A city revalued to market in 2025, between Duke and Research Triangle Park

What buying in Durham actually involves

The tax bill has two lines, and both are charged on values set at market in 2025. A house in the City of Durham pays Durham County 57.92 cents per $100 of assessed value and the City 43.71, 101.63 in all for fiscal 2027, and no fire district, against 99.13 a year earlier. The assessment is the 1 January 2025 revaluation's, which the Department of Revenue measured at 100.23% of sale prices, so the combined rate comes to about 1.02% of market value: about $4,331 a year on the $424,990 median sale if the house is assessed like the average one, and $4,319 at the rate on the bill. In Greensboro, whose values are from 2022, the same two figures are more than a thousand dollars apart. The City's own example is its median home, valued at $424,000, paying about $1,853 a year in City tax alone.

The revaluation reset everything at once. Durham County revalued every parcel to 100% of market value as of 1 January 2025, the first reappraisal since 2019, and the combined rate for a City address fell from 139.49 cents per $100 on the old values to 99.13 on the new ones; the County Manager wrote that the new values drew more than 10,000 appeals. For fiscal 2027 the County raised its rate and the City held its own. The next revaluation takes effect on 1 January 2029, and until then a house is taxed on its 2025 value whatever it sells for, so as prices move the gap between the bill and the price opens again, house by house.

One special district inside the city adds a levy of its own on the County's rate table: the Downtown Business Improvement District, 7 cents per $100 on top of the City's rate. The few hundred city residents in Wake and Orange counties pay those counties' rates instead of Durham County's. Stormwater is not on the tax bill: the City charges it on the utility bill by the impervious area on the lot, $5.70, $11.80 or $23.64 a month for a house, and yard waste collection is $7.50 a month for those who sign up. No separate garbage fee appears on the City pages this site read, and water and sewer rates rise 12% for the average customer this year by the City's own account.

The price on this hub is the Durham Regional Association of REALTORS': the median sale price on Doorify MLS for the City of Durham, $424,990 in August 2026, up 3.7% on the year on 283 sales, houses and condominiums together, because that is how the association's dashboard is filtered. Zillow's model of a typical home inside the city is $389,634, down 3.4%, and its single-family index $392,384. They are different measures, one of what sold in a month and one of every home, and this year they point different ways. The campuses are a smaller share of the city than Duke's name suggests: 11.1% of residents aged three and over were in college or graduate school on the Census Bureau's 2024 survey, nearly half of them graduate or professional students, owners occupy 53.1% of the homes, and the median household income is $82,916.

Insurance costs about what it does in Raleigh, because the state rates both on one territory. NerdWallet's Durham average is $2,380 a year for $400,000 of dwelling cover and Insure.com's $2,719 for $300,000, and the Rate Bureau asked for 39.8% in territory 270, the cities of Durham and Raleigh with Durham and Wake counties, and settled for 7.5% in June 2025 and 7.5% in June 2026. A homeowners policy does not cover flood, and Durham's floods are creek floods from rain: the City's place in FEMA's Community Rating System, Class 7, takes 15% off a flood policy inside the special flood hazard area, but the map is a map of creeks, not a promise about a basement.

Moving to Durham: check these before you commit

• Whether the address is inside the City of Durham or in Bahama, Rougemont, Research Triangle Park or the rest of unincorporated Durham County beside it, from the County's tax record rather than the mailing address: the City's levy, a fire district's and the utility bill all change at the line
• The seller's 2026 tax bill, the County's 2025 value for the house, and whether the parcel is in the Downtown Business Improvement District
• Whether the house is in one of the City's local historic districts, where exterior changes go before the Historic Preservation Commission, or under a Neighborhood Protection Overlay
• The seller's last City utility bill, for the stormwater tier, yard waste and the water and sewer charges
• The Durham Public Schools assignment for the exact address, from the district's own School Locator rather than the listing's, because the zones are being redrawn for 2027-28
• FEMA's flood map for the exact address, whether any work on the lot would need a floodplain development permit, and a homeowners quote on the specific roof

The City Council sets 43.71 of the 101.63 cents per $100 charged here and the Durham County Board of Commissioners the other 57.92, and the 101.63 is the total the County's rate table prints for the City of Durham.