Burgaw is the cheapest house and the most expensive tax rate within 30 miles of Wilmington: active houses asked a median $374,900 on October 10, 2026, and a house inside the town limits pays a combined 1.47 percent of assessed value in property tax. Add town water and sewer, a stormwater fee and about 39 minutes each way to downtown Wilmington, and the monthly cost lands well under Hampstead or Wilmington even after the tax line.
Buyers find Burgaw by price. They are looking at Hampstead or Wilmington, the number does not work, and someone tells them to drive up US 117. What they usually do not know is that the Pender County seat charges the highest combined rate in the county, so the savings are smaller than the sticker suggests and still real.
Here is the whole bill, line by line, with the source and date on each figure. Most of it comes from our Burgaw community guide, the county tax schedule and the town itself.
What does a house cost to buy in Burgaw?
On October 10, 2026 the Coldwell Banker Burgaw city page carried 141 listings with a Burgaw 28425 address, 96 of them active after we removed duplicates across five result pages. The 96 active split into 59 houses, townhomes and manufactured homes and 37 pieces of land. The houses ran $50,000 to $1,490,000, median asking $374,900, with a median 91 days on market. Both ends are outliers: the bottom is a 1,116 square foot project house on West Williams Street and the top is a house on acreage on Whitestocking Road. The working market is between $275,000 and $475,000, where 34 of the 59 sat, and 22 of the 59 were flagged new construction.
Set that against the county. Our Pender County market update puts the county median sale price at $499,000 for the three months ending September 2026, up 16.1 percent year over year, with days on market at 83 against 51 a year earlier. Burgaw sits well under the county median because the county median is carried by the coast. Existing houses inside the town limits are cheaper still: the American Community Survey for 2020 through 2024 puts the median value of the 1,311 units inside the limits at $242,200, median year built 1987.
Land is its own market here, and a slow one. Thirty-seven active land listings ran $25,000 to $3,500,000, median $79,000 on the same date.
What does it cost to carry that house every month?
Start with the tax rate, because it is the line that surprises people. From the Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule, a house inside the Burgaw limits pays Pender County 0.7375, countywide EMS 0.0925 and the Town of Burgaw 0.6400 per $100 of value, which is 1.4700 percent. The town rate rose four cents this year from 0.6000. Burgaw had proposed 0.4100 on the 2026 reappraisal, but Session Law 2026-8 deferred use of the new values, so the fiscal 2026-2027 budget was built on the prior 2019 values and adopted at 0.6400 on June 29, 2026. Reappraised values first apply in fiscal 2027-2028, and a downtown Municipal Service District adds 0.1000 inside that district.
- Combined in-town tax rate 1.4700 percent: county 0.7375 plus EMS 0.0925 plus town 0.6400 per $100 Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule, read October 10, 2026
- Tax on a $300,000 house inside the limits, about $4,410 a year; on the $374,900 median asking price, about $5,511 Calculated at the 2026 rate above
- Town water $11.56 for the first 2,000 gallons, sewer $25.36, both double outside the town limits Town of Burgaw utility rates, read October 10, 2026
- 96 active listings, 59 houses from $50,000 to $1,490,000, median asking $374,900, median 91 days on market Coldwell Banker Burgaw city page, October 10, 2026
- Pender County median sale price $499,000, up 16.1 percent year over year, 83 days on market Our Pender County market update, three months ending September 2026
Now the loan. At the $374,900 median asking price with 20 percent down, principal and interest run about $2,060 a month at the 7.32 percent 30-year average Freddie Mac reported for the week ending October 22, 2026, which our mortgage update tracks each week. With 10 percent down it is about $2,318 before mortgage insurance. Property tax at the in-town rate adds roughly $459 a month on that price.
Utilities depend entirely on which side of the town line you are on. Inside the limits you get town water and sewer at $11.56 for the first 2,000 gallons of water and $25.36 for sewer, and the town charges a stormwater fee that funds drainage work under the Resilience Strategy it adopted on July 9, 2024. Outside the limits those same rates double, and most rural 28425 parcels are on a well and a septic system instead, with a fire district tax and a $200 county solid waste fee on the bill. A well and septic look free until the well pump goes or the drain field fails, which is why we ask for the septic permit and a water test during due diligence on anything outside town.
How does the total compare to Wilmington or Hampstead?
Run the same house two ways. A $375,000 house inside Burgaw pays about $5,511 a year in property tax. A $375,000 house in unincorporated New Hanover County near Porters Neck pays the county rate of 0.3785 per $100, about $1,419, as reported by Port City Daily on July 10, 2026. That is a swing of roughly $340 a month, and it is the single biggest argument against Burgaw on paper.
