Housing Instability in North Carolina

For generations, homeownership has been considered the foundation of stability, a place of safety, wealth-building, and family identity. But for many North Carolina homeowners, that foundation is shifting. The home is no longer just a refuge. Increasingly, it is also a source of stress, uncertainty, and financial strain.

Across the state, the pressures are mounting quietly. Insurance premiums climb. Property taxes rise. Roofs leak after every storm. And for thousands of low- and fixed-income homeowners, one unexpected repair can push an already fragile budget over the edge. National Stress Awareness Day, observed on November 5, offers a moment to acknowledge a rarely discussed truth: housing instability is deeply tied to stress and mental health, even for those who technically “own” their home.

The Link Between Housing Instability and Mental Health

Housing is widely recognized as a social determinant of health, a factor that influences physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. When a home is unsafe, unstable, or one financial emergency away from loss, stress becomes chronic.

According to the Urban Institute, homeowners facing mortgage strain or major repair needs show higher rates of anxiety, depression, and isolation. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) notes that when housing is insecure, stress hormones elevate, decision making becomes harder, and relationships often suffer.

This is not just a renter’s issue. Homeowners, especially older adults, veterans, and rural residents, often experience a quieter but equally devastating form of housing stress: the

fear of losing what they’ve worked their whole lives to keep.

“Stress becomes chronic when the place that should feel safest starts to feel like a risk.”

North Carolina’s Housing Pressure Cooker

North Carolina is in the middle of a housing shift that reaches far beyond the headlines about population growth and real estate markets.

• Nearly 20% of North Carolina homeowners are cost burdened, paying more than 30% of their income toward housing.

• 13.2% are severely cost burdened, spending over half of their income just to remain in their homes. Home prices surged nearly 22% in 2022, while household incomes did not keep pace.

• Insurance costs, storm damage, and aging housing stock, especially in rural and coastal counties, continue to rise.

  
  

For homeowners on fixed incomes, that means choosing between replacing a roof or paying for prescriptions. For families living paycheck to paycheck, it means hoping the floor doesn’t rot through before the next storm.

The Emotional Cost of Deferred Repairs

Unlike renters, homeowners cannot call a landlord when the ceiling starts to sag or the heat stops working. For many, repairs are delayed not because of neglect, but because of cost, and stress follows in the waiting.

A leaky roof becomes a growing stain of anxiety. A softening floorboard feels like a deadline. Storm season brings not just wind and rain, but sleepless nights.

Older homeowners in particular face compounded stress. Many live alone, physically unable to make repairs, yet unable to afford help. Veterans, people with disabilities, and families recovering from hurricanes or flooding face similar burdens, emotional, financial, and physical.

“Even when the mortgage is paid off, the stress isn’t. The fear becomes: can I afford to stay?”

Community, Isolation, and the Health of a Home

Housing is not only an individual concern; it shapes neighborhoods, schools, local health systems, and local economies. When homes deteriorate or families are forced to leave due to costs or unsafe conditions, communities weaken. Social connection, another key determinant of health, begins to erode.

Stable housing reduces stress not just for the individual, but for the community. Churches, volunteer programs, nonprofits, and neighbors often step in where policy cannot.

Organizations like WARM NC do nor serve renters, but their work with low-income homeowners sits at the intersection of stress relief, public health, and community resilience. Repairing floors, building ramps, fixing roofs, these are not just physical improvements. They are acts of prevention against stress, injury, displacement, and despair.

A Quiet Crisis, and a Path Forward

Housing related stress is often invisible. There is no emergency room for it, no headline to capture it. But it is there, in the homeowner who prays the next storm passes, in the window who waits another year to fix the heat, in the veteran who fears losing the home he fought to protect.

Awareness is the first step. Compassion is the next. And ensuring that home remains a place of safety, not stress, is a responsibility shared by communities, policymakers, and all who believe that stability should  not be a luxury.