Property Taxes in Southport, NC
A Southport property owner pays two separate tax bills -- one to the City of Southport, one to Brunswick County -- and both have been the subject of real, recent public debate rather than sitting static year over year. This page walks through both rates, the 2026 increase that was proposed and then avoided, and what Brunswick County's revaluation cycle means for future bills.
Two Bills: City and County
Every property owner within Southport's city limits owes property tax to both the City of Southport and Brunswick County -- these are two separately set, separately billed rates, not one combined municipal figure. That structure is standard for incorporated North Carolina towns, but it means a buyer comparing 'the tax rate' between Southport and a different market needs to know whether a quoted figure is the city rate alone, the county rate alone, or a combined estimate, since sources online aren't always careful about which one they're citing.
For Southport specifically: the city's rate is 31 cents per $100 of assessed value, effective for FY2025-26. Brunswick County's own rate, effective July 1, 2025 (the county's FY2025), is 34.20 cents per $100 of assessed value, per the county's own published tax-rates page. Added together, that's a combined rate of roughly 65.2 cents per $100 -- an approximate sum of two independently confirmed figures rather than a single official combined number, and it excludes any additional fire district or special-district levy that could apply depending on the exact parcel.
The FY2026-27 Rate Increase That Was Proposed, Then Avoided
Southport's city budget has been under real, publicly reported pressure across two consecutive fiscal years. Heading into the FY2025-26 budget, the Board of Aldermen closed a projected roughly $1.4 million deficit without raising the tax rate, per Port City Daily's June 2025 coverage. Heading into FY2026-27, city staff and aldermen debated raising the rate further, to 32.5 cents per $100 -- a genuine tax increase under discussion, not a hypothetical -- before ultimately passing a budget that held the rate flat at 31 cents by drawing down the city's fund balance instead, according to Port City Daily's June 2026 reporting on the adopted budget.
That two-year pattern is worth taking seriously as a buyer: a city that has twice avoided a tax increase by spending down reserves rather than by achieving structural balance is a real signal that a future rate increase remains plausible, not a settled matter. This page does not predict what Southport's rate will be beyond FY2026-27 -- that would be guessing -- but the recent budget history is public record and worth reading directly rather than assuming a small coastal town's rate never moves.
Brunswick County's Reappraisal Cycle and What It Means Going Forward
North Carolina law generally requires counties to reappraise real property at least once every eight years, though many coastal counties -- facing fast-moving markets -- reappraise more often. This page did not independently confirm Brunswick County's exact current reappraisal cycle length or the date of its most recent countywide revaluation, unlike the confirmed four-year cycle documented for New Hanover County to the north. What is confirmed is that Ownwell, a property-tax-appeal aggregator, reports a median effective property tax rate for Southport of 0.42% and a median annual tax bill of $1,823 -- both of which read as lower than the nominal 65.2-cent combined city-and-county rate would suggest for a home anywhere near Southport's $397,000-$505,000 range of reported median values, which most likely reflects assessed values from the county's last reappraisal sitting below current market prices rather than any error in the confirmed nominal rates. This page flags that gap honestly rather than picking one figure and presenting it as the complete picture.
The practical implication: if Brunswick County conducts a fresh countywide revaluation in the coming years and assessed values catch up to current market prices the way New Hanover County's 2025 revaluation did, a Southport owner could see a meaningfully higher assessed value even if the nominal cents-per-$100 rate itself is cut in response, similar to what happened at Wrightsville Beach after its 2025 revaluation. That's a real possibility worth asking the Brunswick County Tax Office about directly, not a certainty this page will assert.
Exemptions and Relief Programs Worth Asking About
North Carolina offers several statewide property tax relief programs that can apply to a Southport property depending on the owner's circumstances: the Elderly or Disabled Exclusion, the Circuit Breaker Tax Deferment Program, and the Disabled Veteran Exclusion are the state's three standard homestead-type relief programs, administered at the county level. Given Southport's strongly retirement-skewed demographics -- a 2024 aggregator estimate (Neilsberg, not an official Census figure) puts roughly 48% of residents at 65 or older -- the Elderly or Disabled Exclusion in particular is likely to be directly relevant to a meaningful share of the town's homeowners.
This page did not independently confirm current income thresholds or exclusion amounts for these programs, since North Carolina periodically adjusts them. Contact the Brunswick County Tax Office directly, or the North Carolina Department of Revenue's property tax division, for current eligibility rules and application deadlines before assuming a specific exclusion applies.
What a Buyer Should Actually Do Before Closing
Listing sheets and market-tracking sites routinely show a stale assessed value or an estimated tax figure that doesn't reflect the current combined city-and-county rate, let alone a pending rate change. Before making an offer on a Southport property, pull the actual current tax bill for that specific parcel from the Brunswick County Tax Office (which also collects and disburses the city's portion under normal North Carolina practice), confirm whether the property sits within any additional fire or special taxing district beyond the base city-and-county rate, and ask directly whether the city's FY2026-27 budget debate signals a rate change is likely in the near term.
None of the figures on this page should be treated as a substitute for that direct confirmation. A combined rate near 65.2 cents per $100 is a real, sourced starting point for budgeting -- not a guaranteed number for any individual property.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Brunswick County's own website (brunswickcountync.gov) for the FY2025 county ad valorem tax rate; Port City Daily's reporting on the City of Southport's FY2025-26 budget (closing a ~$1.4 million deficit without a tax increase) and FY2026-27 budget (debating and then avoiding a 32.5-cent rate via fund-balance draw-down); Ownwell's Southport property-tax trend page for the median effective rate and median annual bill figures, explicitly flagged here as not reconciled against the nominal combined rate; general North Carolina Department of Revenue guidance on statewide property tax relief programs (Elderly/Disabled Exclusion, Circuit Breaker, Disabled Veteran Exclusion); and Neilsberg's demographic-aggregator data (explicitly flagged as non-Census) for Southport's median age and share of residents 65-plus. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: Brunswick County's exact current countywide reappraisal cycle length and most recent revaluation date; current income thresholds or dollar amounts for North Carolina's homestead-type relief programs; whether any specific Southport parcel sits within an additional fire or special taxing district; and a reconciled explanation for the gap between Ownwell's reported effective rate and the nominal combined city-and-county rate. Confirm all current figures directly with the Brunswick County Tax Office, the North Carolina Department of Revenue, and a local buyer's agent or tax professional before making a purchase or budgeting decision. Nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.