Johnston County NC Property Taxes - How to Find out How Much You'll Pay

Whether you're considering relocating from one side of the Triangle to the other, or coming to the Raleigh area from Florida, New Jersey, New York, or elsewhere, you've probably wondered what the yearly property taxes might be for your new home.

Johnston County is a becoming known as a place that has great home values, but is still close to Raleigh.  Johnston County borders Wake County on the southeastern side.  For folks commuting to downtown Raleigh or RTP, popular destinations include Clayton, Archer's Lodge, and the southern outskirts of Wendell, as well as Smithfield slightly farther out (which is also home to the Raleigh area's largest outlet mall). 

Land values within Raleigh have risen, and in general, less land is available for homes.  In Johnston County, homebuyers can generally find more home or land for their money than within Wake County. 

Here are the 2007 rates, by town.  To get the total property tax rate for a town, simply add the county property tax rate to the town property tax rate.  For example, Clayton has a town rate of .54, and the Johnston County property tax rate is .78.  Add the two together - the total tax rate for Apex, NC is 1.32.

It's not as confusing as it looks.  The tax rates are based on the assessed value of the home, not the asking price. 

• Divide the assessed value by 100.
• Multiply the result by the combined rate on the right side of the table.
• The result will be your yearly property tax bill, as of 2007. 

This table gives sample property tax bills for all the cities in Johnston County: Benson, Clayton, Four Oaks, Kenly, Micro, Pine Level, Princeton, Selma, Smithfield, and Wilson's Mills, as well as rural areas surrounding each of these towns. 

Your tax bill can be lower if your home or property is not actually within a municipality, or town.  If this is the case, you'll pay just the County rate, plus a fire district or other rate. 

The fire district tax rates range from .02 to .19.

If there's a particular address you're considering, you can see the exact assessed value of the home and/or property - just enter the address here.

Johnston County Property Tax Assessment Look Up

It is possible that there are fire district rates in addition to town rates, so it does help to look up a particular address.  But in general, the tax rate tables above work well to estimate taxes. 

Also, when looking at properties, don't take the city address for granted - you could be in a different county, with different tax rates, depending on where exactly the property is located.

Clayton - depending on the address, could be in Wake County or Johnston County.

Wendell - could be in Wake County or Johnston County.

Property taxes are based on assessed value, not the price the home is sold for.  The assessed value you see may be either higher or lower than the asking value of the property - it really depends on how long ago the assessment was made, and what improvements have come to the area since the assessment (or what improvements are planned for the area).   If there is a discrepancy, don't be afraid to ask your real estate agent to pull comps for you!