A tax bill still charged on 2022 values, in a city with five campuses

What buying in Greensboro actually involves

The tax bill has two lines, and both are charged on 2022 values. A house in the City of Greensboro pays Guilford County 78.95 cents per $100 of assessed value and the City 79.85, 158.80 in all for fiscal 2027, and no fire district, against 140.30 a year earlier. The assessment is the 1 January 2022 revaluation's, which the Department of Revenue measured at 68.31% of sale prices on 1 January 2025, so the combined rate comes to about 1.08% of market value: about $3,492 a year on the $321,811 single-family median if the house is assessed like the average one, against $5,110 if it were assessed at its price. That is an average, and the ratio study's dispersion is wide here, so the seller's bill is a better guide to yours than any rate.

The 2026 values exist and are waiting. The County reappraised every property for 1 January 2026 and mailed the notices in February, but Senate Bill 889, signed on 19 June 2026, put a moratorium on them: the 2026 bills are on the old values, the new ones go on the 2027 bills, and the next reappraisal is scheduled for 2032. The City and the County had budgeted on the new, higher base, so each raised its rate on the old one instead. The 2027 rates have not been set. A buyer can look up the County's 2026 value for the house now, and a house whose value rose faster than the city's since 2022 should expect its share of the bill to rise with it.

Three special districts inside the city add a levy of their own on the County's rate table: the Dunleath Historic District 5 cents per $100, the College Hill Historic District 1 cent and the Downtown Improvement District 9 cents. Fisher Park, the third local historic district, has none. What a local historic district asks of an owner before exterior work is the City's Historic Preservation Commission's to say, and this site could not read the City's pages on it: every greensboro-nc.gov page refused its requests. The same is true of the City's fee schedules. Stormwater, billed in three tiers by the impervious area on the lot, and a solid waste fee come on the City's water bill rather than the tax bill, at about $8.74 a month together for a typical house on the figures two secondhand pages print.

The price on this hub is Redfin's: the median sale price of single-family homes in the City, $321,811 in August 2026, down 2.9% on the year on 660 sales, from MLS and public records, because no association or MLS report for 2026 could be read. Across all home types Redfin's median was $289,808, and Zillow's model of a typical home inside the city, condominiums included, is $263,264. They are different measures, not a disagreement. The campuses are a smaller share of the city than in a college town: 13.5% of residents aged three and over were in college or graduate school on the Census Bureau's 2024 survey, owners occupy 49.8% of the homes, and the median household income is $63,516.

Insurance costs less than in Raleigh. NerdWallet's Greensboro average is $2,150 a year for $400,000 of dwelling cover, and the base rates are the state's: the Rate Bureau asked for 36.6% in territory 310, the cities of Greensboro and Winston-Salem with Alamance, Forsyth and Guilford counties, and settled for 8.2% in June 2025 and 8.3% in June 2026. A homeowners policy does not cover flood, and the City's flood map puts few of the guides' residents in a special flood hazard area, but that is a map of creeks, not a promise about a basement.

Moving to Greensboro: check these before you commit

• Whether the address is inside the City of Greensboro or in Sedgefield, Forest Oaks, McLeansville or the rest of unincorporated Guilford County beside it, from the County's tax record and its rate code rather than the mailing address: the City's levy, a fire district's and the water bill all change at the line
• The seller's 2026 tax bill, the County's 2026 value for the house, which goes on the 2027 bill, and whether the parcel is in the Dunleath, College Hill or Downtown Improvement district
• Whether the house is in one of the City's local historic districts, Fisher Park, Dunleath or College Hill, and what the Historic Preservation Commission requires before exterior work
• The seller's last City water bill, for the stormwater tier and the solid waste fee
• The Guilford County Schools assignment for the exact address, from the district's own lookup rather than the listing's
• FEMA's flood map and the state's flood maps for the exact address, and a homeowners quote on the specific roof

The City Council sets 79.85 of the 158.80 cents per $100 charged here and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners the other 78.95, and the 158.80 is the total the County's rate table prints for rate code 01.