Photo By: Henry Thomas
[Nat sound: Knock on door]
Welcome to Cobb Terrace.
McCullough: This neighborhood is the first real development in Chapel Hill and Collier Cobb, he was a geology professor at UNC, and he thought that there needed to be a place where those young married professors could have somewhere to live where they could have some privacy.
Melissa McCullough is a resident of Cobb Terrace and according to her, the residents have been enjoying their stay so much, many of them don’t leave.
McCullough: Iris, who lives at that little house down the hill on the end. Originally lived in the house next door here in their ADU.
McCullough is referring to Iris Schwintzer, who has been a resident here for…quite a bit.
Schwintzer: I moved on to Cobb Terrace in 78. That would be 1978.
Katherine Polk has been a resident since 1970 and will sell her house only to someone who feels as strongly about the neighborhood as she does.
Polk: I don’t want to sell for money. I want to sell to someone who will appreciate and protect Cobb Terrace.
[Nat sound: Street Noises]
With so few residents wanting to sell their historic homes, the price of houses in this area has increased dramatically.
McCullough: I do not remember exactly what I paid for it. It was somewhere in the high 300s, low 400s I think.
In less than 15 years, the value of McCullough’s house has more than doubled.
McCullough: On Zillow, it thinks this is worth more than a million dollars now.
McCullough is certainly not alone when it comes to her house’s value rising tremendously. Schwintzer bought her house for only 56,000 dollars. But now it’s valued at nearly eight times that amount.
Schwintzer: I have an idea what the tax people say it’s worth. It’s over 400,000.
Experts attribute a lack of land and housing supplies to the spike in housing prices. However, McCullough says multifamily housing can be a way to combat housing affordability.
McCullough: One of the reasons I bought this house was because it was sold to me with the opportunity to put an apartment in the basement. We need housing. Affordable student housing is important. And this was also before a number of the apartment buildings went in. So, student housing was even more needed.
Cobb Terrace is a microcosm of the housing crisis across the state, especially in university towns. I’m Matthew Broderick, reporting.
