(The Center Square) – North Carolina legislators called for solutions to rising property taxes, describing them as a threat to both homeowners and renters in the state during a legislative hearing Wednesday.
The elderly in particular often struggle to pay their property taxes, State Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, told fellow members of the House Select Committee of Property Tax Reduction and Reform. If they lose their homes, the alternative for many seniors is often even more expensive assisted living homes, Cunningham said.
“We feel like we’re being taxed to death,” the legislator said. “I think it’s good that we are having the conversation and that we find the best way to move forward.”
Senior citizens are a growing segment of North Carolina’s population, Allahna Knight, an economist with the legislature’s fiscal research division, told lawmakers Wednesday.
Between 2015 and 2024, North Carolina’s population increased by 10%, Knight said.
“This population growth is largely driven by in-migration,” she said. “North Carolina attracts new residents with its availability of jobs and the low cost of living.”
Between 2020 and 2022 there were supply chain issues and high material costs due to inflation which limited the supply of new housing. Also, low mortgage rates during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many homeowners who had refinanced were reluctant to sell their homes, Knight said.
Between early 2020 and early 2021, active home listings in North Carolina dropped by about 60%, driving up prices.
“The growth of home prices has outpaced the growth of income,” Knight said.
One factor that may have contributed to income not keeping up with home prices could be North Carolina’s changing demographics, Knight explained.
“A majority of the growth is concentrated among seniors,” she said.
The increase in the number of senior citizens has been caused by the aging of the existing population as well as in-migration of retirees, Knight said.
In addition to taxes, increased regulations on builders over the years have also raised the cost of housing, said Rep. Jeff Zenger, a Republican representing Forsyth County who is also a contractor.
“We put more regulation on, that raises the cost and then that raises the assessment and that raises the tax and then we put more regulation on,” he said. “It just keeps going around and around. It’s absolutely insane.”
