Charleston Has an Affordability Problem

Charleston Has an Affordability Problem

Charleston has an affordability problem. This problem has real consequences for who can afford to live here and who gets pushed out.

As South Carolina’s legislative session begins this week, it’s important to be clear about what’s driving this crisis. It’s not just that the rent is too darn high or that incomes aren’t keeping pace with the pace of rising costs. It’s more complex than that. The problem is structural and systemic. It also reflects deeper economic patterns that shape who has access to opportunity and who does not. 

For many Charleston County residents, affordability is constrained by persistent racial inequities in income, wealth, housing access, and job quality. These constraints overlap and compound over time, making it harder to build stability even while working full time. As a result, many Black native Charlestonians are being priced out of neighborhoods and communities their families have called home for generations.

How Charleston’s Economic Systems Reinforce Inequity

Affordability in Charleston is shaped by a combination of factors such as income, savings, housing costs, and job opportunities. When an individual or family experiences a setback in one area, those pressures tend to spill over into other areas, making it harder for households to keep up. 

Lower incomes raise the risk of poverty. Poverty, in turn, makes it harder to save money, build wealth, or handle emergencies like a medical bill or car repair. Without savings or assets, families have fewer housing options and less flexibility to pursue educational opportunities, start a business, or pursue higher paying jobs. For households already struggling to make ends meet, the absence of savings means that a single setback can trigger a chain reaction of hardship that deepens poverty and widens inequities.

These patterns show up clearly in the data. Here’s what the numbers tell us about affordability in Charleston County.

What’s Making Charleston Unaffordable?

Income and Poverty

• About 40.6 percent of Black households in Charleston County earn under $50,000, compared with 18.1 percent of white households. 

• 18.2 percent of Black residents live below the federal poverty line—nearly three times the rate for white residents (6.3 percent).

Wealth 

• National data show median net worth of $44,100 for Black households, compared with $284,300 for white households (The Fed - Table: Survey of Consumer Finances, 1989 - 2022).

• Median financial assets—the most liquid form of wealth—are $7,400 for Black households compared to $69,500 for white households.

Homeownership

• Homeownership rates in the Charleston–North Charleston metro area are 74 percent for white households, compared with 56 percent for Black households and 51 percent for Hispanic households (Homeownership | National Equity Atlas).

• Among households earning below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, Black homeownership falls to 43.4 percent (Homeownership | National Equity Atlas, sorted to show below 200% poverty).

Job Quality and Mobility

• Only 11.8 percent of Black workers and 17.0 percent of Hispanic workers are employed in future-ready jobs, compared with 39.5 percent of white workers (Future-ready jobs | National Equity Atlas).

• At the same time, 10.8 percent of Black workers and 15.2 percent of Hispanic workers earn wages below 150 percent of the poverty line, compared with just 2.8 percent of white workers.

Unaffordability is a Symptom of a Flawed System

This is a tale of two Charlestons—one where rising costs are inconvenient, and another where they are destabilizing. Without intentional policy choices that address the underlying economic conditions, many Charleston residents–especially Black and Hispanic residents will no longer be able to afford to live here. 

Affordability will not be solved in a vacuum. It requires strengthening pathways to stable, higher-paying work, expanding access to wealth-building opportunities, improving job quality, and ensuring that Charleston’s growth works for more than just one side of the city.