Yesterday, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released its annual State of the Nation’s Housing report for 2019. The report finds that while the economy has finally stabilized and household growth has returned to its pre-Recession pace, housing production has not kept up, putting pressure on rent and purchase prices for homes and apartments across the country. Housing affordable to lower-income families has especially suffered—the stock of units renting for less than $800 per month has shrunk by four million units since 2011 and the share of low-rent units out of all housing available has dropped from almost 60 percent in the early 2000s to under 45 percent in 2017.
North Carolina’s larger metro areas have followed this trend. Charlotte and Asheville have lost 21 percent and 27 percent, respectively, of low-rent stock since 2011, and Raleigh has lost 40 percent. Although some areas in the eastern part of the state, such as Fayetteville, Jacksonville and New Bern, have seen growth in affordable rental units, these areas are also under the greatest threat of hurricanes and tropical storms, which have devastated housing stock and commercial properties in the past few years.
To learn more about the state of housing in North Carolina, visit the Agency’s Policy and Research page, where you can map housing market indicators and learn about the impacts of affordable housing initiatives across the state.
