You will almost certainly pay less here. The typical Ohio homeowner paid $2,937 in property tax in 2024 against $2,044 in North Carolina, and in New Hanover County the median was $2,168 on homes worth nearly twice what the median Ohio home is worth, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 one-year American Community Survey.
This comes up on nearly every call with a buyer from Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati or Akron, and it comes up for a good reason. Ohio property taxes are high relative to home values, and people leaving the state have usually been watching their bill climb through reappraisals. The arithmetic when you move to the Wilmington area generally runs the other way.
What follows is the comparison with the real numbers, how the two systems differ mechanically, what a Wilmington-area bill actually looks like line by line, and the parts of the cost picture that go the other direction once you get here.
The numbers, side by side
The cleanest apples-to-apples figure is the Census Bureau’s median real estate taxes paid by owner-occupied households, which captures what people actually write checks for rather than a nominal rate. Here is 2024, the most recent one-year estimates, with the median home value in the same geography for context.
- Ohio: median real estate taxes $2,937, median home value $239,800 U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year estimates
- North Carolina: median real estate taxes $2,044, median home value $333,000 U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year estimates
- New Hanover County: $2,168 on a median home value of $431,300. Brunswick County: $2,035 on $386,900. Pender County: $2,157 on $342,400 U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year estimates
- Cuyahoga County: $3,822 on $212,700. Franklin County: $4,417 on $315,100. Hamilton County: $3,898 on $270,900. Summit County: $3,328 on $229,300 U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year estimates
Divide taxes by value in each place and the pattern is hard to miss. New Hanover lands near 0.50% of value, Brunswick near 0.53% and Pender near 0.63%. Franklin County comes out near 1.40%, Hamilton near 1.44%, Summit near 1.45% and Cuyahoga near 1.80%. Those ratios are two medians divided by each other rather than a true effective tax rate, so treat them as a shape, not a quote. The direction is the point: a Columbus homeowner moving to Wilmington frequently buys a more expensive house and takes a smaller tax bill with it.
Why the two systems feel so different
Ohio taxes 35% of market value. The Ohio Department of Taxation puts it plainly: the taxable value is 35 percent of true market value, and rates are expressed in mills, where a mill is $1 per $1,000 of taxable value. On top of that sits House Bill 920, enacted in 1976, which applies reduction factors so that rising valuations on existing property do not automatically raise the revenue from voted levies. That is why your Ohio bill shows a gross rate and a lower effective rate, and why Ohio homeowners learn to read a tax bill the way other people read a utility statement.
North Carolina does none of that. Counties assess at 100% of appraised market value and apply a rate per $100 of value. There is no assessment ratio to decode and no reduction factor. The rate your commissioners adopt, multiplied by your appraised value, divided by 100, is your county bill. Add a municipal rate if you are inside town limits and a fire district rate if you are not.
The trade is predictability for exposure. An Ohio bill is partly insulated from a rising market by HB 920. A North Carolina bill is not. When New Hanover County revalues, your bill moves with your value unless the commissioners cut the rate, which is exactly the fight that plays out every revaluation year.
What a Wilmington-area bill actually looks like
New Hanover County levies 30.6 cents per $100 of value for fiscal 2026-2027. Inside the Wilmington city limits you add the city’s 33.15 cents, for a combined 63.75 cents. Outside a municipality you generally add the county fire services rate of 7.25 cents instead. The beach towns are the surprise: Carolina Beach adds 17.12 cents, Kure Beach 19.5 cents and Wrightsville Beach just 5.31 cents, all on top of the county rate. Those figures come from the New Hanover County property tax bill notice of July 10, 2026.
Run that on the current New Hanover median sale price of $448,000, which is the figure from our New Hanover County market update for the three months ending August 2026. Inside the Wilmington city limits, at 63.75 cents, that is about $2,856 a year. In unincorporated New Hanover County with the fire services rate, at 37.85 cents combined, it is about $1,696.
Cross the river and the arithmetic changes again. Brunswick County charges 0.342 per $100, and inside the Town of Leland you add 0.25 for a combined 0.592 (Brunswick County Tax Office rate table, 2026 column, read October 5, 2026). On the Brunswick median sale price of $409,000, that is about $2,421. Our Leland community guide and our Brunswick County market update carry the rest of the local numbers.
