You will pay substantially less here. Applying each state’s current published rates to the same $464,000 house, the bill runs about $2,958 inside the Wilmington city limits and about $1,756 in unincorporated New Hanover County, against roughly $5,011 in Anne Arundel County, $5,364 in Howard, $5,624 in Baltimore County and $10,950 in Baltimore City.
Maryland buyers ask us this early, usually right after the question about hurricanes. It is also the easiest question on the list to answer honestly, because both states publish their rates and the arithmetic is not in dispute. The harder part is what happens to the money you save, and we get to that below.
A note on method first. We are comparing rates applied to one identical house price rather than comparing average bills, because Maryland does not publish an average residential bill the way some states do, and because an average bill reflects what houses cost as much as what the rate is. Running both states against the same $464,000 gives you a clean read on the rate itself.
What Maryland charges
Maryland’s Department of Assessments and Taxation publishes a single table of every county and municipal rate. The 2026-2027 table, in effect for July 2026 bills, sets a state property tax of 0.1120 per $100 of assessment everywhere in Maryland, on top of the county rate, and municipal rates stack on top of that again.
- Maryland county plus state rates per $100: Baltimore City 2.3600, Charles 1.2530, Frederick 1.2220, Baltimore County 1.2120, Howard 1.1560, Carroll 1.1300, Prince George’s 1.1120, Harford 1.0899, Anne Arundel 1.0800, Montgomery 0.7826 Maryland SDAT, 2026-2027 Tax Rates and Homestead Credit Caps, July 2026
- Bills on a $464,000 house: Baltimore City $10,950, Baltimore County $5,624, Howard $5,364, Prince George’s $5,160, Anne Arundel $5,011, Montgomery $3,631 Maryland SDAT 2026-2027 table; arithmetic ours
- Inside a Maryland town the municipal rate stacks on: Annapolis adds 0.7380 and Rockville 0.2920, for $8,436 and $4,986 on the same house Maryland SDAT 2026-2027 table; arithmetic ours
- New Hanover County, North Carolina: 30.6 cents per $100, adopted May 18, 2026 WWAY, New Hanover County budget adoption, May 18, 2026
- Inside the Wilmington city limits the combined rate is 63.75 cents, about $2,958 on a $464,000 house; unincorporated New Hanover is 37.85 cents including the fire district, about $1,756 New Hanover County 2026 tax rates; arithmetic ours
- Brunswick County is 0.342 per $100 with no municipal rate in the unincorporated areas, about $1,587 on the same house Brunswick County 2026 tax rate table; arithmetic ours
What the same family pays here
A North Carolina property tax bill has at most two lines: the county rate, and a municipal rate only if the property sits inside a town or city. There is no separate school district line, which is one reason the total looks so different from a Maryland bill.
New Hanover County’s rate is 30.6 cents per $100 and the City of Wilmington adds 33.15 cents, for a combined 63.75. Outside any town, owners pay the county rate plus a 7.25-cent fire services tax, for 37.85 cents. Brunswick County, across the river, is 0.342 with no municipal rate in the unincorporated areas, which is why Leland and Winnabow pull so many buyers who work in Wilmington. The medians those bills sit against come from our New Hanover County market update and our Brunswick County market update.
Put a real household against it. A family leaving a Howard County house and buying at the New Hanover median pays a little over half the Maryland bill inside the Wilmington city limits, and roughly a third of it in the unincorporated county. A family leaving Baltimore City sees the bill fall by about three quarters.
Two structural differences worth knowing
Maryland collects a state property tax in addition to the county and municipal rates. North Carolina does not, so there is no equivalent line on your bill here. That 0.1120 is small next to a county rate, but it applies everywhere in Maryland with no exceptions.
The other difference is the homestead cap. Maryland’s rate table lists a homestead credit cap for every jurisdiction, the percentage by which the taxable assessment on your principal residence can rise in a year regardless of what the market did. Montgomery and several others are at 10 percent, Anne Arundel at 2 percent, Baltimore City and Baltimore County at 4 percent. North Carolina has no equivalent cap. Instead, counties revalue on a cycle and the new values land all at once. New Hanover’s last revaluation took effect January 1, 2025 on a four-year cycle, so the next one arrives in 2029, per the county revaluation schedule we read for our Ardmore community guide on November 4, 2026. If you are used to a 2 percent cap smoothing out the increases, understand that here the increase arrives in one step.
