It’s time now for a fact-check of North Carolina news. In a post on X to her 1 million-plus followers this month, syndicated conservative radio host Dana Loesch wrote that Buncombe County is “still demanding property taxes on homes destroyed by Hurricane Helene based on pre-Helene assessments that no longer apply.” For more on that, WFAE's Marshall Terry is joined by Paul Specht of WRAL.
Marshall Terry: OK. So, this post from Loesch on Jan. 6 was prompted by a message earlier that day from Buncombe County, reminding residents to pay their 2024 property taxes before they become delinquent. How exactly does the property tax system work in North Carolina? And, what assessed values are residents being taxed on?
Paul Specht: Your calendar year tax bill is based on two things. The first is the assessed value of your property as of Jan. 1. It doesn't really matter when your last county assessment was. Whatever the most recent one was that's in place as of Jan. 1 is what you'll be taxed on — that value. And then, later in the year, county governments set their tax rates. This typically happens around budget season, around May and June. That's when the fiscal year ends. Your property tax bill is based on the value of your property as of Jan. 1, combined with the tax rate that's set by county commissioners later that year.
Terry: Now, Loesch and some other social media posts have implied that Buncombe County should change property tax bills or waive them altogether following Helene. Is that even an option?
Specht: It's not. Counties are very limited in what they can do to help people. State law doesn't allow counties to give individual property owners any sort of special treatment, even if their properties were damaged.
Terry: Now, do these rules also apply if you do something to improve your house — the value goes up, but it's not immediately reflected on your property valuation?
Specht: Typically, yes. There are a couple ways that values go up. One is through those revaluations, where the county sends an assessor out and says, Hey, when you bought this house in 2020, it was worth $200,000, but now the market's gone up and it's worth $300,000. But counties don't do revaluations every year. It's typically every two years, every four years. That's one way for the value to go up.
Another way for it to go up is, as you mentioned, if someone does work on their house, that is typically done through the permitting process. That way the county knows about the extra square footage you're adding. And, that way, they'd be able to adjust the value of your property in the next calendar year.
Terry: And your story focused on Buncombe County, one of the areas hit hardest by Helene. But these rules apply to all North Carolina homeowners, right? There are residents here in Mecklenburg, Gaston and other counties with properties damaged by flooding related to Helene who might be wondering.
Specht: That's right. Every county is bound by state law that says they're not allowed to give special treatment to people whose properties are damaged.
Terry: So how did you rate this claim?
Specht: We rated it 'half true.' Loesch said that Buncombe County is still demanding property taxes on homes destroyed by Hurricane Helene. Let's stop there — that's true. People are having to pay property taxes on damaged property. But then the rest of her quote goes on to say 'on pre-Helene assessments that no longer apply' — that's misleading — because, according to state law, what applies is the value in place as of Jan. 1. Her tweet sort of leaves out the context that this process is locked in by state law. With that context missing there, we rated this 'half true.'
