Belk College research, collaboration key to solutions

Enough people moved to the Charlotte metro from 2022 to 2023 to create a city roughly the size of Huntersville or Kannapolis, with 49,000-plus newcomers relocating to the area.

This brisk pace of growth — combined with a shortage of available housing and high interest rates — means that the Charlotte area faces a daunting shortfall of housing that people with low and moderate incomes can afford. While interest rates have come down and the supply side has improved in recent months, the problem persists.

Researchers with the Belk College of Business, along with dedicated alumni, are confronting the enduring challenge of housing affordability and availability in a number of collaborative and innovative ways.

 Among those leaders are Liz Ward ’14 M.S., founder of Give Impact LLC, an advisory services firm focused on affordable housing and upward mobility solutions through real estate; and James Scruggs ’19 M.S., CEO of Kingdom Development Partners and founder of Ascension Community Development Corporation, intent on creating and developing mixed income, sustainable communities.

Through their shared interest and respect, they started talking about opportunities to creatively nurture neighborhoods while also building social capital and sustainability. Among those efforts is a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to develop the Carya Pond community of 83 townhomes, with half to be sold at market rates and half to be sold to families in the Habitat for Humanity program. Kingdom Development Partners and Harmon Construction Services are the formal partners with Habitat, and Ward and others with Give Impact were instrumental in creating the partnership.

Belk College prepares real estate professionals to pursue full careers

Scruggs and Ward are joined in the Charlotte market by hundreds of other UNC Charlotte alumni who have earned graduate and undergraduate degrees and graduate certificates and are working directly in commercial or residential real estate or related fields. The Childress Klein Center for Real Estate administers and supports the Master of Science in Real Estate, the MBA Real Estate Concentration, the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration’s Real Estate Concentration in the Finance major and the Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Finance and Development.

Faculty provide thought leadership through research, collaboration

 Faculty with the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate guide and inform solutions in urban development, land use, investment and capital market issues while fostering innovative theory, policy and practice. Center faculty are leaders in research on emerging issues. Their findings are relevant for businesses, trade organizations, policymakers, other researchers and consumers.

 In one of the most impactful research offerings available at no cost to the Charlotte region, center Director Yongqiang Chu each year presents the State of Housing in Charlotte report at a community summit. Following its release each year, media and community and business organizations turn to the report and its authors for expert analysis of housing issues.

This year’s summit  is Nov. 20, with the report presentation followed by an industry panel discussion addressing topics from the report. All are welcome at the summit, but registration is requested.

Read the full story on the Belk College of Business website at https://belkcollege.charlotte.edu/2024/11/08/alumni-faculty-lead-innovation-in-affordable-housing-real-estate-development/.