The first step in deciding to buy a home is getting yourself informed about all the place your money will be going to. Here are the basics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p> <\/iframe>\n <div style=\"font-family: Arial; height: 36px; top: -36px; padding: 0 8px 0 0; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: right; background: #f6f9f9; border: 1px solid #ccc; color: #868686; line-height: 34px; font-size: 12px; position: relative;\"> <a style=\"color: #868686;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mortgagecalculator.org\/free-tools\/javascript-mortgage-calculator.php\" target=\"_blank\">Javascript Mortgage Calculator<\/a> by MortgageCalculator.org<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">What do each of these fields mean?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Home value: what will be the purchase price?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Down payment: money put towards house value before loan is taken out<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Loan amount: home value minus down payment – what are you borrowing?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interest rate: see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phmloans.com\/blog-and-news\">PHM Loans website<\/a> for current rate estimates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Loan term: most common is 30 years, but a lender can show you other options.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Property tax: county AND city. See paragraph below for how to estimate this<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PMI (Private mortgage insurance often needs to be paid if the down payment is below 20% of the home value) often between .5% and 1.3%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For my clients, I have created an Excel spreadsheet with these same calculations and more – I include estimates on what to set aside for yearly house maintenance, a detailed monthly loan amortization table that allows additional payments to see what a faster loan payoff would look like, a table on estimating net gain\/loss from selling a property, and a visual graph on principal and interest payments over the life of the loan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">How to estimate property taxes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>In North Carolina, there will be county property tax and usually a city tax, as well. The “effective rate” for a home is these two rates combined. Rates are per $100 property valuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">County<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncdor.gov\/2025-propertytaxrateslast5yearspdf\/open\">Here<\/a> is a list of all North Carolina counties and their tax rates for the last five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">County<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Rate 2025<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Wake<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.5171<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Durham<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.5542<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Orange<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.6383<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Chatham<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.6000<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Johnston<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.5200<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wakegov.com.if-us-west-1\/s3fs-public\/documents\/2025-07\/Tax%20Rates_Current%20to%202016.pdf\">Here<\/a> is a list of several local cities and their tax rates since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">City<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Rate 2025<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Angier<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.49<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Apex<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.356<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Cary<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.34<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Clayton<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.49<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Durham<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.4371<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Fuquay Varina<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.358<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Garner<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.52<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Holly Springs<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.3435<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Knightdale<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.44<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Morrisville<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.35<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Raleigh<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.3550<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Rolesville<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.4<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Wake Forest<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.42<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Wendell<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.42<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Zebulon<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">.577<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to I calculate my taxes from these tables?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Determine the county and city<\/strong> location of the house you are interested in. Note: some houses lie outside of city limits, and therefore will not pay city taxes, only county (lucky).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Add the two numbers together<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take the assessed home value (this is different and usually lower than the sales price) and <strong>divide by 100<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Multiply the two numbers to get the estimated yearly property tax: <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to find assessed home value for estimating property taxes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This value is found on the website for the county that the house resides in. (Easy cheat: apps like Zillow will also populate this number in the Public Tax History section towards the bottom of a listing and will link to the applicable county’s website.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td>County<\/td><td>Property Search Website<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Wake<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/services.wake.gov\/realestate\/search.asp?\">https:\/\/services.wake.gov\/realestate\/search.asp?<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Durham<\/td><td><a href=\"https:\/\/taxcama.dconc.gov\/camapwa\/\">https:\/\/taxcama.dconc.gov\/camapwa\/<\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Example calculation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A home of interest is identified to be in the City of Durham and in Durham county <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The home has an assessed value of: $412,354<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Durham County rate: .5542<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>City of Durham rate: .4371<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>.5542 + .4371 = .9913<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>($412,354 \/ 100) X .9913 = <strong>$4,087.67<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:140px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">This page is a work in progress! Check back for more financial resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Like what you’re reading? 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