Kolin Carswell is a Wilmington native. He started working service jobs after attending UNCW, and was able to rent an apartment in 2017 with his wages.
“I’ve pretty much always was able to afford to live solo for the longest time, and it was just steady increases every year, but then it kind of felt like they were going up exponentially,” he said.
By 2025, he realized he couldn’t swing it anymore. Rents started escalating way faster than his paychecks after the pandemic…