Sell Your Commercial Property In Winston-Salem, NC

Who rents in Winston-Salem

The 2020–2024 American Community Survey counts 252,037 residents in Winston-Salem and 45,767 renter households out of 103,058 occupied homes, a 44.4% renter share. That is above Forsyth County's 36.4% and the state's 33.4%, and it means the city holds most of the county's rental demand. Median household income is $59,268, compared with $67,165 for Forsyth County and $72,388 statewide.

The city's economy was built on R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and textiles. Today the largest sources of renter demand are health care and higher education. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist runs a 933-bed tertiary-care hospital in the city, Brenner Children's Hospital and five community hospitals, with more than 2,700 physicians across its clinical system, and it houses the Wake Forest School of Medicine. Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center is the other large hospital employer. Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University add students, faculty and staff, and many graduate and medical students rent near campus and around Ardmore and the West End.

The third driver is downtown redevelopment. The Innovation Quarter, built on the former R.J. Reynolds factory site with Wake Forest University School of Medicine and developer Wexford Science & Technology, covers more than 330 acres. It reports 1.7 million square feet of mixed-use space completed since 2012 and another 2.4 million square feet planned. Research and technology tenants there add professional renters to a downtown that historically had few.

Rents and affordability

Winston-Salem's median gross rent is $1,087 a month, including utilities, $11 below Forsyth County and $141 below the state median. It is also below the other Triad cities: Greensboro's median is $1,172 and High Point's is $1,116, while Charlotte's is $1,612. For a tenant or an employer comparing locations, that gap is real.

The low rent level does not mean tenants have room to spare. The ACS shows 47.2% of Winston-Salem renter households paying 30% or more of income on rent and utilities, and 24.2% paying half or more. In numbers, 11,075 households are at or above the 50% mark, the largest group in the Census distribution, and another 10,543 pay between 30% and 49.9%. Countywide, 45.6% of renters are at or above 30%.

HUD sets the Winston-Salem area's FY2026 Fair Market Rents separately from the Greensboro-High Point area, and the difference shows how the two halves of the Triad price:

Sources: HUD FY2026, Winston-Salem and HUD FY2026, Greensboro-High Point. The Winston-Salem one-bedroom FMR of $1,082 is almost identical to the city's median gross rent, and the two-bedroom is $145 above it. Owners of older buildings with units renting below those levels can often reach FMR with modest upgrades and voucher tenants, while owners with units already above FMR depend on market-rate tenants whose incomes are stretched.

The apartment stock

Per the ACS, 29,496 of Winston-Salem's 115,270 housing units, or 25.6%, are in buildings with five or more units, compared with 20.7% in Forsyth County and 14.2% statewide. Mid-size buildings dominate: 8,693 units are in 5–9 unit buildings, 10,499 in 10–19 unit buildings, 3,865 in 20–49 unit buildings and 6,439 in buildings of 50 or more. Buildings of 5 to 19 units hold 65.1% of the city's apartment units, the size range where private owners and smaller operators are the usual buyers.

The housing stock is old. The median structure in the city was built in 1981, compared with 1984 for Forsyth County and 1991 statewide, making Winston-Salem's stock a decade older than the state's on average. Detached houses account for 61.6% of all units, and another 7,018 units, or 6.1%, are in two- to four-unit buildings, many of them in older neighborhoods near downtown. Mobile homes, 11.0% of housing units statewide, are only 2,360 units or 2.0% of the city's stock, so nearly all of Winston-Salem's lower-cost rental supply is in conventional buildings. Ardmore and the West End are older in-town neighborhoods with a mix of houses and small apartment buildings close to the medical center and downtown. Clemmons, to the southwest, and Kernersville, to the east, are separate towns with mostly newer suburban stock.

For a buyer, the age profile shows up in inspections and capital plans. Roofs, HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems in buildings from the 1960s through the 1980s are a standard part of underwriting, and documented replacements can make a measurable difference in price.

Property taxes on apartment buildings in Forsyth County

North Carolina assesses real property at true value under G.S. 105-284, with no separate apartment class. According to the N.C. Department of Revenue, Forsyth County's FY2026-27 rate is 55.4 cents per $100; its latest reappraisal took effect in 2025, and the next is scheduled for 2029. Under G.S. 105-286, counties must reappraise at least every eight years and can choose a shorter cycle.

The City of Winston-Salem's adopted FY2026-27 budget sets the city rate at 58.9 cents per $100, a 2.2-cent increase. The city's announcement describes the increase as 3.9% and says the $700.9 million budget was adopted June 2, 2026, with the full increase going to the general fund. Water and sewer fees rise an average of 5% from July 1, 2026, and stormwater fees 4% from January 1, 2027, which matters for buildings where the owner pays utilities.

The combined county and city rate is $1.143 per $100, or about $22,860 a year on a building assessed at $2 million. Buildings in Clemmons and Kernersville pay the county rate plus their own town rate instead, and part of Kernersville is in Guilford County, where the 2026 reappraisal was frozen by state law. A sale does not reset the assessed value in North Carolina; values change at reappraisal. The state deed excise tax under G.S. 105-228.30 is $1 per $500 of price, or $4,000 on a $2 million sale.

Landlord rules and local compliance

G.S. 42-14.1 prohibits local rent control and, since 2024, local rules requiring landlords to accept federal housing vouchers. Deposits are capped by G.S. 42-51 at 1.5 months' rent for month-to-month tenancies and two months' rent for longer terms. G.S. 42-52 requires an itemized accounting within 30 days after a tenancy ends, or 60 days with an interim accounting, and G.S. 42-3 allows lease forfeiture when rent is unpaid 10 days after demand.

Any Winston-Salem rental inspection or registration effort has to fit within G.S. 160D-1207, which bars blanket rental registration. A city can require registration only for properties with more than four verified violations in a rolling 12 months, two or more in 30 days, or high crime and disorder activity, and the fee is capped at $500 a year. With an older housing stock, a clean code history keeps a building out of those programs and makes due diligence simpler.

What this means if you own a building here

• Your 2025 reappraisal value should hold until 2029, so a buyer can model taxes with more confidence than in counties facing a near-term revaluation.
• Rents near HUD's FMR and a stable rent roll matter more here than projected increases, because nearly half of renters are cost-burdened.
• Buildings near the medical center, downtown and the universities draw from the strongest tenant pools; document that location in your marketing package.

Skyline Capital Investments buys 5+ unit buildings in Winston-Salem, Ardmore, the West End, Clemmons and Kernersville. You can estimate value with our apartment building value calculator, test a cap rate with the cap rate calculator, compare state rules in our rent control and property tax guide, or see how we make offers on the sell your apartment building page.