About half: North Carolina’s effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing is 0.66 percent against New York’s 1.30 percent, per the Tax Foundation’s 2026 state figures. The structure is different too, because there is no separate school district line on a North Carolina tax bill, nothing here works like STAR, and no cap limits how fast a county levy can grow.
That headline comparison is real, and it is the single most common reason New York sellers call us. But it is also the comparison that produces the most wrong budgets, because the two bills are assembled in completely different ways and because the line that replaces the savings here is insurance rather than tax.
We work with buyers from Long Island, Westchester, the Hudson Valley and the city most months. This is the version we give them before they make an offer.
How the two bills are actually built
In New York, rates are quoted per $1,000 of assessed value, assessment practice varies enormously between municipalities, and the school district is usually the largest line on the bill. On the state’s own full-value tax rate table, the most recent year published is 2021, and outside New York City the statewide rate was $16.40 per $1,000 for school districts against $4.50 for counties, with an overall rate of $27.70. That is why a Long Island or Monroe County homeowner thinks of property tax as a school tax: because it mostly is one.
In North Carolina your bill is simpler and shorter. Property is appraised at 100 percent of market value, rates are quoted in cents per $100 of that value, and your bill is the county rate plus whatever municipal, fire district or EMS rate applies where the house sits. Schools are funded through the county budget rather than billed to you separately. You get one bill a year: New Hanover County’s 2026 bills were due September 1, 2026 and can be paid without interest until January 5, 2027.
What your bill looks like here
Inside the Wilmington city limits you pay the county’s 30.6 cents per $100 plus the city’s 33.15 cents, a combined 63.75 cents. On the New Hanover County median sale price of $448,000 for the three months ending August 2026, that is about $2,856 a year by our own arithmetic on those rates. Outside the city in unincorporated New Hanover County you pay the county rate plus a 7.25-cent fire services district rate instead of the city rate.
- Effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing: North Carolina 0.66 percent, New York 1.30 percent Tax Foundation state tax pages, 2026, read October 10, 2026
- New York full-value rates outside New York City: $16.40 per $1,000 for school districts, $4.50 for counties, $27.70 overall NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, statewide full-value tax rates, 2021, the most recent year published
- Overall full-value rates per $1,000, 2021: Nassau $36.90, Monroe $38.20, Onondaga $34.00, Rockland $30.60, Westchester $27.20, Erie $25.40, Suffolk $18.90 NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, overall full-value tax rates by county
- New Hanover County 30.6 cents per $100, City of Wilmington adds 33.15 cents, unincorporated fire services district 7.25 cents New Hanover County FY 2026-27 adopted budget, May 18, 2026
- About $2,856 a year on the $448,000 New Hanover median inside Wilmington city limits Our arithmetic on the rates above and our New Hanover County market update
North Carolina rates are not uniform, and the county you choose changes the answer more than the town you choose in New York would. Brunswick County is 34.2 cents with municipal rates on top, and Pender County is 73.75 cents before its EMS and fire district rates, both 2026 figures from the counties’ own rate tables, which makes a Hampstead house meaningfully more expensive to hold than a comparable one inside Wilmington. Our guide to moving to Wilmington from New York carries the full rate table for all three counties, and the New Hanover County market update tracks the prices those rates apply to.
What North Carolina does not give you
There is no STAR here, and nothing like it. New York’s Basic STAR credit is available to owners with income of $500,000 or less, and Enhanced STAR, for owners 65 and older, carries a $110,750 income limit for the 2026 benefit year. Millions of New York households have one of those running against their school tax line.
North Carolina’s relief is much narrower. The elderly or disabled homestead exclusion takes the greater of $25,000 or 50 percent of the appraised value off the bill, but the income eligibility limit for 2026 is $38,800. The alternative circuit breaker program uses a $58,200 limit. Both figures come from the Department of Revenue’s memorandum to county assessors dated June 27, 2025. If you are a retired couple arriving with pension and Social Security income above those thresholds, assume you qualify for nothing and treat it as a bonus if you do.
There is also no levy cap. New York limits the growth in a local government or school district levy to the lower of 2 percent or the rate of inflation, with an override requiring a 60 percent vote. North Carolina has no equivalent. What it has instead is revaluation: counties reappraise every property on a cycle, and the base resets all at once. New Hanover County’s current values took effect January 1, 2025 and the next reappraisal is effective January 1, 2029. Brunswick County’s revaluation takes effect January 1, 2027, which means every assessed value in Leland, Southport, Oak Island and the Brunswick beaches changes that day.