One thing that genuinely helps retirees: North Carolina’s elderly or disabled exclusion removes the greater of $25,000 or 50% of the appraised value from the tax base for qualifying owners, with a 2026 income limit of $38,800, per the NC Department of Revenue memorandum of June 27, 2025. Ohio’s homestead exemption for seniors removes $29,000 of market value for tax year 2025 payable in 2026, with an income limit of $41,000, per the Lucas County Auditor. On a $400,000 house, half the value is a far larger number than $29,000.
What goes the other way
We would rather you hear this from us than discover it at closing. Insurance is the line where coastal North Carolina costs more than Ohio, not less. Under the settlement the NC Department of Insurance announced on January 17, 2025, base homeowners rates rose 16% in 2025 and 15.9% in 2026 in the beach territory covering Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, Onslow and Pender counties, 10.5% and 10.1% in the eastern coastal territory, and 5% and 4.8% on the western side. Coastal policies here commonly carry a named-storm deductible set as a percentage of insured value, and flood is a separate policy entirely.
Many Wilmington-area neighborhoods also carry HOA dues that an Ohio buyer may not be used to budgeting, particularly in the master-planned communities in Leland, Hampstead and the Ogden corridor. Add the dues to the tax savings before you decide you came out ahead. We work through the whole monthly number, not just the mortgage, in our Buyer Advantage Program, and our moving to Wilmington page covers the rest of the relocation decisions.
Two warnings. First, the county ratios above come from dividing one median by another, and a true effective tax rate would compare each household’s own bill to its own assessed value. The Census medians are the best directly comparable public figures we can cite, and they are good enough to decide whether to be worried, not good enough to put in a spreadsheet. Second, a North Carolina bill does not have Ohio’s HB 920 brake on it. New Hanover County’s current revaluation took effect January 1, 2025 and the next one is effective January 1, 2029. If values keep rising, your 2029 bill moves with them unless the commissioners cut the rate to match, and that decision gets made in public every revaluation year. Budget for a possible step up in 2029 rather than assuming the number you see at closing is permanent. We are not tax advisors, and an address-specific question belongs with the county tax office or your CPA.
Related questions people also ask
What is the property tax rate in Wilmington NC?
A home inside the Wilmington city limits is taxed at a combined 63.75 cents per $100 of appraised value, made up of the New Hanover County rate of 30.6 cents and the City of Wilmington rate of 33.15 cents, according to the New Hanover County property tax bill notice of July 10, 2026. Homes in unincorporated parts of the county pay the county rate plus a fire services rate of 7.25 cents instead of a city rate. Properties inside the Wilmington Municipal Service District pay an additional 5 cents.
Do the beach towns pay more property tax in New Hanover County?
Not necessarily, and the spread between them is wider than most buyers expect. On top of the county rate, Carolina Beach levies 17.12 cents per $100, Kure Beach 19.5 cents and Wrightsville Beach 5.31 cents, per the New Hanover County property tax bill notice of July 10, 2026. All three are below the City of Wilmington rate of 33.15 cents. Beach-town values are generally higher, though, so a lower rate on a larger assessed value can still produce a larger bill.
When are New Hanover County property taxes due?
For the 2026 tax year, bills were due September 1, 2026 and can be paid without interest through January 5, 2027, according to the county’s property tax bill announcement. Bills are mailed to arrive in mid-August. If you buy mid-year, the tax is normally prorated between buyer and seller at closing, so check the settlement statement rather than assuming the seller paid the whole year.
Take the Ohio bill you pay now and the price range you are shopping here, and run the three local rate scenarios against it: inside Wilmington, unincorporated New Hanover, and inside the Town of Leland. The spread between them on the same house is often larger than the spread between two neighborhoods. Send us your target price and we will build that comparison with current rates, insurance estimates and HOA dues on real addresses, so you can see the whole monthly number before you fly down.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, tables B25103 and B25077, read October 5, 2026. Ohio Department of Taxation, “Property Tax, Real Property” publication, on the 35 percent assessment ratio, millage and the House Bill 920 reduction factors. Lucas County Auditor homestead exemption page, tax year 2025 payable 2026 figures, read October 5, 2026. NC Department of Revenue memorandum, “Income Eligibility Limit, 2026 Property Tax Relief Programs,” June 27, 2025. New Hanover County property tax bill notice, July 10, 2026, via Port City Daily. New Hanover County Tax Administration revaluation information, current revaluation effective January 1, 2025 and next effective January 1, 2029. Brunswick County Tax Office rate table, 2026 column, read October 5, 2026. NC Department of Insurance settlement table, January 17, 2025. Our New Hanover County and Brunswick County market updates, Redfin data for the three months ending August 2026.
