Wilmington is cheaper to buy into, by a wide margin: the median list price in New Hanover County was $519,900 in October 2026 against $694,750 in Charleston County, South Carolina. Charleston pushes back on the property tax side, where South Carolina taxes an owner-occupied home on four percent of its value and exempts it from school operating millage, so the yearly carrying cost is closer than the purchase price gap suggests.
We get this comparison from two kinds of people. Buyers already set on the Carolina coast who are deciding between two cities four hours apart, and buyers being relocated by an employer who want to know which address leaves more money in the account at the end of the month. Both deserve a real answer rather than a cost-of-living index score, so here is what we can document and what we cannot.
What does it cost to buy in each place?
Realtor.com data published through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis puts the October 2026 median list price at $519,900 for New Hanover County and $694,750 for Charleston County. That is a gap of $174,850, or about 34 percent. On the sold side, our New Hanover County market update shows a median sale price of $464,000 for the three months ending September 2026, down 1.3 percent year over year, with the typical home taking 61 days to go under contract and 1,251 homes active.
The gap is not a quality gap. It is a supply and demand gap, and it shows up most in the parts of each market people actually compare: a renovated house walking distance to the water, a newer house in a good school zone, a condo near the restaurants. The Wilmington version of each of those costs meaningfully less than the Charleston version. If your budget is the binding constraint, the comparison is over before you get to taxes.
Why are Charleston property tax bills lower than you expect?
Because South Carolina does not tax the whole value of an owner-occupied house. South Carolina Code 12-43-220(c)(1) taxes a legal residence, plus up to five contiguous acres, on an assessment equal to four percent of fair market value, and Code 12-37-220(B)(47)(a) then exempts one hundred percent of that owner-occupied value from all property taxes imposed for school operating purposes, though not from millage levied to repay general obligation debt. School operating millage is usually the largest single piece of a property tax bill, so removing it changes the arithmetic substantially.
North Carolina does the opposite. General Statute 105-283 requires all property to be appraised at its true value in money, which the statute defines as market value, and then the full value is taxed at the county and municipal rates. In New Hanover County the 2026 county rate is 0.3785 per $100 of value, and a house inside the Wilmington city limits carries a combined rate of 0.6375 per $100. On a $464,000 house inside the city that combined rate works out to about $2,958 a year, which is our arithmetic on those two numbers rather than a bill anyone has sent.
Here is the honest limit of this comparison. We could not put a Charleston number next to that one today, because Charleston County’s own tax estimator blocked our request on November 7, 2026, and we will not publish a tax figure for a county whose current millage we could not read at the source. What we can tell you with confidence is the structure: on identical market values, the South Carolina owner-occupied bill starts from a far smaller taxable base, and the Wilmington bill starts from the whole value.
- Median list price, New Hanover County NC: $519,900 Realtor.com via FRED, October 2026
- Median list price, Charleston County SC: $694,750 Realtor.com via FRED, October 2026
- Median sale price, New Hanover County: $464,000, 61 days on market Tidal Realty Partners New Hanover County market update, three months ending September 2026
- South Carolina owner-occupied legal residence: assessed at four percent of fair market value S.C. Code 12-43-220(c)(1), read November 7, 2026
- South Carolina owner-occupied homes: exempt from school operating millage, not from general obligation debt millage S.C. Code 12-37-220(B)(47)(a), read November 7, 2026
- North Carolina: all property appraised at true value, meaning market value N.C. General Statute 105-283, read November 7, 2026
- North Carolina individual income tax: flat 3.99 percent for tax years after 2025 NCDOR, Session Law 2023-134, read November 7, 2026
If you want the full line-by-line picture on the Wilmington side before you compare it to anything, our cost of living in Wilmington guide breaks out housing, utilities, insurance and taxes separately.
What about income tax and the rest of the budget?
Income tax now favors North Carolina for most working households. North Carolina charges a flat 3.99 percent on taxable income for tax years after 2025, per the Department of Revenue. South Carolina Code 12-6-510 sets a three-bracket structure instead: zero on the first $3,200 of taxable income, three percent up to $16,040, and a top marginal rate above that which the statute is phasing down toward six percent. That means a South Carolina household with ordinary wages pays its top marginal rate on nearly all of its income, and that rate is higher than North Carolina’s flat rate. We are not quoting the exact South Carolina top rate for 2026 because the phase-in is set annually and we could not confirm this year’s figure at the source today.
