Workforce housing dilemma: Housing stock consists of larger, more expensive homes.
Feb. 16. A new report from the Charlotte Urban Institute confirms there’s a workforce housing—aka affordable housing—crisis in North Meck. It means many families, even those with six-figure incomes, can’t afford to purchase the median price home in Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville.
According to the Urban Institute report, the common standard that households should spend no more than a third of their income on housing, a household would need an income of about $160,000 to afford the median home in North Mecklenburg.
Over half of the homes are less than 20 years old, and the median size is 2,378 square feet. Not only does this make them about 500 square feet larger than the median home in Mecklenburg, most also have 3 or 4 bedrooms.
And despite the fact that home are being built, the overall housing stock still consists of larger, more expensive homes.
Housing stock
The existing housing stock in North Mecklenburg is primarily single-family. About 67 perecent of homes are single-family detached, compared to 54 percent for Mecklenburg County as a whole. 
Homes are also larger and newer than in Mecklenburg County as a whole. Over half of homes are less than 20 years old, and the median size is 2,378 square feet. Not only does this make them about 500 square feet larger than the median home in Mecklenburg, most also have 3 or 4 bedrooms.
The UNC-Charlotte Urban Institute is a nonpartisan, applied research and community outreach institute, “seeking solutions to the social, economic and environmental challenges facing our communities.”
To read the full report, click here.
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The new housing is 1400-1800 square feet and all for almost $500k.
It is ridiculous.
All for corporate builder greed and of course, kickbacks under the table.
Not to mention, that is NO MORE character and charm in new housing. They are all generic boxes and all look the same. Unless of course, you can afford to custom build.
Our town and country should take a look at Europe and see how they have retained the history and charm of their areas.
Land of The Beautiful is quickly becoming Land of the tacky.
Although this may be partially correct my guess is their margins have not increased at all. This is driven mostly by inflation, building materials in general are widely more expensive than they were 4 years ago but so is skilled labor and land. This is what happens when you print money uncontrollably, that money has to go somewhere and in this case it ends up in corporate America as a whole but not because of greed, it’s by default.
Stop tearing down historical buildings, Charlotte and turn them into easy to afford multi-family residences. Not the low income joke homes that are (1) not low income, Low Income starting at $250K, (2) in areas that do not have public transportation like the city does – who can wait 60 minutes for a but to take another bus and maybe even another one. (3) not built like cardboard.
The city mayor has her nice house with CMPD security and the developers build one or two “affordable” units in condos or single family but the taxes, condo or hoa fees and maintenance is overwhelming.
Stop putting lipstick on the pig and fix the pig.
Can I get a AMEN!
The fact is nice areas by a major lake and 20-30 minutes into a major city will ALWAYS be expensive. There are a TON of apartments/townhouses in North Meck and they will stay expensive. We need to STOP adding crappy small multi family homes. There is affordable housing in other areas.