Wake County homeowners will soon see bump in property taxes

Wake County homeowners will see a bump in their property taxes beginning July 1. The increase comes after Wake County leaders voted 6-1 Monday night to adopt a $1.47 billion budget for 2019-20. The budget includes an additional $45 million to fund Wake County's schools.

Posted 9:43 p.m. Jun 4, 2019 — Updated 9:43 p.m. Jun 4, 2019

Julian Grace

, WRAL reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Wake County homeowners will see a bump in their property taxes beginning July 1.

The increase comes after Wake County leaders voted 6-1 Monday night to adopt a $1.47 billion budget for 2019-20. The budget includes an additional $45 million to fund Wake County's schools.

The budget also includes a property tax rate increase of 6.63 cents, bringing the rate to 72.07 cents for every $100 of property value.

With the tax increase, a property owner will pay an extra $66.30 in property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value. For example, the owner of a $300,000 home will pay an additional $16.58 per month, or $198.90 per year, in property taxes.

Experts say that, in the hot real estate market, a tax hike doesn't appear to be discouraging sellers or buyers.

"I think it is part of change and progress in the economy, and in our market, we have 60 people moving here a day," said real estate agent Michael Terbet.

Ida Terbet has been in the real estate business for 30 years. She says there are not a lot houses on the market, which means there is great competition to purchase a home.

Terbet sees the latest tax increase as incentive for some to buy in Wake County.

"When people are buying homes, they are looking for a really good school district. Increasing this tax value, you are only going to be educating, and you are going to be having better schools," she said.

The property tax bills will go out starting July 1, and those who receive their property taxes in the mail could see it in their mailbox around July 20.

Additional budget highlights:

Adding 14 new positions to the county’s Child Welfare division
Providing funding to the Wake County Board of Elections, so it can hold the March presidential primary election and operate 11 early voting sites across the county
Investing in IT security upgrades and network improvements to expand protections against ransomware and phishing scams, which can put our data at risk
Increasing accessibility to public libraries by opening new and improved libraries in Cary, Fuquay-Varina and Morrisville. This budget will also expand Sunday hours to six more libraries and eliminate late fees for all library patrons.

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