Property Taxes in Wilmington, NC: The 2025 Revaluation and the 2026 Rate Increase

Two Bills, One Parcel, Two Different Elected Bodies

Every property inside Wilmington's city limits is taxed by two separate governments: the City of Wilmington itself, which funds municipal services like police, fire, streets, and parks, and New Hanover County, which funds schools, county government, and countywide infrastructure. Both are calculated against the same assessed value and typically combined onto one bill for convenience, but they are set independently by two different elected bodies -- the Wilmington City Council and the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners -- on their own budget calendars.

This two-government structure is standard for any incorporated North Carolina city inside a larger county, but Wilmington's situation over the past two fiscal years -- a sharp post-revaluation rate cut followed a year later by a real rate increase -- is worth understanding in sequence rather than assuming last year's number, or any number found on a real estate listing site, is still current.

The January 2025 Revaluation: The Starting Point for Both Rates

New Hanover County's Board of Commissioners shortened the state's standard eight-year property revaluation cycle to four years back in 2008, meaning New Hanover County property owners -- including everyone inside Wilmington -- face reassessment more often than owners in many other North Carolina counties. The most recent revaluation took effect January 1, 2025, and the countywide numbers were dramatic: comparing 2024 parcel values to their new 2025 market values, the county's residential market showed an average increase of roughly 67.23% and a median increase near 59.4%, per Port City Daily's coverage of the county's own figures. That single event is the reason both the city's and the county's nominal tax rates dropped sharply for FY2025-26 even as most owners' actual dollar tax bills stayed roughly flat or rose modestly -- a much lower rate applied against a much higher assessed value can produce comparable revenue.

New Hanover County's Rate: 30.6 Cents Per $100 for FY2025-26

The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners approved a countywide tax rate of 30.6 cents per $100 of assessed value for fiscal year 2025-26, adopted in a 3-2 vote in June 2025, effective July 1, 2025. This is the county-level component of a Wilmington owner's total bill and funds county government, New Hanover County Schools, and countywide services rather than city-specific ones. Whether the county changed this rate for FY2026-27 was not independently confirmed for this page -- confirm the current county rate directly with the New Hanover County Tax Office before assuming it held flat.

The City's Rate: Down to 28.25 Cents, Then Back Up to 33.15 Cents

The City of Wilmington's rate for FY2025-26 was set at 28.25 cents per $100 -- a sharp drop from 42.25 cents the prior fiscal year, the same post-revaluation mechanic seen at the county level and in nearby beach towns on this site. But unlike some of those smaller municipalities, Wilmington's fiscal picture didn't stay settled for long. Budget discussions in April 2026 floated a rate as high as 6.26 cents above the existing 28.25-cent base, per Port City Daily's reporting headlined 'No scenario where there isn't a tax increase.' City Manager Becky Hawke's initial May 4, 2026 budget proposal called for a 5.75-cent increase, and the final adopted number landed in between: on June 17, 2026, in a 4-3 council vote, Wilmington City Council approved an FY2026-27 budget raising the rate by 4.9 cents to 33.15 cents per $100.

WECT's reporting on the vote states the increase would cost the owner of a home assessed at the city's $445,000 median value roughly $18.17 more per month -- about $218 more per year -- which checks out arithmetically as $445,000 ÷ 100 × $0.049 = $218.05 annually. The vote split 4-3, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kevin Spears and council members Salette Andrews and Chakema Clinton-Quintana voting against the increase, per WECT's coverage. WECT separately characterized the overall city budget increase framing as approaching a nearly 20% property tax increase headline, which lines up with 4.9 cents being roughly 17.3% of the prior 28.25-cent base.

The Combined Rate -- and What It Doesn't Include

Combining the confirmed FY2025-26 rates -- 28.25 cents (city) plus 30.6 cents (county) -- gives an approximate combined rate near 58.85 cents per $100 for that fiscal year. If the county rate held flat into FY2026-27 (not independently confirmed here), combining the new 33.15-cent city rate with an assumed-unchanged 30.6-cent county rate would put the combined figure near 63.75 cents per $100. Both of these are this page's own arithmetic on separately sourced numbers, not single officially published 'combined rate' figures, and neither includes any additional levy -- a fire service district assessment, a downtown municipal service district charge (the city's own materials reference a separate Municipal Service District rate for parts of downtown), or a special district tax -- that could apply to a specific parcel.

For a concrete illustration only: a property assessed at $445,000 (the city's own cited FY2026-27 median assessed value) would owe roughly $2,839 a year in combined city-plus-county tax at the approximate 63.75-cent combined rate, calculated as $445,000 ÷ 100 × $0.6375. That is this page's own arithmetic on two figures from different fiscal-year confirmations, offered as illustration only -- not a substitute for an actual tax bill. Get the current assessed value and combined bill for any specific parcel from the New Hanover County Tax Office.

Why the City Rate Moved Twice in Two Years

The pattern here -- a sharp post-revaluation cut followed by a real increase the very next year -- is worth understanding rather than treating as random. The FY2025-26 cut to 28.25 cents was explicitly calibrated to keep total city revenue roughly comparable to the pre-revaluation year despite assessed values jumping an average of roughly 67% countywide. The FY2026-27 increase to 33.15 cents is a genuine new revenue increase layered on top of that already-adjusted base, driven by the city's own budget pressures -- this page does not have a confirmed, itemized breakdown of exactly which city expenses drove the 4.9-cent increase beyond the general budget-coverage reporting cited above, and does not invent one. Anyone evaluating whether this pattern continues into FY2027-28 should follow Wilmington City Council's budget calendar directly rather than assume either direction.

What a Buyer Should Actually Do

Before making an offer on any Wilmington property, pull the parcel's current assessed value and most recent combined city-and-county tax bill directly from the New Hanover County Tax Office, not from a real estate listing site, which may show a stale pre-2025-revaluation or pre-2026-rate-increase figure. Confirm whether the property sits inside any additional municipal service district or fire district that would add to the base combined rate, and ask directly whether the county's own rate changed for FY2026-27, since this page could not confirm that figure.

This page does not state a property tax proration formula for a mid-year closing, nor current eligibility details for North Carolina's homestead exemption, elderly/disabled exclusion, or circuit-breaker property tax relief programs -- those exist statewide in general terms, but current income thresholds and application specifics were not independently verified this research pass. Ask the New Hanover County Tax Office directly about any relief program you might qualify for.