Property Taxes in Calabash, North Carolina
A property owner genuinely inside Calabash's town limits gets three separate line items on one combined bill -- county tax, a square-footage-based fire fee, and town tax -- and 2025 was the first year in more than two decades the town's own rate actually moved.
One Bill, Three Line Items
Since 2013, Brunswick County has handled tax billing and collection on behalf of the Town of Calabash, per the county's own site -- meaning a Calabash property owner inside town limits receives a single combined bill that itemizes the county tax amount due, the fire fee amount due, and the town tax amount due as three distinct figures rather than three separate mailings. That administrative consolidation is convenient, but it can obscure the fact that these are three genuinely different levies with three different bases: county and town tax are both ad valorem (assessed-value-based) rates expressed as cents per $100 of value, while the fire fee is calculated an entirely different way, based on a structure's heated square footage rather than its assessed value.
Understanding which of these apply -- and at what rate -- requires knowing whether a specific parcel sits inside Calabash's actual incorporated boundary, which covers only about 4.5 square miles of land at the southwestern tip of Brunswick County. A meaningful share of golf and gated communities that market themselves with a Calabash mailing address sit just outside that boundary in unincorporated county territory, and those properties owe county tax and the fire fee, but not the town's own municipal rate.
The Town Rate: First Increase in Over Twenty Years
The Calabash Board of Commissioners approved its FY2025-26 budget at its June 10, 2025 regular meeting, setting the town property tax rate at $0.07 per $100 of assessed value -- up 1.2 cents from $0.058 in FY2024-25, per the Brunswick Beacon's reporting on that meeting (via newsargus.com). That reporting specifically characterized the change as the town's first property tax rate increase in more than twenty years, a genuinely notable fact for a town that had apparently held its rate essentially flat for two full decades before this vote. Per the same reporting, the budget message estimated the real-dollar impact for typical homeowners: a home assessed at $150,000 would pay about $18 more per year under the new rate, and a home assessed at $1 million would pay about $120 more.
This site did not find confirmed reporting on the specific reasons cited for the increase (rising service costs, a prior revaluation cycle, capital projects, or some combination) beyond the bare rate change itself -- a separate item, an LGC-approved $2 million allocation toward a new Calabash Town Hall reported in mid-2026, suggests the town has been in an active capital-investment period, though this page did not confirm whether that town hall project was a direct driver of the FY2025-26 rate increase or a separately financed initiative. Confirm the town's current rate-setting rationale and any planned future increases directly with Calabash town administration before assuming the rate will hold flat going forward.
Brunswick County's Rate and What It Funds
Brunswick County's own ad valorem tax rate for fiscal year 2025 (covering July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026) is $0.342 per $100 of assessed value, per the county's own published tax rate materials and the North Carolina Department of Revenue's statewide county tax rate table. Brunswick County Board of Commissioners approved a budget that held this rate flat for the fiscal year. This county rate applies to every property in Brunswick County, whether inside an incorporated town like Calabash or not -- it's the base layer beneath any municipal rate, and it funds county-level services (schools, sheriff's office, county administration, and more) rather than town-specific services.
Combining the confirmed town rate ($0.07) and county rate ($0.342) for a property genuinely inside Calabash's limits gives a rough combined ad valorem rate near $0.412 per $100 of assessed value. This page treats that combined figure as an approximate sum of two separately confirmed numbers, not as a single officially published "Calabash combined rate" -- and it explicitly excludes the fire fee, which is calculated on an entirely different basis and would need to be added on top for a true all-in estimate.
The Fire Fee: A Different Kind of Levy Entirely
The Calabash Fire District -- which covers the Town of Calabash, the Town of Carolina Shores, and a rural unincorporated stretch of Brunswick County that excludes residential developments not otherwise annexed, totaling roughly 29.7 square miles -- is funded by a fire fee assessed separately from ad valorem property tax. Per the Calabash Fire Department's own published materials, fire fees for improved properties (anything with a building) are based on the structure's heated square footage, while fees for vacant land are based on acreage. That means two homes of identical assessed value but very different square footage will owe different fire fees, something a buyer comparing a compact cottage against a larger single-family home on paper-equivalent lots should factor in separately from the percentage-of-value tax calculation.