Revaluation is also where this year got strange. Senate Bill 889, signed June 19, 2026 as Session Law 2026-8, required counties with a reappraisal effective January 1, 2026 and a population of 15,000 or more to roll back to their previous schedule of values for the 2026-27 fiscal year. Pender County is one of them: it set its rate using the prior valuations. If you are comparing tax bills across the three counties this year, that is why one of them looks frozen.
One more line New Yorkers do not expect. North Carolina taxes registered vehicles as property, collected by the Division of Motor Vehicles on behalf of your county when you renew the registration. It is not large, but it is a line on your household budget that was not there before.
The line that eats the savings
If the property tax difference is the best part of this move, insurance is the part that takes some of it back. Under the settlement the Insurance Commissioner reached with the Rate Bureau, the statewide average homeowners base rate rose 7.5 percent on June 1, 2025 and another 7.5 percent on June 1, 2026, capped at 35 percent in any single territory, and the coastal territories carry the steepest approved increases in the state. Coastal policies also carry a wind and hail deductible stated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar amount, and flood is a separate policy entirely. Our guide to coastal North Carolina homeowners insurance covers the deductible math, and the flood zone guide covers what policies here actually cost.
The 0.66 against 1.30 percent comparison is a state average, and you are not buying a state. Buy in Hampstead and the combined rate is more than 90 cents per $100; buy in unincorporated Brunswick County and it is under 42 cents. Both are North Carolina. The second complication is that property tax is one of four housing lines, and the other three move differently here: insurance is higher than you are used to, the income tax is lower at a flat 3.99 percent with no local income tax anywhere in the state, and the purchase price is lower. Compare the whole monthly number, not the tax line. And if the appeal of this move is purely the tax arithmetic, run it against a specific address with a current insurance quote before you sell anything in New York.
Related questions people also ask
Do North Carolina homeowners pay a separate school tax?
No. Public schools in North Carolina are funded through state and county budgets rather than through a separate school district levy on your tax bill, so there is no line on your bill comparable to the school district tax that dominates a New York bill. Your bill is the county rate plus any municipal, fire district or EMS rate that applies where the house sits. That is the single biggest structural difference between the two states.
Is there anything like the STAR exemption in North Carolina?
Not in any comparable form. North Carolina offers an elderly or disabled homestead exclusion worth the greater of $25,000 or 50 percent of appraised value, but it carries an income eligibility limit of $38,800 for 2026, and an alternative circuit breaker program with a $58,200 limit, both set in the Department of Revenue memorandum of June 27, 2025. New York’s Basic STAR credit, by comparison, reaches households with income up to $500,000, per the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance in October 2026. Most people relocating here will not qualify for North Carolina relief.
How often does North Carolina reassess property values?
Counties reappraise on a cycle rather than annually, and the base resets all at once rather than drifting upward each year. Per the two county tax offices in October 2026, New Hanover County’s current values took effect January 1, 2025 with the next reappraisal effective January 1, 2029, and Brunswick County’s next revaluation takes effect January 1, 2027. There is no New York-style cap limiting how fast a levy can grow between reappraisals, so the rate adopted after a revaluation is the number to watch.
Pick two real addresses you would actually consider, one in New Hanover County and one in Brunswick or Pender, and we will run the actual combined rate against each one alongside a written insurance quote so you can compare the monthly number rather than the headline. Schedule a consultation and tell us where in New York you are coming from and what you are selling, and we will be straight with you about what the move does and does not save.
Sources: Tax Foundation, 2026 North Carolina and 2026 New York tax rates pages, read October 10, 2026. New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, statewide and overall county full-value tax rates, 2021, the most recent years published, read October 10, 2026. New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, STAR program and historical Enhanced STAR income limits, read October 10, 2026. Office of the New York State Comptroller, Real Property Tax Cap, read October 10, 2026. New Hanover County FY 2026-27 adopted budget, May 18, 2026, and county tax bill notice, July 10, 2026, as reported by WECT and Port City Daily. Brunswick County Tax Office rate table, 2026 column. Pender County adopted budget, June 15, 2026. North Carolina Department of Revenue memorandum, “Income Eligibility Limit, 2026 Property Tax Relief Programs,” June 27, 2025. Session Law 2026-8, Senate Bill 889, signed June 19, 2026. North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, vehicle property taxes, read October 10, 2026. North Carolina Department of Insurance settlement with the North Carolina Rate Bureau, January 17, 2025. Our New Hanover County market update, three months ending August 2026.
