Housing as Economic Development

Scott, and let's start with you in the big picture.

When you talk with communities across North Carolina, what are you hearing about the challenges about housing today?

So the biggest challenge and the biggest example of what we're seeing today is the First call that we always get after there's a big job announcement, regardless of where it is in the state, is we're really excited about these jobs we have, but we don't have any place for these folks to live.

And that's true in our urban areas.

That's true in our rural areas.

It's a common problem across the entire state.

We have issues with construction costs, land costs.

We've got issues with just the limited housing stock right now.

We can't build fast enough.

As I mentioned, it's not just an urban issue or a rural issue.

It's everywhere.

For the rural communities, They're facing challenges of an aging housing stock.

They have a lot of rehab needs, but not a lot of resources available to them.

They also are trying to fight and compete for a limited group of developers and contractors.

I like to use the example when talking about the rehab needs and some of these rural challenges is you've got a contractor who's got a choice of doing one $500,000 house or doing 10 $50,000 rehab jobs.

It's a Pretty easy route to see which way he's going to take because it's much easier to deal with one homeowner than to try and work with 10 different homeowners for the same outcome.

We all recognize we live in a fast-growing state, greatest state in the union, but everybody's found us and everybody's coming here.

And we just don't have the resources or the folks to be able to keep pace with that.

We're doing a great job of that as best we can, but it's just one of those ongoing struggles.

And it can't be missed either, the fact that those infrastructure challenges, many of our local governments just aren't able to keep pace.

There's not enough resources for water, sewer, power, schools, fire departments, all of those challenges that come along with rapid growth.

We struggle to meet those needs on a daily basis.

And when you're a fast-growing state, it becomes even more exacerbated.

Well, Scott, you do run through a number of challenges that every community in North Carolina is facing, and it shows the breadth of the challenge of housing.

Scott, and let's start with you in the big picture.

When you talk with communities across North Carolina, what are you hearing about the challenges about housing today?

So the biggest challenge and the biggest example of what we're seeing today is the First call that we always get after there's a big job announcement, regardless of where it is in the state, is we're really excited about these jobs we have, but we don't have any place for these folks to live.

And that's true in our urban areas.

That's true in our rural areas.

It's a common problem across the entire state.

We have issues with construction costs, land costs.

We've got issues with just the limited housing stock right now.

We can't build fast enough.

As I mentioned, it's not just an urban issue or a rural issue.

It's everywhere.

For the rural communities, They're facing challenges of an aging housing stock.

They have a lot of rehab needs, but not a lot of resources available to them.

They also are trying to fight and compete for a limited group of developers and contractors.

I like to use the example when talking about the rehab needs and some of these rural challenges is you've got a contractor who's got a choice of doing one $500,000 house or doing 10 $50,000 rehab jobs.

It's a Pretty easy route to see which way he's going to take because it's much easier to deal with one homeowner than to try and work with 10 different homeowners for the same outcome.

We all recognize we live in a fast-growing state, greatest state in the union, but everybody's found us and everybody's coming here.

And we just don't have the resources or the folks to be able to keep pace with that.

We're doing a great job of that as best we can, but it's just one of those ongoing struggles.

And it can't be missed either, the fact that those infrastructure challenges, many of our local governments just aren't able to keep pace.

There's not enough resources for water, sewer, power, schools, fire departments, all of those challenges that come along with rapid growth.

We struggle to meet those needs on a daily basis.

And when you're a fast-growing state, it becomes even more exacerbated.

Well, Scott, you do run through a number of challenges that every community in North Carolina is facing, and it shows the breadth of the challenge of housing.