Nobody likes property taxes except the Guilford County Tax Department, county staff and the county commissioners who get to spend the money – but at least it can be said that, of the 10 largest counties in North Carolina, Guilford County falls right in the middle when it comes to the amount of property tax revenue collected per county resident.
Of those 10 large counties, Guilford County comes in fifth, with the property tax collected coming in at $945 per county resident.
Of course, the average tax bill is larger than that since not all residents are property owners.
In this group, the county with the highest per capita tax revenue is Durham County, where the amount in the current fiscal year comes out to $1,249 per resident.
The large county with the lowest per capita tax revenue is Cumberland County, where Fayetteville is the county seat. In that county, the tax revenue per person is only $514. That’s true, interestingly, even though Cumberland County has the highest tax rate of the entire group. Property owners in that county pay 77.90 cents for every $100 of assessed property value.
One reason Cumberland County comes in so low is that the county hasn’t had a revaluation of property since 2017. Property values have sky rocketed since then, so, when they get their new property values, residents there will no doubt be in for a shock as Guilford County taxpayers were in 2022 after the countywide revaluation was held at a time of skyrocketing housing prices.
The Guilford County commissioners proudly point out that the board didn’t increase Guilford County’s property rate the year of the revaluation – but they don’t ever mention the fact that they also did not adjust the tax rate – hold it “revenue neutral” – which meant that they put a “massive 14 cent hidden” tax increase on property owners that year. Though it’s not really that well hidden since the people realize they’re paying 20 percent or 25 percent more than they were before the reval.
Of the 10 counties examined, Guilford County has the third highest tax rate, at 73.05 cents, while Durham County comes in second with a rate of 75.22 cents.
The average revenue for the group is $934 per resident, with the group median being a little less – $923.
What’s the ranking per property owner?
That would be a better analysis!!
Property values should not be the same as market values… mine went up over 40%, and 60% over 2017. I couldn’t hardly sell it for the value they have it listed now… and the county appraisal should be about ~80% of what you could sell the house for (or its appraised market value) – that is not the same because a premium is paid when properly is bought and this should not be reflected in the county property values!!
And so is the County.