Where and why Habitat for Humanity in Wake County is now building townhomes
Habitat for Humanity is bringing a new townhome community to northeast Raleigh, the nonprofit’s latest move to address Wake County’s housing crisis.
On Tuesday, the Raleigh City Council approved Habitat’s request to build up to 30 townhomes on about 4.5 acres at 2608 Forestville Road. The nonprofit will sell the two-story homes for their appraisal value, estimated to be about $350,000, and make the homes affordable through financing, said local Habitat CEO Patrica Burch.
Council member Megan Patton, who represents northeast Raleigh, said homes built in the neighborhood that surrounds this property sold for a similar price about five years ago..
“They’re much larger homes than the ones that you all will be providing,” Patton said. “I just think that really speaks to the upward pressure on the whole housing market, and this area in particular. That in the span of five years, money is going a lot less far. So I think it just speaks to the incredible need in our community.”
While Habitat for Humanity of Wake County has built townhomes before, it is now constructing them much more frequently than traditional, stick-built, single-family houses.
“We look at most every neighborhood to be able to get the most density out of it that we can, and which is why we’re starting to put more and more townhomes in neighborhoods,” Burch said.
“And we will have some neighborhoods that are exclusively town homes,” she added. “The cost of land makes it so that we have to look at every way that we can maximize what we can do on that property.”
Wake County properties were reassessed last year during the 2024 revaluation, and residential proprieties saw an average increase of 53% in tax value from 2020.
The nonprofit has also moved from constructing one-off homes in an area to building entire neighborhoods.
“Habitat Wake has been developing land for a while, but there is a definite shift from building homes to building communities,” Burch said. “And so we are starting to become land developers. So we are currently working to develop the land at Old Poole Place, which is 114 lots. And then we will be developing land at pretty much every neighborhood going forward.”
Old Poole Road, located in Southeast Raleigh near the intersection of Old Poole Road and New Hope Road, will have 60 single-family homes and 54 townhomes. Nearly 50 homes have been completed or are under construction. The neighborhood will be fully built out over the next two to three years.
Habitat for Humanity of Wake County has built 950 homes over its 40 years.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 10:51 AM.