Where part of the savings goes back out
Insurance is the first place. A coastal North Carolina homeowners policy carries a wind and hail deductible calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than as a flat dollar amount, and flood insurance is a separate policy again if the house sits in a mapped flood zone. Our guides to coastal homeowners insurance and Wilmington flood zones walk through both. Buyers who budget the tax savings and not the insurance line are the ones who get surprised.
Association dues are the second. If you buy inside an amenity community in Leland or at the beach, the dues can quietly absorb a good share of what you saved on taxes. The third is simply that a lower tax bill is not a lower cost of living. Our line-by-line cost of living breakdown for Wilmington goes through the rest of the budget, and our moving to Wilmington page covers what the first ninety days look like.
On income taxes, the structures differ enough that you should get your own number rather than take ours. North Carolina charges a single flat rate on individual income, 3.99 percent for taxable years after 2025 according to the Department of Revenue. Maryland uses a graduated state scale with a county income tax collected alongside it on the same return. We could not read the Comptroller’s current local rate chart on November 6, 2026, so get your county’s rate from the Comptroller rather than from a real estate blog.
Three caveats we would want if we were the ones moving. First, the Maryland figures above are the county and state lines only. Inside an incorporated town the municipal rate stacks on top, and the range is wide: Chevy Chase Village adds 0.0617 while Salisbury adds 1.0332. The county line in the table is a floor, not your bill. Second, Montgomery County’s county rate is the lowest in the state at 0.6706, so a Montgomery household will see a smaller gap than the Baltimore-area numbers suggest, and a Montgomery household already inside a town should run their own figure. Third, we are comparing rates on the same price, which is a fair test of the rate and a poor test of the whole picture. If you are selling a Maryland house for more than you will spend here, your actual bill falls further than these percentages imply. If you are trading up, it may not fall as much as you expect. Send us both numbers and we will run the real version.
Related questions people also ask
What is the property tax rate in Wilmington, NC?
Inside the Wilmington city limits the combined rate is 63.75 cents per $100 of assessed value, made up of a 30.6-cent New Hanover County rate and a 33.15-cent city rate. Outside any municipality, owners pay the county rate plus a 7.25-cent fire services tax, for 37.85 cents. On a house assessed at $400,000 that works out to about $2,550 inside the city and about $1,514 in the unincorporated county. The city rate rose 4.9 cents when council adopted the fiscal year 2027 budget in June 2026.
Does Maryland’s state property tax apply everywhere?
Yes. Maryland levies a state real property tax of 0.1120 per $100 of assessment in every jurisdiction in the state, on top of whatever the county charges and on top of any municipal rate. It appears in every row of the Department of Assessments and Taxation rate table for 2026-2027. North Carolina has no state property tax at all, so a North Carolina bill is made up only of the county rate and, where applicable, a municipal rate and a fire district rate.
Which Wilmington-area county has the lowest property taxes?
Brunswick County, at 0.342 per $100 for tax year 2026, with no municipal rate in the unincorporated areas. New Hanover County’s rate is 30.6 cents, but municipalities there add their own, and the fire services tax applies outside them. Pender County sets its own rate again. The lower Brunswick rate is one reason Leland, Winnabow and the Brunswick beaches draw buyers who work in Wilmington, and the trade is commute time across the Cape Fear River and a different set of school assignments.
Send us the Maryland county and town you are leaving and the price range you are shopping here, and we will put your current bill next to the actual bill on two or three specific Wilmington-area houses, with the insurance estimate included rather than just the tax line. If you would rather talk it through, schedule a consultation and we will build the comparison with you.
Sources: Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, 2026-2027 Tax Rates and Homestead Credit Caps, July 2026, read November 6, 2026; WWAY, New Hanover County adopts 2026-27 budget, May 18, 2026; City of Wilmington, City Council Passes FY27 Budget, June 17, 2026; New Hanover County 2026 tax rates and revaluation schedule, read November 4, 2026; Brunswick County 2026 tax rate table; North Carolina Department of Revenue individual income tax rate schedules, read November 6, 2026; Tidal Realty Partners New Hanover County and Brunswick County market updates, three months ending September 2026. Dollar figures on specific house prices are arithmetic from the published rates above.
