Raleigh NC Property Taxes in 2026: The Real Rates by Town.

Property taxes in the Raleigh Triangle are lower than what most relocators from the Northeast and West Coast are used to, but they are not as simple as a single rate. For the 2026 tax year, Wake County's rate is 53.71 cents per $100 of assessed value, and each city adds its own rate on top. Combined, Raleigh homeowners pay 90.91 cents, Cary 90.46 cents, Apex 91.06 cents, Holly Springs 88.06 cents, and Wake Forest 95.71 cents per $100.

On a home assessed at $450,000 in Raleigh, that lands at about $4,091 a year, roughly $341 a month. That is the number that actually matters when you are budgeting a move, and it is the one most online cost-of-living calculators get wrong. Let me walk you through where these rates come from, what your specific town charges, and how the 2024 revaluation affected almost every bill in Wake County.

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The Two Numbers That Set Your Bill

Every North Carolina property tax bill is one formula: assessed value, times the combined rate. There are no separate school taxes, no town school levies bolted on the way many Northeastern states do it. Wake County schools are funded through the county's general rate, and that is a big part of why the structure is easy to follow once you know two numbers.

The assessed value. In North Carolina, property is assessed at approximately market value. Wake County revalues every four years, and the current values come from the 2024 revaluation. Your assessed value drives everything.

The combined rate. You pay the county rate plus your municipality's rate, both quoted in cents per $100 of assessed value. So a rate of 90.91 cents means you pay roughly $909 per year for every $100,000 of assessed value.

Wake County's 2026 Rate: 53.71 Cents

Wake County's rate for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which runs July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, is 53.71 cents per $100, a 2-cent increase over the prior year's 51.71 cents. After the 2024 revaluation, the county reset its rate much lower to stay roughly revenue-neutral, so the way to read this is not "rates are climbing fast." It is that the county cut the rate after values jumped, then has gradually moved it back up as budgets grew.

What most newcomers miss: that county rate is only half the story. The city or town you live in adds its own rate, and that municipal rate is where the per-town differences come from. Holly Springs adds just 34.35 cents. Wake Forest adds 42.00 cents. That gap is the difference between an $88 rate and a $96 rate on the same assessed value.

The Full Combined Rate by Triangle Town (2026)

These are the adopted 2026-27 combined rates, county plus municipal, per $100 of assessed value, before any fire-district or special taxes:

Source: Wake County FY2026-27 budget and each municipality's adopted FY2026-27 budget. Some bills add fire-district, vehicle, or waste-reduction fees on top of these general rates.

What That Means in Real Dollars

Rates are abstract until you multiply. Using each town's adopted combined rate at typical assessed values, here is what the annual bill works out to:

• Raleigh, $450,000 assessed: about $4,091 a year, roughly $341 a month.
• Cary, $500,000 assessed: about $4,523 a year, roughly $377 a month.
• Apex, $550,000 assessed: about $5,008 a year, roughly $417 a month.
• Holly Springs, $630,000 assessed: about $5,548 a year, roughly $462 a month.
• Wake Forest, $500,000 assessed: about $4,786 a year, roughly $399 a month.

To estimate your own bill, multiply your home's assessed value by the combined rate and divide by 100. A $500,000 home in Raleigh: $500,000 x 90.91 / 100, or about $4,545 a year. When we run the full monthly payment math for buyers, this property tax line is exactly what I plug into every affordability calculation.

Did the 2024 Revaluation Raise Your Property Taxes?

Yes, for most homeowners, and it is worth understanding why. Wake County's 2024 revaluation, which took effect January 1, 2024, increased assessed values about 50.6 percent countywide, roughly 53 percent for residential property. At the same time the county cut its rate from 65.70 cents to about 51 cents to offset the jump. Revenue neutral in theory, and still a larger bill for many in practice, because most homes appreciated faster than the rate cut could offset.

The practical effect for current owners: your tax bill may have risen even while the headline rate fell, which confuses a lot of people comparing "then and now" figures online. For buyers, what matters is simple, the bill you pay today is based on today's assessment and today's rate. Use the combined numbers above, not the pre-2024 history.