Two more items belong in an honest comparison and neither is a number we are willing to invent. Insurance is the first. Both cities are coastal, both carry wind and hail exposure and named storm deductibles, and premiums in both markets have moved enough in the last two years that any figure we published would be stale before you read it. What we tell buyers is to get a real quote on the specific address, in both cities, before you compare anything else, because the spread between two houses a mile apart can be larger than the spread between the two states. Our guide to coastal North Carolina homeowners insurance explains how the deductible math works on this side of the line.
The second is the second home. South Carolina’s four percent assessment ratio and the school operating exemption apply to a legal residence occupied by the owner. A Charleston condo you rent out, or a beach place you visit, does not get that treatment, and the tax picture changes sharply. Buyers who run the Charleston numbers on an owner-occupied basis and then decide to make it a rental are in for a surprise. On the North Carolina side the rate does not change with occupancy, which makes a Wilmington-area second home easier to underwrite in advance.
Cheaper is not the only question, and for some buyers it is the wrong one. Charleston has an international airport with more nonstop destinations, a deeper job market in several industries, and a restaurant scene Wilmington does not match. If your work or your travel depends on either of those, paying 34 percent more per house may be rational. There is also a reassessment risk on both sides of the border: South Carolina counties reassess on a cycle and North Carolina counties revalue on theirs, so ask the assessor when the next one lands before you treat this year’s tax number as permanent. And if the thing you want is the beach town rather than the city, compare Oak Island or Surf City to Folly Beach or Isle of Palms instead, because the city medians above will not tell you much about either.
Related questions people also ask
Are property taxes lower in South Carolina than North Carolina?
For an owner-occupied primary home, generally yes, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of rates. South Carolina Code 12-43-220(c)(1) taxes a legal residence on four percent of its fair market value, and Code 12-37-220(B)(47)(a) exempts that owner-occupied value from school operating millage, so the taxable base is a small fraction of the price you paid. North Carolina General Statute 105-283 requires property to be appraised at market value and taxes the whole amount at the county and city rates, which is why a comparison of posted rates alone is misleading.
Is Wilmington or Charleston better for retirees?
Both states exempt Social Security benefits from state income tax, and both coasts carry the same hurricane and insurance exposure, so the decision usually comes down to purchase price, property tax treatment and access to medical care. Wilmington is cheaper to buy into and has a large regional hospital system, while Charleston costs more per house but offers an academic medical center and a larger airport. Retirees who plan to spend down a portfolio rather than draw wages should price both the property tax structure and the state income tax treatment of retirement income with a tax professional before choosing.
How far is Wilmington NC from Charleston SC?
It is roughly a three and a half to four hour drive down the coast, mostly on US 17, depending on traffic through Myrtle Beach and Georgetown. That is close enough that buyers routinely tour both before deciding, and close enough that a family in one city can reach the other for a weekend. It is not close enough to commute, so treat the choice as a permanent one rather than something you can split.
Pick one real house in each city at the same price and get two insurance quotes and two tax estimates on those specific addresses. That exercise answers this question better than any index, and it usually moves the decision by more than people expect. If Wilmington is on your list, our team will pull the New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender numbers for the exact neighborhoods you are weighing and tell you where your money goes furthest.
Sources: Realtor.com residential listing data via FRED, median listing price for New Hanover County NC and Charleston County SC, October 2026; Tidal Realty Partners New Hanover County market update, three months ending September 2026; S.C. Code of Laws 12-43-220(c)(1) and 12-37-220(B)(47)(a), read November 7, 2026; S.C. Code of Laws 12-6-510, read November 7, 2026; N.C. General Statute 105-283, read November 7, 2026; North Carolina Department of Revenue tax rate schedules, Session Law 2023-134, read November 7, 2026; New Hanover County 2026 tax rates, as carried in our Murrayville neighborhood guide. The annual tax figure for a Wilmington house is our own arithmetic on the county and city rates.
