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The results of Dare County’s 2025 countywide revaluation were delivered to the Dare County Board of Commissioners by county assessor Hosea Wilson during the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, March 3, 2025.

Revaluation is the process of updating property values for all real estate in Dare County—including residential and commercial improved properties, as well as vacant land—to reflect their current market value, which is the most probable price a particular property would bring at sale in an open and competitive market, stated a Dare County news release. By North Carolina law, revaluation is required to be completed at least once every eight years. Dare County is currently on a five-year revaluation schedule, with the last revaluation having been implemented in January 2020.

Over time, the majority of properties change in value; however, they often change at different rates, depending on their location. As part of the revaluation process for 2025, the Dare County Tax Department analyzed market sales to determine market patterns and trends in different locations throughout Dare County. The Dare County Tax Department’s real property assessors were tasked with appraising approximately 45,000 individual properties as part of this “mass appraisal process” utilizing a variety of techniques and statistical tools to help measure the accuracy of each appraisal, stated the release.

During his presentation of the 2025 revaluation results, Wilson reported that the overall value of Dare County’s property tax base has increased by 67% to a total of $27.4 billion. In 2024, the value of Dare County’s property tax base was $16.4 billion.

“It is important to note that the 67% overall increase in the value of Dare County’s property tax base is not a property tax increase, as the appraised value and tax rate are two separate components,” the release continued. “County tax appraisers evaluate market activity to determine a property’s appraised value, which is also referred to as its ‘market value.’”

According to the preliminary results, the property tax base in all areas of Dare increased, with the tax base in the Northern Beach jurisdictions increasing by 55% to 74%, Hatteras Island villages by 55% to 62%, Roanoke Island by 49% to 69%, and the property tax base on the Dare County mainland increasing by 37% to 69%.

The areas with the highest increases in property tax base were Kitty Hawk (74% change), Southern Shores (74% change), Duck (73% change), Nags Head (71% change), Kill Devil Hills (69% change), Wanchese (69% change) and Manns Harbor (69% change). The areas with the lowest percentage property tax base increases were East Lake (37% change) and Mashoes (42% change).

After reporting the percentage increases for each area, Wilson took a moment to emphasize that these figures do not imply that every property within the areas listed experienced the same rate of increase.

“[These examples] show that the area may show a certain percent increase as far as estimate aggregate, but not all properties are in that,” said Wilson. “Some are below that; some are above that. We don’t want people to assume that just since an area is up a certain percentage that all properties are up that percentage because we look at all properties [in every area].”

As mentioned previously, the percentage change in the property tax base is not representative of a property tax increase. The tax rate for the unincorporated areas of Dare County is determined by the Dare County Board of Commissioners during the budget process that is currently underway. The appraised value is established before the tax rate is set and is completely independent of the tax rate, which is established no later than June 30 of each year when the commissioners adopt the next year’s operating budget in an open meeting with an opportunity for public comment.

Tax rates for the six incorporated towns within Dare County—Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Manteo—are determined by each town’s respective governing body. Once the new assessed values are finalized, they will be used to calculate Dare County tax bills from 2025 until the new revaluation occurs, which is currently scheduled for 2030.

The 2025 revaluation notices, which contain the property’s updated appraised value, will be mailed to Dare County property owners by the end of March.

Upon receiving their revaluation notice, property owners who disagree with the new assessed value may file an informal appeal with the Dare County Tax Department. The informal appeals process will remain open until the Dare County Board of Equalization & Review convenes, at which point it is their duty to review and decide on appeals.

Additional details on submitting an appeal will be included in the revaluation notices and can also be found online at DareNC.gov/Revaluation.

To view the presentation delivered by Wilson, go to bit.ly/3Dh3ivs. To view the slides from his presentation, go to bit.ly/41rU2N2.

For more additional information about revaluation—including many frequently asked questions—go to DareNC.gov/Revaluation or contact the Dare County Tax Department at 252-475-5940 or DareReval@DareNC.gov.

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