Property Taxes in Jacksonville, NC: The 2026 Revaluation Freeze, Explained

Two Bills, One Parcel

Every property inside Jacksonville's city limits is taxed by two separate governments: the City of Jacksonville itself, and Onslow County, which funds schools and countywide services. Both rates apply to the same assessed value, and the two are typically combined onto a single tax bill for convenience even though a city council and a county board of commissioners set them independently.

Property outside Jacksonville's city limits but still in Onslow County -- in the unincorporated areas that ring the city -- pays only the county rate plus any applicable fire-district levy, not the city rate. Confirming whether a specific address sits inside or outside city limits matters for the actual bill, and that determination should come from the Onslow County Tax Department or the City of Jacksonville, not assumed from a mailing address or ZIP code alone.

The Four-Year Revaluation Cycle -- And Why 2026 Was Supposed to Be a Big One

Onslow County reappraises real property on a four-year cycle rather than the state-standard eight years, a schedule set by a county resolution adopted in 2001 that established January 1, 2006 as the first revaluation under the shortened cycle, with revaluations every four years after. Under that schedule, the county's most recent completed revaluation took effect January 1, 2022, and the next one was due January 1, 2026.

Ahead of that 2026 revaluation, Onslow County's own tax administrator told the county's Board of Commissioners, in a public hearing, that the pending reappraisal was expected to show an aggregate appraisal increase of roughly 35-40% across the county, with a median increase around 37% since the 2022 revaluation -- a jump broadly consistent with the sharp home-price appreciation seen across much of the country over that same window. New value notices reflecting that reappraisal were scheduled to be mailed to property owners in February 2026.

Senate Bill 889: A State-Level Freeze, Not a Local Decision

Before the 2026 revaluation could take normal effect, the North Carolina General Assembly passed Senate Bill 889, which enacted a one-year moratorium on 2026 property tax revaluations in nine counties: Anson, Bladen, Buncombe, Davidson, Guilford, Harnett, Onslow, Pender, and Scotland. Governor Josh Stein signed the bill into law in June 2026, stating that it was intended to provide near-term tax relief and hold down costs for homeowners facing steep reassessment increases. The bill grew out of broader legislative concern about rising property tax burdens making it harder for some residents to stay in their homes as values climbed statewide.

For Onslow County specifically, the practical effect of Senate Bill 889 was that the county's Board of Commissioners could not use the new, higher 2026 appraised values when setting the FY2026-27 budget -- it had to use the existing 2022 property values instead. The Board adopted its FY2026-27 budget, a $324 million general fund, at a June 29, 2026 special meeting, holding the county tax rate at $0.655 per $100 of assessed value and explicitly avoiding a county-level tax increase for this cycle as a direct result of the freeze.

The City's Rate: Five Straight Years at $0.60

The City of Jacksonville's own property tax rate is set separately from the county's, and it has held at $0.60 per $100 of assessed value for a fifth consecutive year, per the city's own FY2026-27 proposed budget document (dated April 7, 2026). That run of stability is notable on its own, independent of the county-level revaluation drama -- the city simply has not raised its nominal rate across five budget cycles, according to this specific budget document.

Because city property assessments are still based on Onslow County's appraisal roll (the same roll frozen at 2022 values by Senate Bill 889), the city's flat $0.60 rate combined with frozen 2022-level assessed values means most Jacksonville property owners inside city limits should not have seen a meaningful jump in either their city or county tax bill for the FY2026-27 cycle, purely as a mechanical result of the moratorium -- though this page did not independently verify that outcome parcel-by-parcel, and any given property's actual bill depends on its own specific assessed value and any exemptions or appeals on file.

The Combined Rate -- And a Worked Example

Adding the confirmed city rate ($0.60) to the confirmed county rate ($0.655) gives an approximate combined rate of $1.255 per $100 of assessed value for FY2026-27. This page states that as its own arithmetic on two separately sourced, separately confirmed numbers -- not a single officially published 'combined rate' -- and it excludes any additional levies, such as a fire service district assessment, that could apply to a specific parcel and were not independently confirmed to apply (or not apply) here.

As an illustration only: a home assessed at $245,000 (roughly Redfin's reported 2026 median sale price for Jacksonville) would owe approximately $3,075 a year in combined city-plus-county property tax at a $1.255 combined rate, calculated as $245,000 ÷ 100 × $1.255. That is this page's own arithmetic on the two confirmed rates, offered as an illustration, not a substitute for an actual tax bill -- which depends on a property's actual current assessed value (frozen at 2022 levels under the SB 889 moratorium, not necessarily its current market sale price) and any additional levies. Get the actual current assessed value and tax bill for any specific parcel from the Onslow County Tax Department before relying on this estimate.

What Happens After the Freeze Expires

Senate Bill 889's moratorium is described as a one-year measure for the 2026 revaluation cycle specifically. This page did not independently confirm what happens next -- whether Onslow County will conduct a delayed revaluation using more current values in 2027, revert to its normal four-year cycle (which would otherwise point to 2030 as the next scheduled revaluation), or follow some other timeline set by the legislature or the county itself. Given that the county's own tax administrator had already estimated a 35-40% aggregate value increase was pending before the freeze, buyers and owners should treat a meaningfully higher assessed value, and a corresponding rate adjustment, as a real possibility in the next revaluation whenever it does take effect -- not an if, but a when, based on the trajectory this page found sourced evidence for.

This page also does not state whether North Carolina's homestead exemption, elderly/disabled property tax exclusion, or circuit-breaker relief program eligibility thresholds have changed for Onslow County owners as a result of any of this, since current income and eligibility figures for those statewide programs were not independently verified for this build. Ask the Onslow County Tax Department directly about any relief program you might qualify for.

What a Buyer Should Actually Do

Before making an offer on any Jacksonville property, pull the parcel's current assessed value and most recent tax bill directly from the Onslow County Tax Department (not from a real estate listing site, which may show a stale figure), confirm whether the address sits inside Jacksonville's city limits (and therefore owes the city rate) or in unincorporated Onslow County, and ask directly whether county officials have signaled anything further about the timeline for a delayed or resumed revaluation -- this is a live, state-legislature-driven situation as of this research pass, and it may have moved by the time you're reading this.