A buyer who closes on a Bald Head Island home this fall is estimating carrying costs from a tax bill built on 2023 values. That buyer will own the property on January 1, 2027, the date Brunswick County uses to reset the value of every parcel in the county. The new tax bill depends on a rate that won't be set until late spring or early summer 2027. The island's last revaluation showed the Village can cut that rate and owners can still pay more.
The rate decision, more than the new appraisal, sets the real cost of an island purchase in the coming year. The calendar shows why.
The Calendar Between a Fall Contract and the First New Bill
On September 23, 2026, Brunswick County published the 2027 revaluation timeline. A purchase in the fourth quarter falls in the middle of it.
- October 5, 2026. County commissioners received the proposed 2027 Schedule of Values, the rulebook appraisers use for size, age, quality, condition and location. The board unanimously set a public hearing.
- October 19, 2026, at 6 p.m. The public hearing on the Schedule of Values takes place at the Board of Commissioners meeting.
- November 2, 2026, at 3 p.m. Commissioners consider adopting the schedule. A second hearing is possible if needed.
- January 1, 2027. All real property is valued at its market value and condition as of this date.
- February and March 2027. Owners receive notices showing their new values, which the county expects to arrive by the end of March.
- Late spring or early summer 2027. The county, the Village of Bald Head Island and other taxing bodies adopt their FY2028 budgets and set tax rates.
Values are fixed before rates are set. The county's notice says it is "impossible to determine" how a new assessed value will affect a tax bill until rates are adopted. It also warns that the revaluation "is still not complete," so any claim about how much values or taxes will rise deserves caution. A buyer estimating the 2027 bill this fall is working with two unknowns, and the second one is decided by a vote that hasn't happened yet.
What the 2023 Reset Did on the Island
The island's own history is the best guide to how that vote can go. Brunswick County's previous revaluation took effect in 2023, and WilmingtonBiz reported in March 2023 that values rose by a median of 55% countywide. Changes were uneven, and some properties held steady or declined.
In a reappraisal year, North Carolina law requires each local government's budget to include a statement of the revenue-neutral rate for comparison. G.S. 159-11(e) defines it as the rate expected to bring in the same revenue the old rate would have produced without the reappraisal, adjusted for normal growth in the tax base. Governments must calculate that rate, but they aren't required to adopt it.
For FY2023-24, Bald Head Island cut its island-wide rate from $0.7213 to $0.5779 per $100 of value. WilmingtonBiz reported in July 2023 that the new rate was nearly 22% above the revenue-neutral rate of $0.4745, and that island owners were likely facing larger bills despite the lower headline number.
Here is how that works out for a hypothetical property whose value rose exactly at the 55% countywide median. The Village rate fell by about 20%, but the base it applied to grew by 55%. Multiply the two and the Village share of that owner's bill comes out roughly 24% higher than the year before. The same outlet reported that Bald Head Island has had the highest municipal tax rate in Brunswick County since at least 2013.
None of this predicts what the Village will do in 2027. It shows that a rate cut announced next summer won't, on its own, tell an owner whether the bill went down.
The Rate a Buyer Inherits Today
The current rates also explain why the revenue-neutral figure carries extra weight on this island. The Village's FY2026-27 budget ordinance, adopted June 18, 2026, sets the following layers:
| Layer | Rate per $100 of value | Who pays it | Taxable base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village island-wide | $0.5860 | Every island property, including those in service districts | $1,963,427,172 |
| Municipal Service District Zone A | $0.0688 | Properties within Zone A | $406,718,097 |
| Municipal Service District Zone B | $0.0403 | Properties within Zone B | $561,909,876 |
| Brunswick County | $0.342 | All county property | Countywide |
The county figure is the FY2025-26 rate published by the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Port City Daily reported on May 6, 2026 that the proposed FY2026-27 county budget kept the same rate. If the county rate stayed at $0.342, a property outside the service districts would carry about $0.928 per $100 in combined Village and county rates. For a home assessed at $2,000,000, that would come to roughly $18,560 a year at current values.
Part of the island-wide rate already has a job. Section 6 of the ordinance assigns $0.0664 of the $0.5860, plus the full Zone A and Zone B rates, to repaying general obligation bond debt. That debt is the $15.7 million Beach Improvement Bonds, Series 2024. According to the Village's FY2025 audit, it is repaid from special tax district revenue and accommodation-tax revenue. Voters approved two beach-improvement authorizations of $13.5 million and $4.5 million on March 5, 2024, according to the Village's announcement of the referendum results. The Village's April 2026 budget workshop showed $14.916 million still outstanding as of July 1, 2026.
Debt service is a fixed dollar amount each year. When values rise, the rate needed to cover the same payment drops, but the payment stays the same. A buyer comparing next summer's adopted rate with the revenue-neutral rate is looking at the difference between the two, and that difference is where the Village's choices show up.
The service districts add one more variable. WilmingtonBiz reported that Zones A and B were created in 2009 and cover beachfront, dune and East Beach properties. Owners there pay the county, island-wide and zone rates together. Each zone has its own taxable base, so the 2027 reset will recalculate each one separately. Bald Head Island's tax rates were already part of a separate question about the island's layered HOA dues, and the service district layer comes up in the same way. Two homes with similar list prices can carry noticeably different public costs.
How Far Behind the 2023 Values Had Fallen
The size of the reset depends on how far assessments have drifted from sale prices. The last published measure is smaller than many people would assume. The NCDOR sales assessment ratio study dated January 1, 2025, based on sales from January through December 2024, puts Brunswick County's median ratio at 89.85%. In other words, assessed values ran about 10% below sale prices countywide at the median in 2024. The year before, the figure was 89.81%.
That figure is a countywide median from 2024 sales. It isn't a Bald Head Island figure or a forecast for 2027. Under G.S. 105-286, a county of Brunswick's size has to move its reappraisal up when the ratio falls below .85, and Brunswick's last published figure was above that line. The county itself stresses that values "will not change uniformly" and that the result for any one property depends on recent sales in its own area. No public source has projected an island-specific change for 2027.
So on Bald Head Island, the parts of a 2027 bill that can be known today are the debt service, the service district structure and the island's history of adopting rates above revenue-neutral. The new assessed value is the one piece nobody can estimate yet.
Questions Buyers Ask Before Closing This Fall
Does a higher assessed value in 2027 mean a higher tax bill? Not necessarily. Brunswick County says a higher value does not by itself mean a higher bill, because the result depends on the rates each government adopts for FY2028. The 2023 cycle on the island ran in the other direction, with a lower rate and larger bills for many owners.
Does the county use sale prices to set values? The county says its state-certified appraisers research and analyze local sales to estimate market value, and that "market value is set by the choices of buyers and sellers."
How does the appeal process work? Under the county's general guidance, appeals are accepted from January 1 until the Board of Equalization and Review adjourns. Late appeals are held for the following year. As of the September 23 notice, the county had not set the dates for the 2027 appeal period.
Where can a buyer check a property's current assessed value? The county's Property and Tax Information tool and its property record cards show current assessed values and parcel details.
If a Bald Head Island purchase or sale falls in this window, Stephanie Blake can go through a specific property's current assessment, its tax layers and the 2027 timeline with you before you set a price or write an offer. Sellers can start with a home valuation, and buyers can find more island guidance on the buyers page. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
