Wake County, North Carolina Revaluation Cycle

On Monday, March 17, 2025, the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted to approve shortening its revaluation cycle. Wake County had operated on a four-year cycle with its last countywide revaluation occurring in 2024 and the next revaluation planned for 2028. However, Wake County now plans to conduct its next countywide revaluation in 2027 and subsequently shift to a two-year cycle going forward. The next countywide revaluations will be effective for January 1, 2027 and then January 1, 2029, at which point the countywide revaluations will continue to occur every other year. North Carolina law requires counties to conduct revaluations at least every eight years. Wake County’s revaluation cycle will now be the most frequent in the entire state.

Wake County has noted this adjustment aims to reduce the shock in tax liability that can arise from only adjusting values every four years. The idea is that adjusting values on a more frequent cadence will reduce some of the unpredictability taxpayers in the county have experienced.

In the 2024 reassessment, commercial values were up 45% on average over the 2020 assessments, with industrial, multifamily, and self-storage properties generally experiencing much larger increases. Industrial properties saw an average increase of around 79%, multifamily around 55%, and self-storage around 113%.

A Wake County tax administrator also noted that enrolling new construction at current market value in a growing economy should help curb tax rate increases. In North Carolina, taxing jurisdictions are required to publish the revenue-neutral tax rate, meaning the implied tax rate assuming the jurisdiction were to collect the same amount of tax revenue year over year. However, jurisdictions are not required to adopt the revenue-neutral rate. Many jurisdictions adopt budgets with tax rates above the revenue-neutral level for several reasons. Adding the value of new construction more frequently in a growing economy will further increase the overall tax digest in the county and should work to tame tax rate increases. With a shorter appeal cycle, we anticipate smaller adjustments in revaluation years in both value and tax rates across the county.

Representing more than $21 billion in assessed value throughout Wake County, Ryan’s Property Tax team has extensive experience in navigating the property tax process in Raleigh and across North Carolina, including all commercial property types and classes. If you are interested in understanding more about this revaluation cycle update and the potential impact on your property, please contact us for additional details. Our experts look forward to helping you minimize your property tax liability.