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North Carolina teachers ranked among the lowest paid in the nation in a report released earlier this year, and rising home prices put an additional burden on them.
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That’s why Wake County Public School System officials are looking into an idea — they want to swap land with Wake County to make it easier to build teacher-focused affordable housing.
School and county officials discussed the idea Wednesday, but there is one significant roadblock. County officials don’t think they can legally give teachers and other school employees priority for housing.
That would mean that the school system could give up some of its unused land for housing, but that housing would have to be open to all comers, provided they meet income restrictions often in place for affordable housing.
More than half of WCPSS teachers who responded to a survey during the 2024-25 school year said they can’t afford to live in Wake County.
Almost 42% of teachers who responded said they’ve considered leaving their jobs at Wake schools because of high housing costs.
In April, a national report ranked North Carolina public schools 46th out of 51 — for the 50 states and the District of Columbia — in teacher pay, The News & Observer previously reported.
That was before the state passed a budget with raises for teachers, but the Wake school system still wants to address the affordability problem for teachers.
Wake schools have five school sites with unused land they could transfer to the county to facilitate the development of affordable housing:
The school system itself can’t manage housing or its development on those sites, school officials said Wednesday. But the county has the expertise to work on housing there, which would likely involve federal low-income housing tax credits, county funds and potentially municipal funds invested in a developer-led project, county officials said.
The housing would likely be kept affordable for about 30 years, typical for an affordable housing project.
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County officials don’t yet know how many units they could build. But Deputy Director of Housing Mark Perlman said, “We think a healthy number of units can be built.”
Perlman added that “when you don’t have an incredibly long commute or you are not spending 50% of your income just on your housing cost, that allows you to be more present and focused on the work that you’re doing day to day.”
The potential housing could be town homes, apartment buildings, detached single-family homes or patio homes, according to a county presentation.
However, County Attorney Allison Cooper said the county can’t prioritize school employees in housing projects without a bill from the state legislature granting the authority.
The county also wants a school-owned building near the intersection of Trinity Road and Edwards Mill Road at 1351 Sunday Drive in Raleigh for office space.
In return, the county has proposed giving Wake schools a large portion of a 110-acre property it jointly owns with the city of Raleigh on Battle Bridge Road, east of the city.
There, the county envisions new middle and elementary schools, as well as a new animal shelter already planned for a corner of the site.
Any potential land swap would come before the county commissioners and the school board this fall, according to the county’s presentation.
Development of affordable housing on the school’s unused land could take around three-and-a-half years, according to the county.
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This story was originally published August 13, 2026 at 10:18 AM.