RALEIGH, N.C. — With prices rising across the board on everything from groceries to gas, the housing market is no exception. Rent prices across the Triangle are spiking with some cities seeing well over a 30% jump from last summer.
What You Need To Know
Increasing rent prices are making affordable student housing a rare find
College dorms are overbooked for the upcoming semester and not seeing typical cancellations
Students are struggling to find housing within their price range for the fall semester
Fizza Ibrahim has been working in the Raleigh area this summer but will head back to school at UNC Charlotte next month, except this year she doesn't know where she'll be calling home.
“Two weeks is not enough to look at an apartment, decide if it has everything you need, see if you have the financials, plan out a plan for paying, get a job according to how much that rent will cover,” Ibrahim said.
Living off-campus used to be an affordable luxury, but with rent as it is, scholarships covering "dorm life" are looking more attractive to both freshmen and upperclassmen. N.C. State said it has more upperclassmen than usual looking to continue living on campus. This makes for overfilled dorms and extremely limited availability for housing applicants.
“Every single dorm is packed full. There's like a huge waiting list to even get in,” Ibrahim said.
With just over a month left to go until the fall semester, UNC Charlotte sent out a letter to housing applicants, including Ibrahim, stating that dorms are at full capacity with no expected cancellations.
“I honestly just got off the phone with student billing this morning, and I found out that they have no clue if I will even get a spot in on-campus housing at any point in the semester, even halfway through the semester, even when the semester is over and applying for spring, they have no clue,” Ibrahim said.
Her concern with finding off-campus housing at this point is that all of the decent options have already been filled, leaving her with above normal prices for substandard housing.
“They range anywhere from like $600 to $13,000 and nobody has the money for that,” Ibrahim said. “Especially not in college. You can only work so many hours a week having so many classes, 16 credit hours etc.”
According to new data on Rent.com leasing costs in University City, which surrounds UNC Charlotte, are up more than 20% from this time last year. Ibrahim sees it firsthand as she frantically looks for a place to stay, knowing that she cannot afford it.
“I'm just looking at essentially putting myself in debt, more debt than I already am,” Ibrahim said. “I already have a student loan pending from the first year that I haven't paid off. I have to get that deferred till after college.”