State lawmakers are homing in on housing expenses as North Carolinians sour on the economy, with rising concerns over the cost of living and broader economic conditions. The situation is even stoking bipartisan proposals.
At a rare joint press conference Wednesday, the majority and minority leaders of the North Carolina House of Representatives said that their respective Republican and Democratic caucuses want to work together on tackling the price of housing.
Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, and Rep. Robert Reives, D-Chatham, said their plan focuses on having the state help nonprofit affordable housing groups, such as Habitat for Humanity, acquire land more cheaply.
“We all can agree that housing is one of the most pressing challenges that families face, and communities face, across our state,” Bell said. “That’s why we’re here today: To propose legislation that represents a meaningful and practical step forward.”
He and Reives said that while plenty can be done to cut down on construction costs when trying to build affordable housing, there’s still the problem that land throughout North Carolina is getting more and more expensive. The hundreds of thousands of new residents moving into North Carolina every year need some place to live, and that demand for space has driven up the price of land.
“We can’t simply ask how to make homes affordable after they’re built,” Reives said. “We’ve got to figure out what’s preventing them from being built at all, and that’s what this bill takes seriously.”
Other proposals to address housing issues are up for consideration during the 2026 legislative session.
On Monday Democrats rolled out a different housing bill, including a new loan program aimed at moderate-income families. And on Wednesday a group of advocates for the state’s fastest-growing demographic — Asian-American families — said housing is one of their top political priorities as well, during a legislative press conference.
The push comes as voters’ outlook on the economy dims.
About 59% of registered voters polled by High Point University this month said the economy was getting worse. That’s up from 42% in January. About one-third of respondents expect to be worse off a year from now, up from 24% in January.
Shortly after Reives and Bell announced their plan Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Phil Berger rolled out a plan of his own, focused on suppressing property taxes. He seeks to freeze the implementation of new appraisals. When counties re-appraise property values, people can find themselves paying more in taxes even if the tax rate itself remains unchanged, if their property is suddenly valued higher.
The goal of Senate Bill 889, Berger said Tuesday, is to bring temporary relief to North Carolinians facing rising property taxes while legislators work on long-term solutions for next year and beyond.
“Residents across North Carolina are seeing their property values skyrocket after revaluations, and it’s imperative that the General Assembly take a thoughtful approach to address property tax concerns,” Berger said in a statement.
Berger’s proposal is different from a proposed new constitutional amendment on the same theme, proposed earlier this year with backing from Republican House Speaker Destin Hall, to limit the power of local governments to raise property tax rates.
Hall told reporters Wednesday he’s concerned by rising property taxes in the state not just because it can hit the pocketbooks of current homeowners, but also because they can potentially price people out of being able to buy their first home.
“For some folks, it may be $200 or $300 a month that they can’t meet,” Hall said. “For others who are applying for a mortgage, that $200 or $300 per month may knock them out of being able to get that mortgage.”
Property tax options
The bill from Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, passed its first committee hearing on Wednesday, ahead of a likely vote next week.
During that Senate committee meeting Wednesday, Sen. Steve Jarvis, R-Davidson, said the one-year ban on new appraisals is meant to buy time for the legislature to come up with ideas for more comprehensive and permanent reforms.
“This will give us the ability to look into tax policy and what we want to do with property taxes … so that we can take a look at it, catch our breath to see what’s going on,” Jarvis said.
At least a dozen counties are set for revaluations in 2026 and a quarter of North Carolina’s 100 counties are planning a revaluation in 2027, according to the state Department of Revenue.
Wake County completed its most recent revaluation in 2024 and isn’t set for another one until 2027. Durham County conducted its latest revelation in 2025 and its next is set for 2029. Orange County’s next revaluation is set for 2029 and Cumberland County’s is planned for 2033.
Kevin Leonard, the head of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, told legislators in January that home prices rose in all 71 counties that implemented property revaluations in the past three years. Each of those counties lowered their property tax rates. But some property owners still ended up paying more in taxes because their county didn’t keep the rates revenue-neutral, Leonard said — and the jump in their home value was greater than the reduction in the local tax rate.
Local officials have expressed concern about legislation that limits their ability to generate revenue when the state’s population — and its needs — are growing. Property taxes provide the bulk of the funding for local services such as law enforcement and waste management.
Berger’s bill, if enacted, would allow counties to raise property taxes if they so choose — but not as a result of a revaluation from this calendar year. It’s expected to pass the state Senate, but it’s unclear still what reception it might receive in the state House, where leaders have backed different strategies for tackling property taxes.
“We’re not necessarily opposed to it,” Hall said Wednesday of Berger’s proposal. “I think all these ideas are percolating. Bills moving and dealing with property tax, I think we need to get a comprehensive solution. That may be one component of it. But every time you make a change, you’ve got to look at the other side of it. How is this impacting local governments doing core services?”
The potential for forced cuts to local governments is a major concern for county commissioners and city council members across the state, as well as the teachers, police officers and other local government employees whose salaries are funded partially or fully by property taxes.
“The property tax is our most stable revenue source that we receive,” Don Mial, the Wake County Board of Commissioners chairman, told WRAL.
While Hall was noncommittal about Berger’s property tax proposal, Berger said last week that he doesn’t think there’s consensus on Hall’s proposed amendment and noted that it would take several months to enact into law. Voters must approve constitutional amendments at the polls in order for them to become law.
The two chambers have been deadlocked for a year now over a state budget deal that has still yet to materialize, leading to friction between House Republicans and Senate Republicans. Hall, however, expressed optimism that the warring chambers could put aside their differences to take some sort of action on housing affordability this year.
“We’ll make some substantive changes on property tax, one way or the other,” Hall told reporters Wednesday.
Berger, who lost the Republican primary for his seat last month to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, has said he plans to focus in his final months on policies that make North Carolina affordable for residents and businesses.
“Now is the time for relief for working families and small businesses, a time to mitigate higher costs,” Berger said in a recent column. “We can do that, in part, with innovative and thoughtful reforms to ever-increasing property tax bills at the local level.”
