How It Runs

The Median Homebuyer Is Now Over 40 and Still Priced Out | Nate Broman-Fulks

This episode features Nate Broman-Fulks, Vice President of Development at the Taft-Mills Group, where he works on tax credit financing across North and South Carolina. Nate spent a decade inside local government first in Carrboro, then in Chapel Hill helping shape affordable housing communities in the area before crossing over to the private development side. The median homebuyer is now over 40 — not early career, but well into it and still struggling to buy where they work. Michael and Nate get into why that happens: housing that only pencils an hour from the jobs, zoning that blocks projects even when the numbers work, and a market where a new development simply can't hit the rents working families need without a program behind it. They break down who actually qualifies for affordable housing in a market like the Triangle, it can mean a household earning around $90,000, so the people who qualify are teachers, servers, and the manager at the store, not only those at the lowest incomes.