A Republican-led bill to block 2026 revaluation processes would only affect one county in Western North Carolina – but a wider effort that would cap county property tax hikes could be welcome news for thousands of homeowners who say they’re struggling to keep up.
In the House and Senate, two bills are moving through that could limit local governments’ ability to increase property taxes. Property taxes are a key funding stream for county governments, but mounting property values in recent years have caused a spike in costs for homeowners.
In Transylvania County, for example, Randy Stallworth says he feels he must sell the home his mother left him when she died two years ago. Property tax records show the house in Brevard nearly doubled in value after the last county revaluation in 2025.
“I really don’t know what to do at this point. It’s just kind of shameful, the way they did it,” he said.
His mother, Cheryl, moved into the home, which was built by Habitat for Humanity in 2000. Due to money owed on dementia care bills not covered by Medicaid – and the surge in property tax assessment due to the home’s increased value – Stallworth says he can no longer afford to keep the house. He told NC Local recently that he’s appealed the healthcare coverage decision and hopes to have it resolved before needing to sell the property.
Properties in North Carolina are generally required to be revalued every eight years. The state department of revenue recommends that counties revalue properties at least every four years. Since 2020, property values in most areas of the state have jumped, causing a spike in property taxes for longtime homeowners.
Last year, Stallworth appealed the revaluation with the help of the Transylvania County NAACP, which led to a $20,000 reduction, he said. But he says he’s still looking at about $3,000 in property taxes come next January.
“I’m kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now because I don’t have $152,000 [for Medicaid] and I definitely don’t want to get rid of a house because you know that was her legacy and she left it to me,” Stallworth said.
Senate considers one-year reappraisal moratorium
Senate Republicans want to block property revaluations this year in a select nine counties. Some legislators say the pause is needed while leaders take a look overall at property tax policies.
N.C. Senate Bill 889, currently stuck in committee, would block some county governments from implementing new property appraisals during this calendar year. Based on the latest version, only Buncombe County in WNC would be impacted in 2026 as the only local municipality actively in a revaluation year that hasn’t determined whether it could increase the tax rate.
At Tuesday’s Buncombe County commission meeting, Whitney Christensen, the county’s lobbyist from Ward and Smith, shared an update on legislative priorities, including SB 889. Christensen called the legislation a “big headache” because of its impact on Buncombe County.
She told commissioners that their team is “working very closely” with legislators on a “potential solution” to the bill.
Earlier this month, Republican N.C. Sen. Kevin Corbin, of WNC, submitted an amendment to exempt counties with under 15,000 people from the bill – that includes Clay, Chowan and Pamlico counties.
Clay County, Corbin explained, had already completed its revaluation – and leaders said publicly they will adopt a revenue-neutral tax rate.
“The whole point of that legislation was just to pause property revaluations because the thought was they didn’t want counties to be able to use that to increase taxes. Clay County already said they weren’t going to do that,” Corbin said.
Corbin told NC Local that N.C. Sen. Norman Sanderson asked him to include the two coastal counties in the amendment because they are in the same situation.
“The thought among the legislators who put that forward was that would give the legislature time to possibly come up with other measures about limiting the amount of a tax increase there could be and maybe, to put that on the ballot that if it were over a certain amount to make sure that voters had the ability to weigh in on that,” Corbin said.
Hudson Vaughan, director of the community justice collaborative at the NC Housing Coalition, sees this one-year moratorium as having a very small impact on the broader issues with property taxes in the state.
He pointed out that the moratorium only impacts nine counties out of 100.
“It’s gotten much more attention than it probably should have, given its limited impact. And I think that’s largely because people do want to see things improved at the state level around property taxes,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan explained that the NC Housing Coalition has been advocating for a number of changes to property tax law, including expanding the Homestead tax exemption and making the NC Circuit Breaker program for seniors more effective.
Hannah Bowers is a field organizer with the NAACP in Transylvania County. She worked with about a dozen neighbors, including Stallworth, appealing their property revaluations – mainly in the Rosenwald neighborhood, a historically Black community.
