Report: Durham’s biggest employers can do more to tackle the affordable housing crisis

A new report from the Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South, finds that despite Durham County, North Carolina’s rapidly growing economy and the significant wealth accumulated by its largest universities, hospitals and corporations, many Durham residents are struggling to afford housing.

The report outlines several ways Duke University and other large employers can use their resources to help address the city’s housing affordability crisis, including raising wages, investing in affordable housing, contributing land and financing and helping preserve housing that lower- and moderate-income residents can afford.

The report is the third in a series published by the Institute about the disconnect between Durham's increasing prosperity and growing crises in affordable housing, school funding, and workers' wages.

As the report documents, Durham County’s inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product has increased by more than 180% over the last 20 years, reaching more than $53 billion in 2024. Duke University and its affiliated Duke University Health System reported more than $22 billion in investments in 2025, while Duke University’s endowment has grown to $12.3 billion.

At the same time, the median home price in the city of Durham surged from $194,244 in March 2016 to $396,395 in March 2026, an increase of 104%. Median gross rent, which includes rent and utilities, increased from about $896 a month in 2014 to roughly $1,508 in 2024, an increase of more than 68%.

The report also finds:

* About 48% of renter households in both the city and county of Durham spent at least 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2024, meeting the standard threshold for being housing cost-burdened.

* A full-time worker in the Durham area must earn at least $32.50 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

* The median wage for Durham workers was $26.38 an hour in 2023. That figure falls to $20.59 for Black workers and $18.26 for Latino workers.

* A recent Institute for Southern Studies survey found 47% of Duke University and Duke University Health System workers struggled to afford their rent or mortgage payments.

About one in five Durham County homeowners with a mortgage are considered housing cost-burdened.

Private equity firms owned more than 11,300 rental units in Durham as of May 2026, including more than 1,000 units each owned by Blackstone/LivCor, Harbor Group International and Starwood Capital Group.

How Durham's large employers can help

The report argues that Durham’s largest institutions have an important role to play in addressing the widening gap between workers’ wages and the cost of living in the city. As Durham County’s largest employer and private landowner, Duke University has significant resources that can be put toward addressing the city’s housing affordability crisis.

It identifies several steps these institutions can take, including increasing pay for lower-wage workers, contributing to affordable housing funds, donating land, providing low-cost financing, preserving existing affordable apartments and offering housing assistance.

As the report concludes, “By raising wages and committing more of their land, capital and resources to housing affordability, Durham’s largest institutions can help ensure that the workers and families who sustain the city can afford to remain part of its future.”