Barbour & Williams Law

Twice in the past year, the Town Council has denied Couch’s request for a change to Summerfield’s development rules, the first step in winning the town’s approval for building apartments. During meetings of the council and the Planning Board, some homeowners said people should work harder to be able to afford to live in Summerfield, as they did before moving to the town.

By contrast, as Couch seeks support from state legislators to de-annex his property, he has reiterated his view that Summerfield needs more affordable housing options for first responders and others with modest incomes.

Housing prices have jumped in the three years since the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in higher construction costs and tightened the supply of homes. The average sales price of homes in Summerfield and Oak Ridge climbed by 6.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to a year earlier, according to the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association.

The association based the sales figures on statistics from the Triad Multiple Listing Service; it combines the sales results of Summerfield and Oak Ridge into a single quarterly report.

Housing prices also climbed in other areas of the county during that period.

“Summerfield

A 911 supervisor in High Point, Downey and his wife, Kasey, a school teacher, bought a three-bedroom, 2 ½-bath house on roughly 2 ½ acres in Summerfield 12 years ago. Even though its value has increased from about $250,000 to around $400,000, the couple said they could still afford to buy the property.

“I’m a teacher living here, and I know a lot of other people like me living here,” Kasey said in an interview earlier this week. She and her husband expressed their views during a public hearing in February before the council denied Couch’s text amendment request.

If Couch were concerned about the availability of housing in Summerfield for people earning moderate incomes, he should build homes in the “$200,000 to $300,000 range that more people could afford,” Chris said earlier this week. “Why build apartments when you can build the houses you claim that you want these people to have?”

Millie Hoffler-Foushee would have liked apartments as a housing option in Summerfield before she and her husband, William, sold their Summerfield home earlier this month and moved into an apartment in Greensboro.

In their 80s, the couple no longer wanted to own a house that requires maintenance, Foushee said in an interview earlier this week. She broke down in tears during the council’s meeting last week after she received a plaque expressing the town’s appreciation for her 18 years of service on the Finance Committee.

“I felt that I should have been able to stay in Summerfield,” she said. “That is why I was so heartbroken and so upset.”