This single mom spends more than half her income on rent. But she can’t afford to move.
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Rising home prices, rising rents
Soaring rents versus unaffordable housing costs — in the Triangle, it’s an increasingly urgent dilemma, especially for lower-income buyers. With the median home price in Wake County now around $350,000, here’s how rising prices affect the rental market, plus some solutions for the future. This is The News & Observer’s special report on housing costs.
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Erika White is a single, stay-at-home mother of two — an 18-year-old and a newborn.
Her two-bedroom apartment in Cary is $1,400 a month, and with just $2,500 in monthly alimony as income, there isn’t much left for other necessities in the budget.
She wants to move to a bigger place for her family, but there’s nothing in the area that’s in her price range.
“There isn’t really much of an option around here,” White, 35, said. “I’m paying quite high rent.”
According to an analysis from the commercial real estate company Avison Young, the average rent for a three-bedroom apartment in north Cary was over $1,800 during 2021’s third quarter. In south Cary it was just over $1,700.
These high prices, White fears, will force her to move away from the immediate area, something she said her neighbors have had to do recently.
“My son is already going to school here. My daughter was born in this area,” White said. “It’s quite likely that if I don’t end up finding something that suits my needs, I might have to move out of the area, too.”
White is currently out of work to care for her newborn. She has thought about working to add to her income, which would require she pay for child care.
But the costs aren’t worth it, White said, as most of the available jobs in her area are low-paying.
“I’m going to be earning, let’s say, $14 an hour, and I have to pay $10 for child care. There’s absolutely no point of me doing that for $4,” she said.
And given the rising costs of houses in the Triangle, buying a home isn’t an option.
“The chances of improving housing has become very difficult based on my income, and the chances of buying are even worse because the market is just so competitive at the moment,” White said.
She said low-income renters need to be supported more in Cary.
“The people that we rely on the most are the people that we look after less and that’s very sad,” White said. ”You need people of all backgrounds. You need people to sweep the streets. You need people that drive your buses, your children to school … We all have a purpose, to live as a community.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
