Housing
Mortgage rates are stabilizing but that may not be enough to help house hunters
Home prices are cooling off and mortgage rates fell last week, but the fallout from recent bank closures could continue to make it hard for some Americans to buy homes, economists say. Mortgage rates fell to 6.32% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, Freddie Mac data released on Thursday shows. Last fall, the 30-year fixed […]
Neighbors of abandoned Wake Forest golf course want to know what chemicals are in the soil
Nature — and spray paint — are reclaiming the old Wake Forest Golf Course & Country Club. The 160-acre tract off Capital Boulevard was once a destination for those who wanted to conquer a difficult course, including the first hole, a Par 5, that according to ForeTee, a golf course review website, “plays to a whopping 711 […]
ReBuild NC’s modular home program still faltering; hurricane survivors now receiving different housing types
ReBuild NC’s highly touted modular home program, which state officials have claimed would be the fastest way to get hurricane survivors out of motels and into permanent housing, continues to falter, according to state data. Numbers provided by ReBuild NC to Policy Watch this week show that Rescue Construction Solutions has built 20 modular homes […]
Durham City Council rejects huge housing development proposal in Falls Lake watershed
Competing concerns over Triangle's housing shortage and fragile environment fuel 4-2 vote. The contentious Kemp Road project – 655 single-family houses and townhomes on 280 acres in the environmentally fragile Falls Lake watershed – is dead, at least temporarily. But before sticking a fork in the proposal, Durham City Council members dug into several underlying issues vexing residents of one of the fastest-growing areas in the country: housing, gentrification and race.
4 takeaways on housing in light of Thursday’s inflation report
Housing costs, including rental prices, are on the path to stabilizing but evidence of this won’t show up in inflation measures anytime soon, economists say. The latest Consumer Price Index numbers, which are used to measure inflation, came out Thursday morning and showed a notable easing. But the survey used to measure shelter, a large […]
Health risks for families in military private housing probed by U.S. Senate panel
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel on Tuesday grilled officials running private housing for service members about reports of deplorable living conditions from military families. The hearing, led by Chairman Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, and top GOP member Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, followed a joint release of a report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
‘Sitting on a time bomb’: Mobile home residents at risk in red-hot housing market
WASHINGTON — Jon Zang walks his dog several times a day in his mobile home community in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. It’s quiet, as most of his neighbors are at work. But he often wonders how many more walks he and his bulldog mix, Ladybug, will have down the streets of the place he’s called home for 21 years. “We’re literally sitting on a time bomb that we’re sure is going to go off at some point, but we don’t know when,” Zang said.
Poverty, barriers to opportunity loom large for women as NC emerges from the pandemic
North Carolina receives a D+ grade on the Poverty and Opportunity Index A new report on the status of women in North Carolina suggests that while modest progress has been made since 2016, far too many women are being held back economically. The NC Department of Administration’s Council for Women and Youth Involvement recently released […]
NC has a plan to support people with disabilities living outside institutions. Does it do enough?
A 2021 assessment of living arrangements and community support for North Carolinians with developmental disabilities or severe mental illnesses reinforced what’s become a truism in the state: it spends a disproportionate amount of public money on institutional living that keeps people segregated from larger communities. The state Department of Health and Human Services released a […]
Legal Aid of North Carolina executive director George Hausen
For over four decades now, advocates at Legal Aid have provided free legal help to low-income North Carolinians in civil cases involving basic human needs like safety, shelter, income and many other issues.Toll-Free Helpline: 1-866-219-LANC
States, cities face deadline for proving how quickly they’ve helped renters in crisis
WASHINGTON — States, cities and counties that excelled at distributing emergency federal aid to renters struggling during the pandemic may soon be rewarded—with yet more cash. Their new funding would be drawn from sluggish states and localities that didn’t move as swiftly to help people facing eviction and homelessness, who were targeted for billions in assistance in relief legislation passed by Congress.