PROPERTY TAX
Buncombe County, North Carolina: A Case Study
ex falso quodlibet — “A false premise leads to a false conclusion.”
There are those who believe that revaluations have an impact on North Carolina real-property-tax increases. The premise is incorrect and serves to muddle thinking about the taxation process.
Nothing more starkly illustrates the fact that only county commissions and town councils are responsible for tax increases than what happened in Buncombe County in the 2027 tax year.
Timeline
Buncombe County's real property was revalued effective January 1, 2021.
Buncombe County commissioners set the tax rates for FY2022-23, FY2023-24, FY2024-25, and FY2025-26 on those values.
Buncombe County is on a four-year revaluation cycle. Because of extensive damage wrought by Hurricane Helene, the 2025 revaluation was postponed one year. Thus the revaluation was completed and became effective on January 1, 2026.
In June 2026, the Buncombe County Commission, using the new revaluation, set a tax rate of 43.20 cents per $100 of value for FY2026-27.
This would have resulted in a property-tax increase of 13%.
The NC Legislature, concerned about outrageously huge property-tax increases being imposed by many North Carolina counties and towns, and righteously intending to provide relief for those taxpayers, passed a bill that would preclude some jurisdictions – including Buncombe County – from using the values of the 2026 revaluation in setting the property taxes for the coming year. Governor Stein signed the bill on June 19, 2026.
Gov. Stein's press release stated, "This law provides tax relief for North Carolinians who are feeling pain in their pocketbooks."
No, it didn't. If you want to provide relief, you must first understand the system.
After probably 15 seconds of thought, Buncombe County commissioners, using the values of the 2021 revaluation, adopted a tax rate of 61.54 cents.
This resulted in – wait for it – a property-tax increase of 13%.
Neither legislators nor the governor had a public response.
