Property Tax in Brunswick County, North Carolina

What the Brunswick County numbers mean

A median is the middle household: half of owner-occupied households in Brunswick County pay more than $1,789, and half pay less. Your own bill is set by your home's assessed value, the exemptions you qualify for, and the local taxing districts your property sits in — so individual bills vary widely around the median.

Dividing the median tax by the median home value gives a derived effective rate of 0.57% for Brunswick County. It is an estimate built from two survey medians, not the county's official rate, but it is a fair way to compare the local tax burden with other counties where home values are very different.

Brunswick County by the numbers

*Estimate derived from Census medians (tax ÷ value), not an official rate.

Brunswick County at a glance

• Median tax rank in North Carolina: #18 of 100 counties
• Median home value rank in North Carolina: #16 of 100
• Population rank in North Carolina: #21 of 100 (145,889 residents)
• Population density rank: #33 of 100 (172 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in North Carolina: #6 of 100 (850 sq mi, 1.7% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $149; per $1,000 of home value: $0.57

How Brunswick County compares

Of the 100 North Carolina counties with published data, 17 have a higher median property tax bill than Brunswick County's $1,789, putting the county at #18 in the state. Its bill is about the same as the state median of $1,815 and about 40% lower than the national median of $2,969.

Rates and values pull in opposite directions: an expensive housing market can produce big bills at ordinary rates. Here the derived rate is 0.57%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #16 within North Carolina.

Some extra context for Brunswick County: the median bill works out to about $149 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $568 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 145,889 people — the #21 most populous county in North Carolina, spread over 850 square miles, a density of about 172 people per square mile. Its median home value, $314,700, ranks #16 among the state's 100 counties with data.

Nationally, Brunswick County's median bill of $1,789 ranks #1285 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 41% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 1.4% of North Carolina's population, its median home value is about 21% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 5.68% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Brunswick County to the most expensive county, Orange County ($4,105), is $2,316 a year.

Counties nearest Brunswick County in the North Carolina ranking

Brunswick County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Brunswick County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Brunswick County ($1,789) ranks #6 of 9 by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Douglas County, Georgia (146,141 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $2,079 on a median home value of $262,200 — $290 less than Brunswick County pays.

Brunswick County's nearest population neighbours within North Carolina are Rowan County (148,487 residents, median tax $1,411 on a median value of $216,100); Orange County (147,292 residents, median tax $4,105 on a median value of $428,500); Randolph County (145,322 residents, median tax $1,236 on a median value of $171,600); Harnett County (136,503 residents, median tax $1,642 on a median value of $220,700). Comparing them is a reminder that even inside one state's rules, the bill follows local home values and local district rates more than anything decided at the state level.

How the tax is worked out

As an illustration of the arithmetic: at Brunswick County's derived rate of 0.57%, a home valued at $400,000 would carry a tax bill of roughly $2,272 a year. That is only an illustration using the derived rate — a real bill is computed from the property's assessed value, its exemptions, and the combined rates of its specific taxing districts, so it can be higher or lower.

The usual sequence is: the local assessor values the property; exemptions are applied; the taxable value is multiplied by the combined local rates; and the county bills and collects the tax, distributing it to the schools, municipalities and districts that levied it.

Illustrative bills in Brunswick County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.57% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Brunswick County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.70% and the US figure of 0.98%:

Illustration only: real bills are computed from the assessed value, exemptions, and the combined rates of the property's actual taxing districts.

Checking your assessment in Brunswick County

Most successful appeals are won on facts, not arguments. Start with the property record card held by the Brunswick County assessor: wrong square footage, an extra room, or a missing homestead exemption are common and fixable. Next, line your assessed value up against recent sales of genuinely similar homes nearby. Many disputes end at an informal conversation with the assessor's office; if yours does not, file the formal appeal with the review board named on your notice before its deadline, evidence attached, and keep paying the bill in the meantime so penalties do not build up.

More North Carolina counties

• Randolph County, NC — $1,236
• Orange County, NC — $4,105
• Rowan County, NC — $1,411
• Harnett County, NC — $1,642
• Catawba County, NC — $1,319
• Davidson County, NC — $1,262

Frequently asked questions