By R. Lee Currie, Jr., of Clayton, NC

Past NCGOP Executive Director; Former Executive Director of the Foundation for Economic Education

Ask around any North Carolina town and you’ll hear the same story. A renter whose lease went up again. A young couple still saving for a down payment that keeps moving out of reach. A retiree who wants to downsize but can’t find anything smaller nearby.

Single-family rentals have become a lightning rod in this conversation, and I understand why. It’s discouraging to watch a house you hoped to buy become someone else’s investment. Yet for many households, renting a house is a practical choice, offering room for kids and pets without the commitment of a mortgage. Both the frustration and the need are real.

What connects them is scarcity. When there aren’t enough homes to go around, buyers, renters, and investors all end up bidding for the same limited inventory, and the people with the least flexibility lose out.

We can change that. Local governments can legalize more types of housing, from duplexes to cottages to smaller lots. They can shorten the permitting timelines that add months and thousands of dollars to every project. And they can stop treating new neighborhoods as a threat rather than an opportunity.

Our leaders should ask a simple question: does this policy help more homes get built? If the answer is yes, it deserves our support.