Study: Housing Too Expensive for Essential Workers

Cary, N.C. — Escalating housing prices are forcing teachers, law enforcement officers and other public employees in some communities to live far away from their jobs, according to a study released Wednesday.

The Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined trends in Brunswick County along North Carolina's southeast coast and found that the median housing cost for owner-occupied residences increased by 7.9 percent between 2000 and 2005. Meanwhile, the median household income in the county over the same period rose 0.6 percent, according to the study.

"The household income is going up at a very slow rate while the average price of homes is going up at a significantly higher rate," said William Rohe, director of the center.

The trend forces essential workers to live farther from their jobs, adding to traffic congestion and pollution and making it more difficult for some communities to retain workers, Rohe said.

Home prices in some parts of Wake County are similarly out of the reach of many public workers, said Susan Perry Cole, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

"The Brunswick (County) study tells us that we need a conversation in the Triangle," Cole said.

In Cary, for example, a quarter of 1,100 municipal employees live in the town, although officials said it's a matter of choice for some.

Cary Human Resources Director Vee Willis said the town offers an employee home-ownership program to help low-income public-sector workers to buy homes in Cary.

"It really provides assistance with the down payment to afford that home," Williams said.

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There are a lots of affordable homes, but lots of the areas don't have quality neighbors. It's a shame that people have to over spend because people are having to run from people that live just any kind of way.

silver
July 27, 2007 11:59 a.m.

Why is it necessary for "essential" people or anybody else for that matter to live where they want to? If you can't afford to live somewhere, you can't live there. Soon, people will be calling on the town councils to provide reasonably-priced housing. If the towns want to subsidize this sort of communist/socialist scenario, so be it. It doesn't make any kind of economic or common sense or it would already have been done by the developers. Next, people will want to have somebody else, ie:taxpayers, pay to keep them in the right clothing, cars, cell phones etc. If you want to be able to afford to live wherever you want, make the right choices and work hard like everybody else has. If the salary of an "essential" worked won't let you live next to a CEO, plan your life differently and figure it out.

likemenow
July 27, 2007 11:08 a.m.

I don't agree with this article. Yes, $600K homes are out of the reach of most people. There is a strategy to get a nicer house. Start with a less expensive condo, there are many in Cary under $100K. You can get by with putting 5% to 10% down. Build equity in the condo over some years, sell it, move to a small house...and so on. That's how most people afford the $600K houses, it's probably their 4th or 5th house, each one is a step up.

Note, the street right next to Governor's Row in Cary has 2 and 3BR homes in the low to mid-$100Ks, so there are affordable houses.

cartman
July 27, 2007 8:41 a.m.

Its about time this came out. Its funny the workers who protect,service,clean and provide medical help can not even afford to live here in wake county. The great thing is that almost all of these workers take pride in what they do for the county and the cities they work for.I work for a county agency that at one time required you to live in this county. It took me over a year to find a house I could afford and then it was a fixer upper. It is my opion city and county officials such as DAVID THE CROOK COOK try to get out as cheap as they can when it comes to labor and benefits. Its all politics and money upper and lower class,rich and poor. It will never change as long as money drives the politics and goverment in this county. L.A. county in California is a prime example of this problem.With 90 percent of all goverment workers commuting from out of county to work there.

applesmith
July 27, 2007 6:47 a.m.

FHA has products which allow a no down payment purchase. You have to have relatively good credit and a debt ratio of 42% of your gross monthly income. No reason anybody can't buy a house. You do have to know how to budget your money and not live beyond your means.

nowayebby
July 26, 2007 8:28 p.m.