How much do households in North Carolina spend on rent?
Data updated September 16, 2024
About $1,130 per month, or 30% of their income, in 2022. This is measured by comparing median rent and median monthly income for renting households.
Showing data for
In 2022, median rent was
30.0%
of median income
In 2022,
$1.13K
was the median rent per month
Comparing rent to renter income provides one measure of rental affordability. Dividing rent by income provides what is called a rent-to-income ratio. A higher ratio of rent-to-income indicates rent is less affordable while a lower ratio indicates it’s more affordable.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development considers households with a rent-to-income ratio of more than 30%, that is, households that spend more than 30% of their income on housing, to be cost-burdened. Cost-burdened households may have less money for other necessities such as food, healthcare, or savings. When median monthly rent is more than 30% of average monthly income, it means a typical household would meet the definition of housing cost-burdened.
North Carolina's rent-to-income ratio was lower than in the US overall in 2022.
Ratio of median rent to median renter household income
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The national rent-to-income ratio reached a high of 33.8% in 2011 following the Great Recession. In North Carolina, the rent-to-income ratio reached 33.5% that year. Most recently, in 2022, North Carolina’s rent-to-income ratio was 30.0%, 1.7 percentage points lower than the national rate.
Across metro areas, the average rent-to-income ratio was 30.8% in 2018–2022.
Ratio of median rent to median renter household income, 2018–2022
In 2018–2022, the average rent-to-income ratio across metro areas was 30.8%. The metro areas with the highest and lowest ratios were the Mayagüez, Puerto Rico area at 56.9% (highest) and Sheboygan, Wisconsin area at 21.7% (lowest). In North Carolina, the highest and lowest were New Bern, NC area at 33.0% and Hickory, NC area at 26.1%.
During that period, Raleigh, NC had the highest median rent at $1.37K per month and highest median monthly income at $4.62K out of 15 North Carolina metro areas. Its rent-to-income ratio was tenth highest in the state.
Renter income and rent, North Carolina metro areas (2018–2022)
| 1. | Asheville, NC area | $3,425 |
| 2. | Burlington, NC area | $3,206 |
| 3. | Charlotte, NC area | $4,307 |
| 4. | Durham, NC area | $3,995 |
| 5. | Fayetteville, NC area | $3,455 |
| 6. | Goldsboro, NC area | $3,041 |
| 7. | Greensboro, NC area | $3,246 |
| 8. | Greenville, NC area | $3,174 |
| 9. | Hickory, NC area | $3,049 |
| 10. | Jacksonville, NC area | $3,677 |
