PENDER COUNTY — Pender County homeowners will receive notices soon about their properties’ new values for the first time in seven years. Countywide, they can expect to see an increase between 105% and 110% on average.
Ryan Vincent, a representative from Vincent Valuations, presented to commissioners at its budget retreat on March 26 what to expect from its 2026 property revaluation. The assessments help commissioners decide how to set the tax rate for the 2026-2027 fiscal year budget. Vincent told them 91% of properties are now worth more than their 2019 values. The company looked at 54,600 parcels overall in 2024 and 2025 to conduct the reval.
READ MORE: Pender commissioners walk back tax revaluation cycle to take place every 7 years
“A couple points to remember here,” Vincent reminded commissioners. “This is seven years of growth in Pender County — throughout the Covid-19 boom … Also Pender County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state.”
The county has experienced a 21% population increase since 2020, going from 60,625 to 73,519 by the end of 2025. It tops out as the fourth fastest-growing county in North Carolina.
State law mandates counties conduct a revaluation every eight years, though Pender County commissioners have flip-flopped on when revaluations should take place. It was every seven years until a previous board voted in 2023 to conduct the reval every four years, matching New Hanover and Brunswick counties’ processes. According to the North Carolina Department of Revenue, more than half of the state’s 100 counties hold revals during a four-year cycle.
Pender County’s former tax administrator Melissa Radke stated on the record in previous PCD reporting that going every four years would better reflect changes in a rapidly growing county, is more fair to low-growth areas, reduces sticker shock for property owners, and ensures properties align with market value as closely as possible.
However, last spring the current board of commissioners reversed course back to every seven years — starting in 2030 — due to resident complaints. Commissioner Jerry Groves said at the time he thought doing more frequent revals was a way for the companies and appraisers “to make more money.” The county spends around $2.2 million each revaluation cycle.
The county tax department doesn’t set the values for properties, rather models built by Vincent Valuations measure activity from buyers and sellers in the marketplace. The company assesses neighborhoods according to the current climate, with properties grouped into 325 tax markets, comparing properties within a mile of each other to ascertain fair market value.
Putting properties into smaller tax markets makes the revaluation process manageable but also ensures equitability, since properties in Maple Hill aren’t comparable to those in Rocky Point. However, every municipality from Burgaw to Surf City will see increases, which Vincent broke down by jurisdiction for commissioners:
- Town of Watha: 180-185%
- Town of Atkinson: 140-145%
- Surf City: 116-121%
- Topsail: 111%-116%
- St. Helena: 86%-91%
- Burgaw 85%-90%
“Man that is high,” Commissioner Brent Springer mentioned of Watha.
“That’s what I’m saying,” added Commissioner Jimmy Tate, who represents the farming district, which he said already is struggling with recent increased fuel prices. “I don’t think that people in Watha … knew they were going to be the highest percent of change here.”
Tate also asked for the amount of property sales in each jurisdiction. Aside from pulling the total parcels in the county, Vincent Valuations looks at all sales as well; though Vincent didn’t have specific sales numbers in each region, 5,100 were assessed overall between 2023 and 2025 countywide.
“We want to try to use the most current sales we can as close to our reappraisal date of 1/1/26 as possible,” Vincent said.
He highlighted for commissioners granular data of specific homes, such as in Topsail Beach. One had an assessed $451,444 value in 2019 that sold in late 2025 for $965,000, marking a 115% increase. On the mainland, a Surf City property once valued at $186,313 sold for $379,000 recently, showing a 103% increase.
Some of the same data was shared with residents two weeks ago at the Hampstead Annex during a reappraisal forum, hosted by Steve Parker of Vincent Valuations. Though Parker did not include slides about overall increases by jurisdiction or countywide, he did provide the singular home sales Vincent showed commissioners.
When residents asked Parker why the new values were so high, he indicated numerous factors should be considered when it comes to further understanding how the market works.
“Is the house on the beach, on the island?” Parker asked rhetorically, noting someone could have built an addition to a structure. “There could’ve been fewer or more sales in some areas, or someone wanted a house and got into a bidding war.”
