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Real estate is in Paul Martin’s blood. His father was a real estate attorney, financier and developer. Now Paul Martin (MSRE98, MBA01) is vice president at Premier Atlanta Mortgage Company (PAMC).

PAMC is a residential and commercial mortgage broker, underwriting and selling mortgages on a correspondent basis to banks. PAMC also acts as a development consultant and has redeveloped historic neighborhood shopping centers in the Southeast.

In looking at trends in lending for 2006, Martin predicts banks will back away from aggressive lending and that 100% financing will disappear. Already smaller banks are referring clients who seek secondary financing to the 100% loan to value level to other financial institutions to minimize their own risk.

In the Atlanta market, Martin sees traffic as forcing new trends. Atlanta has sprawled 120 miles in length, continuing to develop further out is no longer tenable, he says. Infill and multiuse projects such as Atlanta Station, the Beltline, and Atlanta Streetcar are at the leading edges of a trend for Atlantans to give up commutes in the suburbs for smaller, in-town properties.

Yet most infill development currently isn’t affordable for people in middle or lower income brackets, where the largest influx of the new population falls, according to Martin. As an example, he cites the Chastain Park area, where a typical developer buys a ranch house for $400,000 to tear down and make way for a house that has to have a $1 million price tag for the developer to turn a profit. "Housing opportunity and affordability are issues. Land costs and current zoning requirements make it tough for developers looking to build appropriate infill housing with any density at prices the median income earner can afford", Martin says. But things are changing, in January, for instance, Mayor Shirley Franklin ordered a moratorium on construction of new so-called McMansions in certain older neighborhoods. "The way Atlanta develops in the future is going to have to change if we are to incorporate the 1,150,000 new residents estimated in the next 15 years" he says. "Managing growth will require a new paradigm that includes a comprehensive transportation plan, affordable housing, and ways to improve our quality of life, one reason people moved to Atlanta in first place" according to Martin One thing remains certain with regards to Atlanta real estate job market, "As long as Atlanta continues to grow, they’ll be something to do. In the good times, all the lenders are lending money," Martin says. "In tight times, we put on our asset manager hat and focus on fixing defaulted properties."

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