The argument for Burgaw is what $375,000 buys. In our New Hanover County market update the median sale price for the three months ending September 2026 is $464,000, and in Pender County as a whole it is $499,000. The gap between those medians and Burgaw asking prices is larger than the tax difference, especially for buyers who want a yard or a house built in the last five years. Our line-by-line Wilmington cost of living guide runs the same exercise for the city if you want to compare the whole budget rather than the tax line.
Then add the commute, because it is a real cost. Routed from the courthouse square on October 10, 2026, downtown Wilmington is about 28.2 miles and 39 minutes, Wilmington International Airport 21.7 miles and 37 minutes, Wrightsville Beach 27.8 miles and 39 minutes and Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center 27.5 miles. Interstate 40 is about 3.5 miles from the square, which is why Burgaw commutes better than its mileage suggests. A Wilmington job still means better than an hour on the road most days, and two cars doing that adds up faster than most relocation budgets allow for.
Insurance is the one line that is cheaper than the coast. Pender is one of the 18 counties eligible for the Coastal Property Insurance Pool, but the Beach Area is the land south and east of the inland waterway, and Burgaw is nearly 30 miles from that line. Under the January 2025 settlement, homeowners rates rose an average 7.5 percent on June 1, 2025 and another 7.5 percent on June 1, 2026 statewide, while the beach areas of Pender and its neighbors took 16 and 15.9 percent instead. Burgaw pays the smaller number.
Two things can change this math after you move in. The first is the reappraisal. The town rate of 0.6400 is set against 2019 values because Session Law 2026-8 deferred the 2026 revaluation, and when the new values apply in fiscal 2027-2028 the rate should come down. Whether your bill comes down depends on how your house reappraises relative to everyone else, and nobody can promise you that. The second is the schools. On the Department of Public Instruction 2025-26 designations, C.F. Pope Elementary and Burgaw Middle both carry a performance grade of D with growth Not Met and both are continually low-performing, and the district opened redistricting in August 2026 with recommendations going to the board in January 2027. For a family with young children, that is a bigger factor than the tax rate, and for a retiree it may not matter at all.
Related questions people also ask
Are property taxes in Burgaw higher than in Wilmington?
Yes, by a wide margin on the rate. A house inside the Burgaw town limits pays a combined 1.4700 percent, from the Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule, while unincorporated New Hanover County near Wilmington pays 0.3785 percent, as reported by Port City Daily on July 10, 2026. On the same assessed value, the Burgaw bill is roughly four times the unincorporated New Hanover bill. Houses in Burgaw also tend to assess lower, so the dollar gap is smaller than the rate gap, but it is still the largest single difference in the two budgets.
Do you need a well and septic system in Burgaw?
Inside the town limits, no. The Town of Burgaw runs its own water and sewer system, and its posted rates, read October 10, 2026, charge $11.56 for the first 2,000 gallons of water and $25.36 for sewer, with both doubled for customers outside the limits. Many properties with a Burgaw 28425 mailing address sit outside those limits in farm country, and there you should assume a private well and a septic system. Ask for the septic permit, the tank size and the last pump date during due diligence, and have the well water tested.
Is Burgaw in a flood zone?
Most of it is not. We queried the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer on October 10, 2026 against a 178 point grid inside the town limits: 78.1 percent of points returned Zone X, minimal hazard, another 10.1 percent fell in the shaded 0.2 percent annual chance area, and 11.8 percent sat in the Special Flood Hazard Area as Zone AE or AO, including a floodway. The flood exposure follows Burgaw Creek and the canal through the middle of town, so the answer depends on the parcel. The town planning department issues flood determinations and elevation certificates.
Before you shop Burgaw, settle one question: inside the town limits or outside. It changes your tax rate, your water bill, whether you have a septic system and which high school the address feeds. Send us two or three addresses you like and we will pull the limits, the tax record, the flood determination and the school assignment on each, then talk it through with you.
Sources: Our Burgaw community guide, read October 25, 2026, with town data gathered October 10, 2026. Pender County 2026 tax rate schedule. Town of Burgaw utility rates and fiscal 2026-2027 budget, adopted June 29, 2026, and Resilience Strategy, July 9, 2024. Session Law 2026-8. Coldwell Banker Burgaw city page, October 10, 2026. American Community Survey 2020 to 2024. FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, queried October 10, 2026. North Carolina Department of Public Instruction 2025-26 school designations. North Carolina Department of Insurance rate settlement, January 2025. New Hanover County fiscal 2026-2027 tax rates, reported by Port City Daily, July 10, 2026. Our Pender County and New Hanover County market updates, three months ending September 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 22, 2026.
