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If you struggle to pay your rent or mortgage each month, this next fact won’t surprise you:
In no state in the U.S. can a worker who earns the federal minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom rental home working the standard 40-hour work week.
In North Carolina, a worker would need to earn about $17 an hour to afford that same two-bedroom apartment.
More than 1-in-4 North Carolina households are “cost-burdened” by having to pay at least 30% of their income for housing.
A new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition appropriately entitled ‘Out of Reach‘ examines the high costs of housing and the shortage of affordable rental units. This week’s Monday number’s column is based on those findings.
Learn more about North Carolina’s affordable housing landscape in our recent interview with Samuel Gunter, executive director for the NC Housing Coalition.
1,356,450 – number of renter households in North Carolina
35 – the percentage of North Carolinians who rent
$7.25 – North Carolina’s minimum wage
$16.95 – the average hourly housing wage a worker would need to earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment in North Carolina at fair market rent
2.3 – the average number of full time jobs at minimum wage an individual would need to work to afford a two-bedroom rental home
$20.29 – the average hourly housing wage a worker would need to earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the Durham-Chapel Hill area at fair market rent
78 – the number of hours a worker earning minimum wage ($7.25/hour) would need to work to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home in North Carolina at Fair Market Rent
94 – the number of hours a worker earning just minimum wage ($7.25/hour) would need to work to afford a modest two bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent
$881 – the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment in North Carolina (in hotter housing markets it can be much more)
$1,055 – the amount needed monthly to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area
$1,086 – the amount needed monthly to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Wake County
$43,440 – the annual income needed in the Raleigh metro area to afford a two-bedroom home at Fair Market Rent
24 – the percentage of Wake County households that are cost-burdened (paying over 30% of their income for housing)
30 – the percent of Guilford County households that are cost-burdened
$32,240 – the annual salary a Guilford County family would need to earn to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment
$19,670 – the average annual salary of a childcare worker in Guilford County
$27, 650 – the average annual salary of a worker in retail sales in Guilford County
26 – the percentage of Robeson County households that are cost-burdened
$27,320 – the annual salary a Robeson County family would need to earn to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment
47 – the percentage of renters who have difficulty affording their homes in Robeson County
30 – the percentage of Mecklenburg County households that are cost-burdened
347,105 – the number of renter households that are categorized as “extremely low income” in North Carolina
70 – the percent of extremely low-income households in North Carolina that spend more than one-half of their income on housing
–196,231 – the shortage of rental homes in North Carolina that are both affordable and available for extremely low-income renters
October 7 and 8 – dates of the 2019 North Carolina Affordable Housing Conference, which will take place in Raleigh – click here for more information
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