Consumer News: Columbia rent rises in December, Lexington Two holding Teacher Recruitment Fair and more!

Consumer News with ABC Columbia is brought to you by Grow Financial.

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– The new year has brought some much needed relief to the rental market nationwide, but the same can’t be said for Columbia. Rent in Columbia increased another 1.8% in December, making Columbia’s current rent index 18.1%, compared to 7.3% this time last year. Columbia’s rent is currently up by 24.2% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Across the nation, rent prices fell 0.2% last month, representing the country’s first measurable price decline since 2020.

The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce says there was an increase in the number of first time unemployment insurance claims filed last week. From December 26, 2021-January 1, 2022, SCDEW says 3,582 initial claims filed. This is an increase of 2,447 claims from the previous week in which 1,135 initial claims were filed. Officials say the most claims came out of Anderson County, with 1,305 first time claims. Last week, SCDEW says 5,622 claimants were paid an average benefit of $266.29. Since March 15, 2020, officials say a total of $6,591,408,932.16 has been paid out. To see the full data report from SCDEW, visit www.dew.sc.gov/data-and-statistics/data-dashboard.

Lexington School District Two is looking for teachers. The district will hold a Teacher Recruitment Fair Tuesday, January 25. Lexington Two will offer a $2,500 signing bonus for new teacher hires in special education, foreign language as well as both middle and high school english, math, science and social studies. The in-person event takes place from 4-6 p.m. at the Lexington Two Innovation Center in Cayce. You can register online at on the district’s website.

CNN– One investment banking company is predicting the price of Bitcoin could hit $100,000 within five years. It’s currently about $43,000, that’s about two thirds of the cryptocurrency record high in November. Goldman Sachs says it believes digital assets will grow in popularity and would result in the price of Bitcoin to more than double.