Apple Gives Homeowners Deal of a Lifetime

Talk about price appreciation. Donnie and Kathy Fulbright bought a one-story house on less than an acre in Maiden, N.C., for $6,000 34 years ago, and they recently sold it for $1.7 million. The new owner? Apple Inc.

What does the Cupertino, Calif., maker of iPods and iPads need acreage in rural North Carolina for? The Fulbrights' property is adjacent to the plot where Apple is building a 500,000-square-foot warehouse that will store the servers and generators delivering the growing amount of songs, movies and apps downloaded daily to those iPods and iPads.

But it took a while for Apple to convince the Fulbrights to sell.