Zillow: Charlotte rents climbing faster than most of country but relief on horizon

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Porscha Penn-Thomas has a steady job. She's a teacher.

"I’m, like, 'OK, well I’m working. I’m working full-time and I even had a part-time job,’” Penn-Thomas said.

But she told Action 9's Jason Stoogenke she still struggled to find a safe, clean, affordable apartment reasonably close to work.

"It felt like a nightmare,” she said.

She found a place. Then she said the rent went up.

"So I decided that I needed to have assistance,” Penn-Thomas said.

In other words, a roommate, which she hadn't had since college. She said it felt like a step backward.

RELATED LINKS:

• SPECIAL SECTION: Affordable housing crisis
• County-by-county resource guide

She found Dakar Justice. "I was working three jobs," he told Stoogenke. "[I] couldn't afford anything."

He has one job now, a good one, with a big name in the prescription drug industry.

But he told Stoogenke, he still needed a roommate, too.

"It's depressing. I'll be honest with you. It's very frustrating,” Justice said.

They said their rent just went up again. They feel they have to move but don't know where.

"I couldn't imagine," Penn-Thomas said, "If I had a kid, I'm like I don't know how in the world people are maintaining their bills and children and still rent is going up. I can't imagine."

Amanda Pendleton is with Zillow. She told Stoogenke Charlotte rent went up 5.5% since last year, more than double the national average of 2.3%.

“Zillow is predicting that’s going to continue. We’re going to continue to see that kind of climb over the next few months. But then things should really peter out by spring. We’re seeing a lot of new construction,” she said. “Charlotte’s been in a building boom. We’re going to see 5,700 new units by the first quarter of 2020 come online. And, hopefully, that should alleviate some of the rental affordability issues.”

New affordable housing planned for historic Charlotte community New affordable housing planned for historic Charlotte community

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