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Wake County's new property values take effect January 1, 2027, and the notices go out in January. Last time, values jumped 51 percent between 2020 and 2024. This time it's honestly a different story, because the market's barely moved. Homes that sold in 2026 went for a median of just 3.2 percent more than their 2024 values, and 36 percent of them sold for less.
So here's how the sales compare in each town, and it's pretty uneven. In 2025, homes sold for a median of 5.1 percent above their 2024 values, and by 2026 that had slipped to 3.2 percent. Unincorporated Wake County has moved the most, at 7.5 percent, while in Zebulon the typical sale's almost exactly at its 2024 value and about half of homes sold for less. That's a really different market from one side of the county to the other.
| Town | Sales | Typical sale vs. 2024 value | Sold below 2024 value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raleigh | 7,182 | +3.3% | 36% |
| Unincorporated Wake County | 3,558 | +7.5% | 23% |
| Cary | 2,976 | +5.7% | 25% |
| Apex | 1,479 | +3.5% | 30% |
| Wake Forest | 1,139 | +3.6% | 34% |
| Fuquay-Varina | 1,039 | +2.8% | 33% |
| Holly Springs | 924 | +6.5% | 19% |
| Garner | 727 | +3.1% | 38% |
| Wendell | 405 | +1.1% | 45% |
| Morrisville | 307 | +2.0% | 39% |
| Knightdale | 294 | +0.6% | 46% |
| Rolesville | 256 | +2.6% | 43% |
| Zebulon | 198 | +0.1% | 49% |
Honestly, if the county's new values follow these sales, most homes are going to see a much smaller change than in 2024. But the market's split. When about a third of homes are selling below their old value, the county's model is likely to land too high on some of them, and those are the homes where an appeal can really work.
Fortunately that's exactly what our free check does. Once Wake publishes the 2027 values in January, it'll compare your new value with what genuinely similar homes nearby actually sold for, and tell you straight whether an appeal's worth it. Most people who use it get told not to bother, and we'd rather you heard that before you spent an afternoon on it.
After the 2024 revaluation, Wake ran two steps, and it'll probably look pretty similar this time. First came an informal review with the county's appraisers, from January 16 to March 1. Then there was a formal appeal to the Board of Equalization and Review, which was due May 15. That's the step where you'd bring your own sales evidence. The county says it'll post the 2027 dates and a link to its tax portal in January 2027, so you'll want to check wake.gov/revaluation then. Don't wait on it, because the informal window's short.
Now the question in a North Carolina appeal is what your home would have sold for on the revaluation date, which for this round is January 1, 2027. So the evidence that really counts is sales of genuinely similar homes in your neighborhood close to that date, and today's prices don't. And if you don't agree with the Board of Equalization and Review, you've got 30 days from its decision to appeal to the state Property Tax Commission.
Also, a higher value doesn't automatically mean a higher bill. State law makes the county and towns publish a revenue-neutral tax rate in a revaluation year, which is the rate that would bring in about the same money as before. They don't have to adopt it, but if everyone's value moves by about the same amount, your share of the bill basically stays where it was. What actually costs you is your value going up more than your neighbors' did.
Basically, in Raleigh the county's rate of 53.71 cents and the city's 37.2 cents add up to about 91 cents for every $100 of value. So a home that wins a $25,000 cut saves about $227 a year, which isn't huge, but it's real money. And Wake's next revaluation after this one is January 1, 2029, so a win's worth that for two years.
Also, if you're 65 or older, or totally and permanently disabled, and under the state's income limit, North Carolina's homestead exclusion takes off the greater of $25,000 or half your home's value. You'll apply with Wake County by June 1, and it's honestly worth more than most appeals.
The sales comparison is our own, from Wake County's public parcel records, read 2026-10-07. We took single-family homes built before 2024 that sold in 2025 or 2026 for at least $50,000, and compared each sale price with the home's January 1, 2024 value. We left out sales more than two and a half times the value or less than half of it, which are usually family transfers or partial sales, and tightening or loosening that screen moved the result by less than a quarter of a point. We only show a town with at least 100 sales.
And the revaluation dates and the appeal process come from Wake County Tax Administration. The tax rates are the county's and Raleigh's adopted rates for the 2026 to 2027 budget year. The elderly and disabled exclusion is North Carolina General Statute 105-277.1.
If you spot an error, please write to hello@propertytaxbuddy.com and we'll correct it and say what changed.