To those of you who long to live in Chapel Hill: Think again. Finding a house there would likely cost you over $300,000. In fact, in the entire area of Chapel Hill, there are only 15 housing units that cost less than $150,000, and even those units are extremely small and old. That has some local officials worried.
"An acute shortage of housing in the $100,000 to $225,000 range is the biggest housing problem," said Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf. "We are active participants in a number of affordable housing ventures."
Waldorf cited specific initiatives like Empowerment Inc., a non-profit housing organization, and the town council's consideration of a plan to develop more housing downtown.
Town council member Pat Evans added that the local government hopes to improve the situation by encouraging mixed housing, as opposed to large upperclass subdivisions.
"There is not as much middle-income housing as there is available for higher-income persons, and programs such as Habitat for Humanity provide housing for lower-income people," said Tracy Dudley, a member of Chapel Hill's Housing and Community Development Advisory Board.
To solve the problem, town officials must face the root causes of Chapel Hill's housing crisis: high demand and low supply. Evans said the town is unlikely to issue many more housing permits, as about 90 percent of Chapel Hill's land is already developed.
Realtor Jim McDavid of Realty Executives said the demand is particularly high because consumers are willing to pay for Chapel Hill's public school system, often dubbed the best in Orange County. McDavid also called Chapel Hill a "perceived Mecca" because of the media attention it receives from the presence of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and nearby Duke.
Chapel Hill housing board member Chris Beacham said the increase in UNC-CH students living off campus has exacerbated the situation, as students sharing a single housing unit are able to outbid families and workers and drive prices up.
"Larger percentages of the work force are living outside of the town, which is not something the town wants," Beacham said. Still, housing outside of Chapel Hill is more abundant and cheaper. For example, Diane Starrett, a realtor for Coldwell Banker Advantage, said that houses of equal age and size cost about 25 percent more in Chapel Hill than in Durham. Starrett agreed that the great appreciation people have for living in Chapel Hill will keep the town's housing prices high.
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