Property tax in Surry County, North Carolina

By Brent Chudoba, editor Updated September 23, 2026

In Surry County, the property tax bill comes from the Surry County Tax Department, Collections Office. The 2026 bill is due January 5, 2027. You can look up and pay the bill on the county's own payment page. Taken from Surry County's own pages, checked September 23, 2026.

The median property tax bill in Surry County, North Carolina is $1,071 a year, which is about 0.6% of the county's median home value of $177,600. That effective rate is lower than the typical North Carolina county (0.65%) and lower than the national median (0.81%). These are American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2024); your own bill depends on your home's assessed value and any exemptions.

Who sends the property tax bill in Surry County, and how do you pay it?

The bill comes from the Surry County Tax Department, Collections Office. The value it is based on is set by a separate office, the Surry County Tax Department, Assessment and Real Estate Appraisal, which is who to ask if the value looks wrong. For how to look up and pay the bill, go to the county's own payment information.

The last countywide revaluation took effect January 1, 2025, on a four-year cycle. The City of Mount Airy and the Town of Elkin bill and collect their own property taxes, so owners in those places get a city or town bill as well as the county bill. The Elkin City Schools and Mount Airy City Schools district taxes are on the county bill, and property outside Elkin and Mount Airy also pays a countywide fire tax on the county bill. Online payments go through an outside processor's tax bill portal.

When are property taxes due in Surry County?

For the 2026 bill, Surry County has one due date: January 5, 2027. Bills are prepared for mailing in July. Under state law the tax is due September 1, 2026 and can be paid at face amount through January 5, 2027, which is a Tuesday. The county's pages do not print the 2026 dates themselves. Interest is added from January 6, 2027: 2% for the first month and 3/4% for each month after that until paid. The county can garnish wages, attach bank accounts, seize and sell personal property, or foreclose on real estate, and it publishes a list of owners with unpaid real estate taxes.

From Surry County's published schedule, checked September 23, 2026. The county had not posted a calendar labeled for this cycle when we checked, so these dates come from state law and the county's standing schedule; the date on your bill is the one that binds you.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Surry County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Surry County's average effective rate of 0.6% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Home market value

Estimated property tax: $1,066 / year

Property tax in Surry County at a glance

Surry County, North Carolina property tax (Census ACS, reviewed September 23, 2026)
Measure	Value
Median annual property tax	$1,071
Median home value	$177,600
Effective tax rate	0.6%
Typical North Carolina county rate	0.65%
National median county rate	0.81%

Effective rate = median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

How does Surry County compare in North Carolina?

Among North Carolina's 100 counties, Surry County has the 66th highest effective property-tax rate: 65 rank higher and 34 rank lower. That is on the lower side for North Carolina. Nationally, it ranks 2271st of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every North Carolina county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Surry County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Surry County's 21,930 owner-occupied homes, 6.4% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 16.2% pay at least $2,000, and 31.8% pay under $800. Another 3.8% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Annual property tax paid by Surry County homeowners (Census ACS 2020-2024)
Annual bill	Homes	Share
Under $800	6,978	31.8%
$800 to $1,499	8,167	37.2%
$1,500 to $1,999	2,418	11%
$2,000 to $2,999	2,142	9.8%
$3,000 or more	1,401	6.4%
No property tax paid	824	3.8%

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $1,222 and owners without one pay $935. Owners who have paid off a home have usually held it longer, and in states that cap how fast an existing owner's assessment can rise, long-held homes carry lower assessed values. Census table B25103.

How does the Surry County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $1,071 is about 1.6% of the median income of Surry County homeowner households, $68,759 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 73.4% of Surry County's occupied homes are lived in by their owners; renters pay property tax too, just folded into rent.

Have property taxes gone up in Surry County?

Yes. The median bill went from $919 in 2015-2019 to $1,071 in 2020-2024, a 16.5% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 40%, from $126,900 to $177,600. Bills rose more slowly than values, which is what assessment caps and falling millage rates do: the county is taxing a smaller share of each home's worth.

Two Census ACS 5-year periods with no survey years in common, in each period's own dollars. A change counts only if it exceeds the combined 90% margin of error.

Property tax in counties next to Surry County

Surry County borders 8 counties, 3 of them across the state line.

Surry County and its neighbors, highest effective rate first (Census ACS 2020-2024)
County	Effective rate	Median bill	Median home value
Forsyth County, NC	0.79%	$1,984	$250,400
Yadkin County, NC	0.67%	$1,220	$181,200
Stokes County, NC	0.6%	$1,179	$196,700
Surry County, NC (this county)	0.6%	$1,071	$177,600
Wilkes County, NC	0.59%	$1,002	$168,800
Alleghany County, NC	0.57%	$1,217	$214,800
Grayson County, VA	0.56%	$843	$150,100
Patrick County, VA	0.55%	$845	$153,400
Carroll County, VA	0.53%	$834	$156,500

How is a home assessed in Surry County?

North Carolina assesses homes at 100% of market value in every county, Surry County included. How North Carolina assesses and reappraises homes.

Is there a homestead exemption in Surry County?

No. North Carolina has no general homestead exemption; relief is targeted to older and disabled owners and to disabled veterans. That is the North Carolina rule, and it applies in Surry County. North Carolina's exemptions and relief programs in full.

Surry County does not add relief programs of its own beyond the North Carolina ones (checked September 23, 2026).

How to appeal your Surry County property assessment

In Surry County you appeal to the Surry County Board of Equalization and Review. The deadline: The board, made up of county citizens appointed by the commissioners, convenes each year by the first Monday in May. An informal appeal of a real property value can be submitted online to the Tax Department first; a formal appeal must be requested in writing or in person before the board adjourns, and the county has not posted its adjournment date. The board's decision can be appealed to the North Carolina Property Tax Commission. How to file. Checked September 23, 2026 against state law, because Surry County does not restate them on its own pages.

How North Carolina's appeal process works, including the next level if the first one turns you down.

North Carolina rules from primary state sources, reviewed September 7, 2026; sources on the North Carolina page.

Work out your own numbers

Sources

Median real estate taxes paid and median home value for Surry County, North Carolina: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2020-2024), tables B25103, B25077, B25102, B25119 and B25003; the five-year comparison uses the 2015-2019 estimates. Neighboring counties: Census county adjacency file.