Cary family’s apartment rent keeps rising even as the COVID pandemic curtails income
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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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Over six years ago, Marcia Cloud moved to Cary from Texas for a better life but most especially for more affordable housing.
But every year since Cloud, 58, and her 25-year-old daughter Sabrina moved here, their rent has gone up. Their current rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,200.
And it’s a significant strain on their household income. Cloud works full-time at $12 an hour. Her daughter works part time, 25 hours a week, for about $17 an hour.
“We have to shop discount,” Cloud said. “We really have to guard the rent money because we cannot afford the late fees. We can’t afford to get kicked out, so everything we do is constrained to guard that rent money.”
And even if she could find cheaper rent in the area, the costs of moving are too high. It took months to save up for the security deposit when Cloud first got to North Carolina.
“I could barely afford to get in the deposits for the apartment,” she said. “It took me a couple of thousand dollars just to get into the unit.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic reduced her income. Before she was laid off due to the virus, she was making $17 an hour. She said she’s been unable to find a job that allows her to work from home that pays more than her current position.
“Working at home has greatly reduced my salary,” Cloud said.
And buying a home isn’t an option as most houses in the area are listed at over $400,000, a stark increase from before the pandemic.
“They’ve gone up so dramatically,” Cloud said. “There’s really nowhere in Cary I could live at all.”
Without more affordable housing, she fears she may have to leave the area.
“We go to church here, and we would love to stay here. We think that we would be an asset to the community. It would be good if there were places to stay here,” Cloud said.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Cary family’s apartment rent keeps rising even as the COVID pandemic curtails income."
