North Carolina’s economy is strong. Yet for too many families, the dream of homeownership is out of reach. The state’s housing affordability crisis is no longer a distant threat — it’s here now. The median home price statewide exceeds $450,000, a price tag that requires nearly double the state’s average household income to afford. That means roughly two-thirds of North Carolinians can’t afford a single-family home at today’s prices.
Young families find themselves staring at doors that their parents’ generation walked through with ease. In 1981 the median age of all homebuyers nationally was 31. Today, it’s 61. This generational gap is deeply concerning. As one NC legislator warned, “We’ve got a generation of folks that if we’re not careful, we’re going to box them out of the American Dream.”
For many in NC’s workforce, the situation is dire. The people who keep our communities running — first responders, teachers, and nurses — increasingly cannot afford to live in the communities they serve. What was once a basic expectation — owning a home near your job — has become a luxury, with many workers forced into long, costly commutes or forced out of the market altogether.
Economic Consequences of the Housing Shortage
The housing crisis is an economic emergency for NC. When housing falls short, the entire economy is affected. Businesses are sounding the alarm that it’s becoming difficult to recruit and hire employees when those workers can’t afford to live nearby.
Companies considering expanding within or moving to our state notice the housing crunch, and it factors into their decisions. A housing shortage means a workforce shortage. It means longer commutes, higher labor costs, and stunted growth for employers and communities alike.
According to a recent statewide study commissioned by the NC Chamber Foundation, NC REALTORS®, and the North Carolina Home Builders Association, the state faces an expected housing deficit of roughly 760,000 units by 2029. If we fail to build those homes, the consequences will be severe.
The same study estimated that closing this gap would generate nearly $489 billion in economic activity and 2.2 million jobs across NC. Conversely, if we allow the housing shortfall to persist, we are actively throttling our state’s future prosperity. Housing could become our state’s competitive advantage — or its Achilles’ heel.
Local Regulations: Fueling the Crisis
Why is North Carolina in this predicament? Two major reasons are values and politics. For years, local elected officials — often pressured by “Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY, factions — have piled on restrictive zoning rules, stalled permit approvals, and outright blocked development that would have added affordable homes to the housing supply. These choices might appease a subset of current homeowners, but they impose a heavy cost on everyone else.
When voters pressure officials to oppose new housing, they might think they are preserving the character of their community. In reality, they are pricing out young families and causing talent to flee. Over time, that stance hollows out the community. Neighbors grow older, schools struggle with declining enrollment, and essential workers — from the rookie law enforcement officer to the veteran first responder — are forced to live an hour away or leave their job altogether.
There’s also a fiscal boomerang effect to anti-housing policies. By constricting growth, local governments also constrict their future tax base, leading to budget shortfalls and higher taxes down the road, particularly for the same homeowners who oppose growth. We’ve seen this cycle play out repeatedly — local governments impose years of no-growth policies, only to hit a wall when revenues stagnate or decline. Suddenly, the same officials who once blocked housing scramble to attract the very growth they resisted — or, worse, they raise taxes on existing homeowners to make up the shortfall.
After an election cycle of increasing property taxes, the once dominant voices of the NIMBYs are quickly drowned out by property owners waving their skyrocketing property tax bills at council meetings.
State Leadership vs. Local Roadblocks
When local governments prove incapable of solving a statewide crisis, state leaders have a responsibility to act. This is what’s happening now in Raleigh. The General Assembly is considering provisions contained in House Bill 765 that aim to dismantle the barriers to affordable housing that local governments have erected. It’s an overdue course-correction to spur the building of homes our citizens can afford.
The bill reins in the most egregious local impediments that drive up housing costs. It would impose reasonable time limits so that permit applications can’t be stalled indefinitely. It trims back excessive local regulations such as minimum parking requirements and costly local development conditions prohibited by state law, all of which inflate project costs and, ultimately, the final sticker price of the home.
But Who Cares?
The answer must be — we all should. We all have a stake in the outcome. If you own a home, you might think you’re insulated from the fallout. But a community where nurses, police officers, teachers, and young professionals cannot live is not economically sustainable. Eventually, the fabric of our economy and society unravels — businesses can’t hire, essential service providers struggle to find staff, and families who’ve called North Carolina home for generations watch their children move away due to a lack of affordable housing options.
NC is at a crossroads. One road leads to a future of rising housing costs, talent fleeing to other states, hollowed-out communities, and a generational breach of the American Dream. The other path leads to a future where we care enough to build for those who come after us, and reap the rewards of stronger families, stronger communities, and a stronger economy.
The choice is ours to make. Housing is unaffordable today, but if we care, we can ensure that tomorrow’s North Carolinians will look back and thank us for the homes we constructed, instead of cursing the doors we left closed.