The Senate’s proposal, Bowers said, is “kind of a band-aid on a bullet wound situation.”
“Obviously, it will provide some relief, which is what they want, but I don’t think it goes anywhere close to the reform that we actually need when it comes to how we value property and how we tax property in the state,” Bowers said.
“Counties are supposed to value property based on market value, and what I have learned is that is a whole lot more subjective than people would like to believe,” she said.
The Transylvania County NAACP has been hosting property tax workshops with tips.
What does this mean for Buncombe County?
With the new amendment, Buncombe County is the only county in the region that would be impacted by the proposed moratorium. Revaluation notices have already been sent to nearly 135,000 properties in the county.
As it stands, however, the legislation wouldn’t block a tax rate increase – but Buncombe would be required to use 2025 property values, based on the last tax assessment completed in 2021.
In a revaluation year, property owners can appeal the county’s assessed value.
So far, approximately 14,800 appeal requests have already been submitted to Buncombe County, Govus confirmed.
At a recent Buncombe County Commissioners meeting, Trudy Parker was one of almost a dozen Buncombe County community members who spoke during public comment to advocate against tax increases and to cut the county’s proposed budget.
“Hurricane Helene has created economic instability here in our county. Raising property taxes now would harm our residents and our businesses in Buncombe County,” Parker said. “Our local families and our business, homeowners are already struggling.”
Parker pleaded for a revenue-neutral rate after “sticker shock” property revaluations.
Laura McHugh also spoke during the public comment. She said her home value has increased 50% over the last five years, according to her revaluation notice. She is even more concerned about the adjacent vacant lot that her family owns in Arden, which more than doubled in assessed value despite still being covered in storm debris.
“This is not a moment when families have excess capacity to absorb dramatic increases in their financial obligations,” McHugh said, calling for the commission to “slash the cost of administrative bloat in our schools and city halls.”
If state leaders succeed in temporarily blocking Buncombe’s revaluation process, tax bills in 2027 will likely be based on 2021 values – which was the last time the tax assessor re-evaluated homes and other property.
Buncombe County delayed its planned 2025 re-appraisal because of Hurricane Helene.
At the May 5 commissioners meeting, County Manager Avril Pinder explained that the county completed a reappraisal on Jan. 1 2026, and saw a 43% growth of the tax base. For this value, the revenue-neutral tax rate would be 39.22 cents for $100.00 of assessed value.
For the upcoming fiscal year, Pinder has recommended a higher tax rate to support a 12% increase in municipal spending and funding.
Pinder’s budget recommendation – with a tax rate of 43.52 cents per $100 of assessed value – would raise the tax owed for an average homeowner by about $192 annually. That’s based on a median home value in the county of $446,500.
However, if state legislators block the new, higher assessed values this year, Pinder said, commissioners would either need to cut spending or implement a much higher tax rate than she’s proposed.
County Commissioners will vote on the budget the first Tuesday of June.
House considers constitutional amendment on property tax
While the Senate is considering the property tax moratorium, the NC House was working on a bill that would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November to limit the amount that property taxes can be increased by local governments.
House Bill 1089 moved through a key committee last week, NC Newsline reported. On Wednesday, the property tax constitutional amendment passed the House and the Senate. It will be on the ballot in November.
Stallworth, who is still dealing with increased property taxes in Transylvania County, agrees that property taxes should be capped.
“If you keep raising people’s taxes, how are people supposed to live? How is anybody supposed to keep up, any county if that’s what you continue to do,” he asked.
North Carolina already places a ceiling on property tax rates, unless additional taxation is approved by voters. The current limit is 1.5% of assessed value, and no local government has set its tax rate that high, according to the NC Housing Coalition.
“The levy limit is unfortunately a one-size-fits-all approach that will not have nearly the impact on individual taxpayers that people think it will,” Vaughan said in reference to HB 1089.
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