The cost of housing in Charleston is still reasonable, according to housing data from the Associated Press, but it might not remain that way for long.
Charleston has the smallest percentage of stressed homeowners - homeowners who pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs - out of all 353 American cities that the AP surveyed.
The city also has a low percentage of stressed renters - renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on rental costs - well below the national average.
"We do pretty good on rent as a percent of income in West Virginia, compared to other states," said Ted Boettner, the executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
But for those renters who are stressed, times are tough - and getting worse.
Rent in Charleston increased by 9 percent between 2009 and 2014 - that's the 21st highest increase out of the 182 cities surveyed with populations under 100,000 people.
To Ellen Allen, the executive director of Covenant House, finding reasonable housing in the city is difficult.
"There's not a lot of affordable housing in the area, even if it looks that way statistically," Allen said.
Allen is on the front lines of helping people find and afford housing, and she said it can be difficult finding people a place they can afford.
"We're very lucky to find something at $350, $400 a month," Allen said. "And they're homes that are considered substandard at best."
Allen has become familiar with people who are struggling to pay housing costs - she said that, of the 3,000 people a year who come through her food pantry, most of them are paying more than a third of their income on rent.
"It used to be that one third was the standard," Allen said. "Now, we're seeing 50 percent, sometimes up to 75 percent."
The percent of stressed renters in Charleston increased from 34.4 percent in 2009, to 37.8 percent in 2014, a larger increase than any other metro area in the state.
"We do not have the jobs to support income for affordable housing," Allen said.
Having to give such a large chunk of a paycheck to rent makes other aspects of life difficult.
"It means they have to come to our food pantry to help cover food," Allen said.
For families, Allen said, it often means that kids go without things that are related to school, like field trips, or after school activities. Sometimes, it means that the family can't afford internet access, making homework more difficult.
"It's devastating," Allen said. "Particularly for families with young children."
She said that most of the people who come through are the working poor, families where either one or two people in the household are making minimum wage.
Allen attributed the rise in struggling renters to the stagnation of wages, along with the increase in rent over the years.
Boettner also said that the median income in Charleston hasn't increased much since 2006.
"The city of Charleston, and West Virginia, still hasn't recovered from the recession, which has depressed incomes," Boettner said.
Stagnant wages could help explain why the number of stressed renters has increased even though the number of stressed homeowners has gone down by 1.2 percentage points over the same period of time.
As rent increases, either from owners expanding their bottom line or property tax increases, renters who haven't gotten raises in years see a larger chunk of their income going to rent.
"I think it is really tied to income wage stagnation," Allen said.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.