value assessments, creating a top-down financial strain that is ultimately passed down to renters.

“We have more renters and much less buying happened within the past year,” Jackie Dixon, broker and co-owner of 1Key Realty, said. “The economy is a big concern and we’re seeing more of our renters even that are consolidating families — parents and kids going back to living together because the affordability on their own is just not there.”

The property tax pressure cooker

WALB previously reported homeowners across Dougherty County have seen massive spikes in their property value assessments.

Dixon says her office has been flooded with panicked calls from local housing providers who cannot absorb the sudden hikes.

“They had a duplex that used to be about $225,000. Well, that assessment has now gone to $375,000... they’re saying, ‘We know we can’t sell it for that... we can’t afford the increase in the property tax.’ That’s going to have to get passed on to the renter and then the renter is going to say, ‘I can’t afford to rent here,’” Dixon said.

Along with property value assessment increases, landlords are also battling a 15% to 20% spike in labor and material costs to maintain their rental units.

1Key Realty’s portfolio reveals that landlords are not pocketing massive new profits. For one of the company’s largest property owners, who manages more than 1,000 units, gross rental revenues for the first quarter of 2025 were $1.74 million. In the first quarter of 2026, that number was $1.76 million.

“So they’re not statistically different. That’s really pretty close,” Dixon said. “We’re only talking $20,000 difference for the same quarter, which really I was not expecting because he has a good number of vouchers and we thought that those rent revenues would be up, but also in acquiring and renovating, it just stayed the same.”

Dixon explained that property management companies have had to maintain strict industry-standard guidelines to make sure renters can remain financially stable in their homes.

Standard application requirements at 1Key Realty include:

• The 3x Income Standard: Applicant income must be at least three times the monthly rent rate
• Prior Rental History: A proven track record of being a reliable tenant
• Stable Employment: Verification of how long an applicant has been with their employer, with scrutiny placed on “job hopping,” which can lead to gaps in income

However, as the cost of living climbs, property managers are seeing a desperate and troubling trend on rental applications.

“We check to make sure that they haven’t lied to us, and we’ve seen a big increase in falsifying their employment documents and what they show is their pay stubs,” Dixon said.

The battle to keep Albany housed

For Albany’s lowest-income residents, housing vouchers (such as Section 8) represent a critical safety net. However, with only a fraction of local landlords willing to accept vouchers due to government paperwork and strict guidelines, finding an eligible home is a continuous struggle for many.

Dixon strongly believes property owners who choose to participate in the voucher program provide an invaluable service to the community’s long-term economic health.

“We’ve had a number of voucher tenants that have followed the voucher program; they have a voucher for several years. They are in school, trying to get a degree, and then they’re getting employed. And then they’re able to pay their own rent. And that’s the goal of the program is to give people assistance, give them that little hand up so they can get out of the hole and be walking on the ground with everyone else,” she said.

What happens when the money runs out?

Local, state, and county assistance resources exist to help Albany families during hard times, but those emergency funds are limited, distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and the waiting list is growing longer by the day.

“We do understand, because I could be the other person on the other side of the desk,” said Thersa Pearman, Community Service Manager at the Dougherty/Lee County Neighborhood Service Center for the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council. “So we try to help everyone that comes into our office because everything has gone up... so we do understand.”

Next in the series...

WALB Investigates goes inside the impossible, heartbreaking decisions local advocates face daily when deciding who gets a financial lifeline and who is left to fall through the cracks.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and X. For more south Georgia news, download the WALB News app and add WALB as a preferred source on Google.

Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.