Breaking the Cycle: A Charlotte Homeowner's Story
Written by Elsa Conklin, Senior Content Marketing Specialist
Takesha is setting out to break a curse.
A family curse, that is. “The homeownership part – a couple generations got skipped, just thinking back to how my grandparents sacrificed and have owned a home all my life, staying on top of bills, and so on. I wanted that for my family,” she shared.
Takesha, a native of New York who has lived in the Charlotte region since 2015, hadn’t always dreamt of being a homeowner. “The background I come from, homeownership was not the norm,” she shared. Her grandparents were homeowners, but the values and skills around owning a home skipped a generation, and she wasn’t raised with that mentality. Her entire adult life thus far, Takesha has rented homes. At first, she was content – but as rent has risen sharply each year, it has become harder to justify without having any equity to show for it.
Most importantly, she wanted to own a home to provide a better life for her children. “I wanted them to experience something greater. To be able to say, ‘this is mine,’ to have an open space to play and friends and neighbors nearby,” shared Takesha.
Takesha began to ask herself, “Why can’t I own a house?”
Why Homeownership Felt Out of Reach in Charlotte
Once she began researching, she realized she had limited options, as homeownership has become increasingly out of reach. In Charlotte, a family would have to earn upwards of $146,280 to afford a median-priced home in 2025 – an uptick from the $138,036 in 2024 (UNC Charlotte State of Housing Report 2025). In 2021, 35.7% of homes were sold for under $300,000, yet in 2025, only 17.8% were sold for under $300,000.
Takesha found Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region’s Homebuyer Program as an avenue for her to achieve her goal of homeownership.
Building Financial Confidence Along the Way
Affordability wasn’t the only aspect of Habitat’s program that intrigued Takesha. She knew homeownership would offer the stability and opportunity she sought for her family, but she was nervous about the financial component of taking on homeownership. She was drawn to the financial literacy aspect of the program – aimed at helping families not just achieve homeownership but also maintain it for years to come.
“All of these things weren’t talked about growing up — we were living to survive. We didn’t talk about budgeting,” she shared of her upbringing.
As an educator herself and currently working towards her master’s degree in education administration, Takesha is a lifelong learner, and she applied that same mentality to her homeownership journey. Through all she learned in the program, she built not just a home, but a foundation of financial knowledge to help her sustain it – and even increased her credit score by nearly 200 points.
And that foundation doesn’t just serve her, but her family, too.
“Everything that Habitat is teaching me, I’m passing on,” she shared.
Takesha is determined to instill these lessons on her family to help break that family curse.
Learning Hands-On Building Skills
She took advantage of this opportunity to learn some building skills, too, as she takes on this new challenge of maintaining a home. As part of the Homebuyer program, individuals commit to a certain level of volunteer hours, engaging them in their community while also helping them learn foundational building skills, if they chose to volunteer out on the build site.
“I know how to patch a wall now, and I’ve learned the technique of painting. I showed up ready to learn,” shared Takesha.
Finding the Right Home at Legacy Vista
Going into the lot selection process, Takesha thought she wanted a single-family home. But she wanted to live in Charlotte, where the options to build single-family homes are growing increasingly limited and more expensive.
The more she looked at the available properties, she realized that she could get all that she wanted in a duplex — “a beautiful front and backyard, plenty of room, a big open floorplan. I had to reevaluate what I wanted and what I actually needed,” Takesha shared. She found everything she was looking for at Legacy Vista, a recently completed neighborhood in west Charlotte.
Higher-density, well-planned neighborhoods are possible thanks to strides made by the Charlotte Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), creating opportunity to more effectively utilize the rapidly depleting land supply while also still designing thoughtful neighborhoods where families can thrive. Legacy Vista is a prime example of this legislation in action, providing high-quality homes with a high quality of life.
Building a Foundation for Generations to Come
And now, as Takesha steps into this next chapter in her “forever home,” she’s optimistic about what it has in store for her family. She feels financially stronger and physically capable of tackling the challenge of homeownership. Affordable homeownership can be a catalyst for wealth building, and she’s eager to finally build equity in a home of her own — helping her family grow and thrive for generations to come.
And best of all, it is not just Takesha who has grown throughout this process – but her family, too.
“This whole process was a blessing. It doesn’t just affect me. Even my daughter is talking about purchasing a house now. This has opened our hearts, our eyes, our dreams – to something so much bigger.”
Through Takesha’s hard work, determination, and resilience – she’s well on her way to help break that curse and create financial security for her two children and four grandchildren.
Tour Takesha’s new home and hear about her journey to homeownership!