“The job must be done: ‘The Housing Advisory Committee says

Wilmington, NC (Wect) -It seems that everything is more expensive these days, but nowhere is not more clear than in Wilmington’s housing prices.

The chairman of the Consultative Committee on Housing Workforce Tom Gail shared an update with both city leaders and the county this week on housing prices. Some of the findings were “sobering” according to GALE:

• The average price of housing in the New Hanover County has increased over 85% in the last seven years.
• The average rent in Wilmington has increased by about 50% in the last five years.
• About half of all households complain about housing costs (means they spend more than 30% of their home income)

To show the increase, Gail says the $ 200,000 home in 2018 will have a mortgage payment of about $ 1,000 a month. The same home today will probably cost $ 370,000 with a mortgage payment of $ 2400 a month.

Gale says this increase in housing costs is far from becoming an increase in salaries in our area and is pushed by some members of our community. Not only those who need affordable housing opportunities, but also those who need the workforce housing. This means that people who make between 80% to 120% of the average income of the area, or those who make approximately $ 55,000 to $ 85,000.

“It really affects everyone in the community, because if we cannot have teachers and police officers and those people who are really the backbone of our community here, our society just stops functioning properly,” Gail said. “We do a fantastic job to attract these jobs with a higher salary. But we do not want to shift the people who support these jobs. Everyone will need a teacher, a mechanic, a police officer, even if they are highly paid. We still need everyone else. “

In order to fight the issue of increasing costs, Gale hopes the city and the county will continue to invest in apartment projects at affordable prices. There is currently a system where the county gives $ 3 million a year to developers who want to build lower-income homes. The problem is that there are more candidates than there is funding.

“So we asked them to increase this to $ 5 million, starting in 2027, as they have more applications at the moment than they have the funds to give for these housing projects for affordable prices,” Gail said.

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