6 key things to know about the Triangle’s housing affordability struggle

A new report from the North Carolina Housing Coalition finds 1.2 million households across the state are cost-burdened — and the Triangle is no exception, with Wake County leading the region in eviction filings.

FULL STORY: Which Triangle county bears heaviest housing strain? How does your county rate?

Here are key takeaways:

• No county in North Carolina is affordable for minimum-wage workers. You’d need to earn $22.32 an hour — more than three times the $7.25 minimum wage — to afford an average two-bedroom apartment statewide. In Wake County, that number jumps to $33.65 an hour, or about $70,000 a year.
• Wake County logged 28,369 eviction filings and has 76,915 cost-burdened renters, ranking No. 10 statewide for evictions among renter households — the highest in the Triangle. Some 861 families faced foreclosure this year.
• Orange County has the region’s tightest squeeze, with 33% of households cost-burdened and more than 58% of renters struggling to afford their homes. A full-time construction worker there would need to work 50 to 70 hours a week to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment.
• Durham County mirrors Wake’s renter pressure, with 31% of households cost-burdened — up from 41,318 households in 2025 to 43,236 — and 6,763 eviction filings.
• Johnston and Chatham counties are no longer the affordable alternative. Nearly half of renters in both counties are cost-burdened, and Johnston ranked No. 22 statewide for eviction filings.
• Statewide, the problem is growing. Cost-burdened households rose from 28% to 29% — 1.2 million out of 4.1 million. “The housing need in our state is growing faster than our response,” said Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, the coalition’s director of housing policy.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by N&O journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.

This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 12:02 PM with the headline "6 key things to know about the Triangle’s housing affordability struggle."