PENDER COUNTY — Pender County residents will get property value letters a year earlier than expected.
READ MORE: Nearly 4,000 tax payers appealed property revaluations in Brunswick County
The Pender County Board of Commissioners signed off on the change during its Tuesday meeting. Residents can now expect to receive letters in early 2026 for a revaluation process effective the first day of the year.
The last time a revaluation happened in the county was in 2019.
Commissioners also cut the time between future revaluations in half, from eight years to four, matching New Hanover and Brunswick counties’ processes. Brunswick’s latest revaluation was finalized at the beginning of this year.
County staff first presented the changes to the board during its July 10 meeting and asked for authorization to begin work on the 2026 revaluation. Tuesday, county tax administrator Melissa Radke told the board it needs to authorize a resolution to move up the timeline a year to submit to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
She offered a few justifications for shortening the timeline:
- It makes taxes more fair by shifting burden off low-growth areas
- Tax values will be closer to market value
- A four-year cycle better reflects changes in a rapidly-growing county like Pender
The county also has a statutory obligation to reevaluate properties. State law requires every county to perform a revaluation every eight years at minimum, and if property sale prices change by more than 15% in a year, counties are required to begin a revaluation.
Rocket Homes, a real estate tech company, estimates the median home value in Pener County increased by about 10% in the past year, based on listing data from the North Carolina Regional Multiple Listing Service.
Radke said more frequent revaluations will help plan the county budget and avoid “sticker shock” for property owners. She pointed to a Port City Daily story published in January which outlined the county’s massive recent business growth, a July memo from the state treasury that ranked the county third in the state for overall growth, and said the county’s population is increasing rapidly as well. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the county has grown from about 60,000 to 65,000 people between 2020 and 2022 alone.
Commissioner chair Jackie Newton asked if every tax evaluation should lead to presumptions that taxes go up, noting commissioners just raised the county property tax rate by 9 cents per $100 of valuation to pay for a new $178-million school bond.
Pender County Manager David Andrews said if revaluations were more frequent, the tax increase would have likely been smaller.
Radke answered the chair that the tax rate and revaluation values are separate.
How much property tax changes after a revaluation depend on the results of the revaluation and then the tax rates set by counties and municipalities.
Brunswick County lowered its tax rate by 13 cents in the wake of its latest revaluation to offset some of 55% median increases. Some municipalities, like Oak Island and Boiling Spring Lakesfollowed suit, while others left their rates the same or slightly decreased them such as Leland and Navassa.
As it stands, Pender has the 30th highest tax rate in the state, out of 100 counties.
Commissioner Brad George noted the county lowered the tax rate after the last revaluation to remain revenue neutral, but individual owners saw increases and decreases depending on where their properties were located.
Revaluations are based on property sales. A revaluation involves tax office staff spending more than a year poring over the details of properties. They look at features on a property, including improvements such as new construction, look at recent sale prices of similar plots and may visit properties to make sure they match county records/
Once reappraisal notices are mailed to owners, they can appeal the new values directly to the county, and eventually elevate the issue to the state if they are not satisfied with the local appeal.
The Department of Revenue recommends counties revalue properties every four years even though state law does not require it. The department also recommends site visits as part of the revaluation process even though state law does not require it; Pender plans to follow through with that recommendation.
“It’s more footwork, it costs more manpower to do a full remeasure, relist to know that our data is good,” Radke said. “It’s very good to at least do that one time. We don’t know the last time that was done.”
Radke did not work for the county during the last revaluation. She said her understanding is it was performed via desk review and “drive-by” of properties.
George commented the 2019 revaluation did not make sense to him and he wants to ensure every parcel is looked at.
“Places that had no growth were charged high growth and some places had high growth and no change,” he said.
Radke replied, going forward, the tax office will maintain records of site visits, which can be shown to owners. She said right now, if an owner were to ask the tax office what was done in 2019, she would have no physical evidence of a site visit to produce.
Have tips or comments? Email [email protected]
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.