How the Triangle Compares to What You're Leaving

For anyone moving from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, or Massachusetts, this is usually the single biggest line-item improvement in the budget. North Carolina has no state property tax, so your total is just county plus town. Wake County's median effective tax rate sits near 0.8 percent of home value, below the roughly 1.0 percent national median and far below the 2 percent-plus effective rates common across much of the Northeast.

Two other NC specifics relocators ask about constantly:

• No tax on groceries. North Carolina does not tax food, so the everyday savings compound with the housing-side savings. My full cost-of-living guide adds up the rest of the budget.
• A flat income tax. NC's personal income tax is a flat 3.99 percent, which often beats the graduated, double-digit top rates in high-tax states. State income tax and property tax are two different bills, but both trend friendlier here.

This is the "real truth" part of the site's mission: the tax picture is genuinely better for most relocators, but it is not zero, and town-by-town rates vary more than the brochures admit.

What About Durham, Chapel Hill, and Johnston County?

The further you get from central Wake County, the more the rates change, and they generally rise:

• Durham: the combined city and county rate for 2026-27 is about 101.63 cents per $100, the highest in the core Triangle. Durham County's rate rose 2.5 cents this year. See my Durham guide for the full picture.
• Chapel Hill (Orange County): county and town together run about 118 cents per $100 at the base level, with special-district taxes pushing some parcels higher. Chapel Hill has the priciest tax structure in the Triangle.
• Clayton and eastern Johnston County: the county cut its rate to 51.00 cents, and Clayton's 49.00 cents puts the combined bill around $1.00 per $100. Lower home prices keep total bills affordable even at a higher rate.

Across the whole Triangle the honest guidance is the same: compare the combined rate at the price point you are actually shopping, not the county rate alone. A lower rate in a more expensive town can still mean a bigger bill.

Tax Relief Programs in North Carolina

Two state programs can meaningfully cut a senior's or disabled homeowner's bill, and most relocators never hear about them until closing:

• Homestead exclusion. Homeowners 65 or older, or totally and permanently disabled, can exclude the greater of $25,000 or 50 percent of the appraised value of their primary residence. The income limit for 2026 is $38,800 on prior-year income. Apply once with Form AV-9 at the county tax office, deadline June 1.
• Circuit breaker deferment. For low-income owners who have lived in the home at least five years, the bill can be capped at 4 to 5 percent of income. The capped amount is deferred as a lien, paid when you sell or no longer qualify. It requires a yearly application, also Form AV-9 by June 1.

If either applies to you, factor the savings into your budget before you shop. A $25,000 exclusion on a Raleigh bill is roughly a $227 annual reduction at the 90.91-cent rate, and at 50 percent of value it is far larger.

Property Taxes Inside Your Monthly Payment

Most Triangle buyers escrow property taxes with their mortgage, so the annual bill is actually a monthly line in the payment. That is why the tax rate is baked into every rent versus buy comparison and every affordability number I publish. When the site says a median-priced Raleigh home run about $2,700 to $2,900 a month, property taxes are inside that figure, roughly $340 to $380 of it at 2026 assessments.

Two practical notes for escrow math: lenders re-estimate your taxes after the county's value changes, so your payment can adjust upward mid-year after a revaluation, and buyers with 20 percent down often choose to pay taxes directly to reduce monthly outflow. Either way, the tax bill itself is the same, it is just about when you write the check.

A 20-Year Local's Honest Take

After two decades in this market, I have never once seen a client walk away from a Triangle home because of property taxes. Taxes here are predictable, roughly 0.9 to 1.0 percent of value in most towns, and they buy genuinely good schools, infrastructure, and parks. The honest cautions are the revaluation cadence, assessments can jump every four years, and the town you choose matters more than people assume.

Holly Springs and Cary deliver the lowest combined rates in Wake County. Wake Forest is the most expensive Wake town on rate alone, but its lower entry prices often keep the total bill competitive. If you are comparing suburbs, my honest suburb comparison and the individual community guides pair the tax picture with schools and commute times, because the right town is never a single number.

Frequently Asked Questions