Property Tax in Rockingham County, North Carolina

What the Rockingham County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Rockingham County homeowners pay more than $1,230 a year and half pay less. The exact bill for any one home depends on its assessed value, exemptions, and which school, municipal and special districts cover it.

Set against the median home value of $156,000, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.79%. That rate is an estimate computed from the two medians — no county publishes a rate calculated this way — but it adjusts for home prices, which makes comparisons between counties more meaningful.

The key figures for Rockingham County

For context, the North Carolina medians are $1,815 of tax on $259,400 of value, and the US medians are $2,969 on $303,400. *Derived figures are estimates from Census medians, not official rates.

Rockingham County at a glance

• Median tax rank in North Carolina: #58 of 100 counties
• Median home value rank in North Carolina: #75 of 100
• Population rank in North Carolina: #31 of 100 (91,585 residents)
• Population density rank: #37 of 100 (162 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in North Carolina: #27 of 100 (565 sq mi, 1.2% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $102; per $1,000 of home value: $0.79

How Rockingham County compares

The median tax bill in Rockingham County is about 32% lower than the state median ($1,815 for North Carolina) and about 59% lower than the US median ($2,969 nationally). By median taxes paid, the county ranks #58 out of 100 North Carolina counties with published Census data — 57 counties in the state have a higher median bill.

Comparisons cut both ways: a county can have a modest rate but high bills because homes are expensive, or a high rate but modest bills because homes are cheaper. Rockingham County's derived rate of 0.79% sits below the derived US figure of 0.98%.

Some extra context for Rockingham County: the median bill works out to about $102 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $788 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 91,585 people — the #31 most populous county in North Carolina, spread over 565 square miles, a density of about 162 people per square mile. Its median home value, $156,000, ranks #75 among the state's 100 counties with data.

Nationally, Rockingham County's median bill of $1,230 ranks #2054 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 66% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 0.9% of North Carolina's population, its median home value is about 40% below the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 7.88% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Rockingham County to the most expensive county, Orange County ($4,105), is $2,875 a year.

Counties nearest Rockingham County in the North Carolina ranking

Rockingham County and its population peers

Counties of a similar size can tax very differently. The table below shows the counties closest to Rockingham County in population across the United States, with their median bills and home values. Within the group of 9, Rockingham County ($1,230) ranks the lowest by median tax paid.

The closest population match is Grafton County, New Hampshire (91,759 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $5,624 on a median home value of $298,500 — $4,394 less than Rockingham County pays.

Inside North Carolina itself, the counties closest to Rockingham County in population are Cleveland County (100,170 residents, median tax $1,240 on a median value of $180,200); Nash County (95,451 residents, median tax $1,320 on a median value of $171,100); Lincoln County (90,359 residents, median tax $1,660 on a median value of $279,500); Burke County (87,863 residents, median tax $1,191 on a median value of $170,500). Same state, same broad tax framework — yet the median bills still differ, because assessed values and the mix of county, municipal and school-district rates are set locally.

How the tax is worked out

Think of the final bill as three ingredients: the assessed value of the property, the exemptions subtracted from it, and the combined rate of every district the property sits in. Rockingham County's medians imply a derived rate of 0.79%; applied illustratively, a $400,000 home would owe about $3,152 a year, or around $263 a month spread evenly. Individual properties depart from the illustration in both directions.

Illustrative bills in Rockingham County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.79% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Rockingham 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 Rockingham County

If your bill looks wrong, work through these steps:

1. Get your property record card from the assessor and check the basics — living area, lot size, bedrooms, condition, and any exemptions you should have.
2. Compare your assessed value with recent sale prices of similar homes in Rockingham County.
3. Talk to the assessor's office informally first; clear errors are often fixed without a hearing.
4. If needed, file a formal appeal with the local review board before the deadline on your assessment notice, with your evidence attached.
5. Keep paying the bill as issued while the appeal runs, unless your notice says otherwise — unpaid taxes accrue penalties regardless of an appeal.

More North Carolina counties

• Lincoln County, NC — $1,660
• Burke County, NC — $1,191
• Nash County, NC — $1,320
• Cleveland County, NC — $1,240
• Craven County, NC — $1,372
• Caldwell County, NC — $1,112

Frequently asked questions