The Calabash Fire Department itself was originally chartered in 1973 -- the same year the town itself incorporated -- as a strictly volunteer organization, and has since grown into a combination department: three 24-hour shifts, each staffed by a career officer and firefighter/EMTs, backed by volunteer responders. Brunswick County has been actively discussing, at a county-wide level, whether to move toward a single unified fire tax district or keep multiple individual fire service tax districts (Calabash's district chiefs reportedly favored keeping individual districts) -- a live policy question that could change how fire service is funded countywide, including in Calabash, in future years. This page did not find a current published per-square-foot fire fee rate to state as a specific dollar figure; get the current fee schedule from the Calabash Fire Department or from the itemized county tax bill for a specific parcel.
Reassessment and Appeals
Property value assessments for tax purposes are set by Brunswick County, not the Town of Calabash, consistent with the county's role as the entity that actually bills and collects on the town's behalf. This page did not independently confirm Brunswick County's current revaluation cycle length (North Carolina state law sets an eight-year default cycle, though individual counties can and do shorten it, as neighboring New Hanover County has done with a four-year cycle) or the date of Brunswick County's most recent countywide revaluation. A buyer evaluating a specific Calabash property should ask directly whether the county is mid-cycle or approaching a scheduled revaluation, since a revaluation year can move assessed values -- and therefore tax bills -- substantially even if the cents-per-$100 rate itself stays flat, exactly as happened in several other North Carolina coastal counties in recent years.
Property owners who believe their assessed value is incorrect can typically file an appeal with the county tax assessor's office within a specific window after a valuation notice; the exact current appeal deadlines and process for Brunswick County were not independently confirmed this research pass. Contact the Brunswick County Tax Office directly for the current appeal process and deadlines applicable to a specific parcel.
What a Buyer Should Actually Do Before Closing
Given the genuinely three-part structure of a Calabash tax bill -- town rate, county rate, and a square-footage fire fee, plus the real possibility that a specific parcel sits outside the town's own boundary entirely -- a buyer should request the actual current property tax bill (not just an estimate) for the specific address under consideration, itemized by line, from the Brunswick County Tax Office before making an offer contingent on an assumed number. That itemized bill will show definitively whether the town's $0.07 rate applies, what the current fire fee amounts to for that structure's actual square footage, and what county-level special assessments, if any, might also apply.
It's also worth asking directly whether the specific property was affected by the FY2025-26 town rate increase in a way that suggests further increases might follow, given that this was the first rate change in over twenty years -- a pattern that, per this site's coverage of comparable markets, sometimes precedes a period of more frequent rate adjustments rather than another two-decade hold. This page does not predict future tax policy; it simply flags that the recent break from a two-decade-plus flat rate is worth asking a local source about directly.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: the Brunswick Beacon's reporting (via newsargus.com) on the Town of Calabash's FY2025-26 budget vote (June 10, 2025), the $0.07 per $100 rate (up from $0.058), and its characterization as the town's first increase in over 20 years, including budget-message dollar-impact estimates; Brunswick County's own site (brunswickcountync.gov) for the FY2025-26 countywide $0.342 per $100 rate and the county's tax-billing arrangement with Calabash since 2013; the North Carolina Department of Revenue's 2025-2026 county tax rate table for independent confirmation of the Brunswick County rate; the Calabash Fire Department's own site for its 1973 charter, combination-department staffing structure, the roughly 29.7-square-mile Calabash Fire District boundary, and its square-footage-based fee methodology; and North State Journal reporting on a 2026 Local Government Commission approval of roughly $2 million for a new Calabash town hall. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: the specific reasons cited for the FY2025-26 town tax increase beyond the bare rate change; Brunswick County's current revaluation cycle length and most recent revaluation date; the current per-square-foot fire fee rate; the county's current property tax appeal process and deadlines; and whether any specific subdivision sits inside or outside Calabash's incorporated limits. Confirm all current figures and a specific parcel's itemized tax bill directly with the Brunswick County Tax Office and the Town of Calabash before making a purchase decision. Nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.