North Carolina lawmakers are turning their attention to housing costs as voters grow more worried about the economy and the price of living. On Wednesday, House majority and minority leaders said both parties want to work together on a plan to help nonprofit affordable housing groups buy land more cheaply.
John Bell said housing is one of the most pressing challenges families and communities face across the state. Robert Reives said lawmakers need to figure out what is stopping homes from being built at all, and said the proposal takes that problem seriously. Bell said the state should help nonprofit housing groups acquire land at lower cost, while Reives pointed to the pressure created by land that is becoming more expensive across North Carolina.
The push comes after Democrats rolled out a separate housing bill on Monday that includes a new loan program for moderate-income families. It also comes as a group of advocates for Asian-American families said on Wednesday that housing is one of their top political priorities. A High Point University poll released this month found that 59% of registered voters said the economy was getting worse, up from 42% in January, while about one-third said they expected to be worse off a year from now, compared with 24% in January.
The debate is unfolding as lawmakers prepare for the 2026 legislative session and weigh several housing-related proposals. Bell and Reives said the state needs to respond to hundreds of thousands of new residents moving into North Carolina each year, all of whom need somewhere to live. That demand is helping drive up land prices and pushing housing farther out of reach for many families.
Housing was not the only pressure point on Wednesday. Senate Republican leader Phil Berger also rolled out a separate plan focused on property taxes, seeking to freeze the implementation of new appraisals in Senate Bill 889. Berger said the goal is to give North Carolinians temporary relief from rising property taxes while lawmakers work on longer-term fixes next year and beyond. The proposal stands apart from a previously backed constitutional amendment that would have limited the power of local governments to raise property tax rates, showing how many fronts the affordability fight has opened in Raleigh.
For now, the shared message from both parties is that housing has become too expensive to ignore, and the next test is whether that agreement produces something families can actually use.