Proposed Apple campus in RTP could increase local housing demand

Apple plans to open a new campus in Research Triangle Park, and officials say the new venture could cause a large influx of people looking for housing in Chapel Hill.

After the initial announcement of the opening in 2021, Wake County received a commercial use application for the site in May 2023. The application highlights Apple’s plans for its new location, including a 73-foot-tall building with 324,000 square feet of office space.

Apple pledged to employ 2,700 people within a decade at this new RTP campus, with that number expected to rise to 3,000. The new campus would pay its employees an average annual salary of $187,000.

Dwight Bassett, the director of economic development and parking services for the Town of Chapel Hill, said it would be almost impossible for the Town to not see an effect from this influx of new people — especially from a housing perspective.

Bassett said the Town has had a high housing demand for decades that has been unmet. If they had been meeting these demands, he said he believes Chapel Hill would have a more diverse supply of housing today. 

Between 2010 and June of 2022, Orange County has added the fewest new homes in the region, with only 2,709 new homes being built. This is compared to 52,149 homes built in Wake County in the same period. If Orange County built new homes at the same rate as Wake County adjusted for population differences, there would be more than 20,000 new homes in Orange County.

“I think it will continue to affect us in the future, but if we can begin to create enough supply, maybe we can temper that somewhat into the future,” Bassett said.

Amy Ryan, a Chapel Hill Town Council member, said the adoption of the Complete Community strategy in 2022 will have a big impact on the community as new people come into Chapel Hill. With this framework in mind, Ryan said the Town has committed to building approximately 500 units of housing a year.

With a strong school system in the area, Ryan said new families may be attracted to Chapel Hill and housing stock issues may arise.

“I think people will want to move here,” Ryan said. “It's just a question of whether they can find the kind of unit they want and whether they can find the kind of price that they want.”

She said the Town is also trying to increase the diversity of housing options available in the area. Ryan said the Town is trying to move away from large apartment buildings and focus on missing middle housing such as condos or townhomes that are more suitable for families.

Sarah Viñas, the director of affordable housing and community connections for the Town, said one of the issues in terms of housing prices is that wages in the area have not increased at the same rate as housing costs. Orange County has seen a $140,000 increase in median home sales price from 2012 to 2019.

Viñas said many of Chapel Hill’s lower-income community members are losing ground with the higher-income population as the Town sees an increase in higher-income households — specifically those earning more than $150,000 per year.

From 2010 to 2021, she said, the Town saw a decrease of 2,100 households earning less than $35,000 a year and an increase of 2,600 households earning over $150,000 a year.

“It absolutely is affecting the access piece and I think what I would say is that it's a very complex system with a lot of different factors impacting the housing market and the job market,” Viñas said.

She said the Town is working to address these issues through a variety of different strategies, including their affordable housing work.

The Town has a long history of dedicating resources to increase affordable housing in the community, Viñas said, including dedicating $21.6 million towards affordable housing since 2018. 

With this investment, she said, the Town expects to see about 800 units of affordable housing coming online over the next five years.

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