He pointed out not only “frame build or stick builder homes” had increased; manufactured homes strengthened in value as well. One built in 1986 on Topsail was valued at $80,000 in 2019 but sold for $208,500 in December 2024; another in Rocky Point built in 1997 was valued at $71,285 before it sold for 223% more — at $230,000.
“These are some of the most affordable housing options in the market,” Vincent told commissioners. “So there are more dollars chasing the lower priced properties.”
Commercial properties, too, have mushroomed in price. The Food Lion shopping center in Burgaw, built in 1985 and assessed for $2.2 million in 2019, sold in October 2024 for $6 million.
Pender County Chair Randy Burton told staff and his fellow commissioners at the retreat the significant increase “should not come as a shock to anyone in this room.” Burton’s vote last year favored moving revals to every seven years as well.
“Hardly any real estate is going down, unless we have a Great Depression,” he said. “We all knew this was coming and now it’s time to get work, get through this and get as revenue-neutral as we can.”
Property values feed into budget discussions since an individual’s property tax is calculated by taking the assessed property value and multiplying it by the tax rate. Revenue-neutral tax rates are often on the table when property values increase significantly — and North Carolina law mandates all counties and municipalities publish the revenue-neutral rate during revaluation years.
For a county or municipality to go with a revenue-neutral rate means the budget will operate with the same amount of property taxes collected as the year prior. To do so in Pender County, commissioners likely would have to decrease its tax rate, currently set at 73.75 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Town Manager Colby Sawyer explained to residents at the reappraisal forum on March 13: “The example I give is, if we had a $100,000 budget with $1 million of property value, we had a 10% tax rate. If we now have $2 million in value, we still need $100,000, so it’s cut in half to 5%.”
The commissioners have to pass the budget by July 1 in accordance with state law. There will be public hearings on the budget and tax rate to garner feedback.
Pender County has launched a sales comparison tool as well, so all property owners can go online to look up the new values and assess it against nearby ones. They can make an appeal to the equalization and review board if they believe incorrect information has been used to determine their home and land’s value.
Parker noted to residents earlier in the month that appeals on the values are always expected as “mistakes happen.” Some data collected by appraisers may be errant — such as the amount of stories in a home.
“If you have cathedral ceilings but it shows up as two stories, send us pictures of the inside,” Vincent explained to commissioners of a common appeal.
The appeal needs to be detailed beyond just stating the value issue at hand, but also providing evidence, such as blueprint documents, to back up the claim.
Appeals also can be made if the property floods or if the land has a “no perc” code and adjustments are not reflected by appraisers. A perc test determines how quickly soil absorbs water, necessary for installing a traditional septic system. Without one, residences can’t be built and therefore the land is often valued less.
Tate told Vincent he didn’t remember perc land information being shared to the public as a viable appeal option during Vincent Valuations’ presentation a few weeks ago. Vincent said the company doesn’t typically discuss it in public presentations.
“Why? The public needs to know if they can appeal it,” Tate retorted. “We want to be transparent.”
Vincent said they could add the detail in moving forward but Tate wouldn’t relent. He wanted to know the reasoning for holding back the information.
“We try to do a higher level presentation and there is all kinds of things factoring into the value of land — size, perc, evaluation — so to get into all the pieces of the valuation process, if we did that, our presentation would be hours long,” Vincent said.
“Well, sir, if it’s valid to know and people need to know how to make a good appeal … they need to know what to bring in, instead of making multiple trips,” Tate said.
Port City Daily asked how many appeals were made in the county for the 2019 revaluations, but a county spokesperson said the data isn’t tracked.
2026 appeals will be accepted in writing through May 15 and the first tax bills to reflect new property valuations will be mailed in August 2026.
There are also programs for farmers, disabled veterans and low-income seniors above 65 to receive help if they are struggling to pay property taxes. Interested parties can call the tax office to learn more; general information about reappraisals can be found here.
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