Public · Durham, NC

North Carolina Central University

6,851 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 3,376: about 49.3 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 3,475 live somewhere the college doesn't control. That is the outer edge of the private market, before you take out commuters and students living with family.

3,376 college-controlled beds (49.3 per 100 full-time) 3,475 full-time students beyond them
8,579total students, fall 2024
6,851full-time
$7,569typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$11,213aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 8,579 students enrolled in fall 2024, 6,595 were undergraduates and 1,984 graduate students. 24% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 614 from fall 2023 (+7.7%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 3,376 beds of institutionally controlled housing for 2024-25. That figure is the school's own capacity, on or off campus, so it includes halls the college leases or manages but not private buildings that simply market to students. Capacity grew by 1 beds from the year before (3,375 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $7,569 for the academic year, roughly $841 a month spread over nine months. Food added $5,764. For aid purposes the school budgets $13,450 for food and housing on campus and $11,213 for a student living off campus away from family, $2,237 less.

Those are the college's own figures. Private by-the-bed rents near campus can sit well above or below them, so check current asking rents before you underwrite a project.

How lenders read a campus like this

At 8,579 students the campus is below the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01). Freddie Mac has no stated enrollment floor, but its own product summary says most of its student housing loans are at schools with 15,000 or more students. Banks, debt funds and conventional multifamily programs are the likelier lenders here.

To size a specific property, use the student housing loan sizer. It works by the bed and shows which constraint sets the loan.

Among the 18 North Carolina campuses on this site, North Carolina Central University ranks number 12 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the North Carolina table.

Other campuses in Durham

Source: Fall 2024 enrollment, IPEDS DRVEF2024 (provisional release, December 2025); 2024-25 housing capacity and charges, IPEDS COST1_2024 (December 2025); IPEDS HD2025 directory (July 2026). Beds per 100 and the gap are arithmetic on those figures.
MeasureValue
Total enrollment, fall 20248,579
Total enrollment, fall 20237,965
Full-time students6,851
Undergraduates (full-time)6,595 (5,507)
Graduate students1,984
Exclusively online24%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-253,376
Capacity, 2023-243,375
Beds per 100 full-time students49.3
Typical housing charge, academic year$7,569
Typical food charge, academic year$5,764
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$13,450
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$11,213
All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housingNo
Combined food and housing charge (if not split)not reported

IPEDS unit ID 199157. Durham County. School website. Figures are as the institution reported them to the National Center for Education Statistics. The live-on question asks whether every first-time, full-time student must live in college housing; a school with exemptions or a later-year requirement can answer no. How this data is built.