Property taxes · FY2016–FY2027
What drives Apex's tax rate? Revaluations, bonds and the rest
Apex's property tax rate is lower than it was ten years ago. Many bills still went up. Here is how revaluation resets the rate, why homeowners carried more of the load in 2024, what the rate increases since 2016 paid for, how much of that voters approved at the ballot, and the three years Council changed the manager's number.
In fiscal year 2016, the Town of Apex taxed property at 39 cents per $100 of assessed value. The rate adopted for FY2027, the budget year that began July 1, 2026, is 37.35 cents. Over those twelve budgets the rate climbed, dropped and climbed again: it peaked at 44 cents in FY2024 and fell to 34 cents the next year.
A lower rate does not mean a lower bill. A bill is your assessed value times the rate, and Wake County reassesses every property every few years. This article walks through both halves of the bill: the value and the rate.
Tap a year
Twelve budgets, one staircase
Adopted rates: ACFR FY2025, Table 7 (FY2016–FY2025); FY25–26 adopted budget; Town budget page (FY2027). Revenue-neutral rates: 2016 CAFR; FY20–21 and FY24–25 adopted budgets. Reasons condensed from each year's budget message.
Revaluation
Why the rate drops, and why your bill may not
When Wake County revalues property, North Carolina law requires the Town to publish a revenue-neutral rate: the rate that would raise about the same revenue on the new, higher values, adjusted for normal growth. Apex's rate has come down at every revaluation. In each of the three, Council then set the rate somewhat above revenue-neutral and said why: capital needs in 2016; the parks bond, staffing and a new Affordable Housing Fund penny in 2020; staff, transportation projects, parks and transit in 2024.
Revenue-neutral is a town-wide number. It holds the Town's total steady, not each owner's share. In the 2024 revaluation, Apex values rose 56 percent overall: 57 percent for residential property and 53 percent for commercial property. When homes rise faster than the rest of the tax base, homeowners carry a larger share of the bill even at a lower rate. Mayor Pro Tem Terry Mahaffey has written that for most Apex homeowners, revaluation was the largest driver of the increase in their bills.
Apex average: +56% overall, +57% residential, +53% commercial. Town portion of the bill only; county and fire district taxes are separate. EXAMPLE
"During the revaluation year, we adopted the lowest tax rate relative to revenue neutral in the county."
Mayor Pro Tem Terry Mahaffey, June 9, 2026 Council meeting
What the increases paid for
About 22 cents of increases, sorted
Add up every increase since FY2016, counting revaluation years by the amount above revenue-neutral, and you get about 22 cents. The resets at revaluation took away about 24 cents, which is why the rate ended lower overall. The largest single piece of the increases is debt that voters approved at the ballot: the $48 million parks and recreation bonds of 2017 (three 1.5-cent steps) and the $42 million transportation bonds of 2021 (1.4 cents, then 1.6 cents). Public safety is the largest operating piece.
Bond debt, the Affordable Housing Fund penny and FY2024's split are the Town's own figures. Rows marked ≈ are estimates that follow the per-position and per-project costs printed in each year's budget book; they are not Town-published category totals. Allocation: apexdata tax-rate research, Oct. 21, 2026.
Counting the bond separately
Last year: the bond, and nothing else
Mayor Pro Tem Mahaffey counts voter-approved bond cents separately from operating increases. "The 1.6 cents for the bond is baked in — it is happening. It is a result of the 2021 bond vote," he wrote in April 2025. For FY2026, the manager had recommended 36.5 cents. At the May 8, 2025 work session, Mahaffey moved to set the rate at 35.6 cents, seconded by Council Member Zegerman, and it passed 3–2. The adopted budget says it plainly: the only increase was the 1.6 cents tied to the 2021 transportation bond; otherwise the rate stayed flat.
Proposed vs. adopted
The three years Council moved the manager's rate
In every year from FY2016 to FY2024 where the manager's proposed rate can be documented, Council adopted it unchanged. The three changes all came in the last three budgets, and all were decided at the May work session.
Council asked staff to model two more cents for capital work; the discussion centered on street pavement. In the May 2, 2024 straw poll, four members said 34 cents; Mahaffey said he was comfortable with 33. Adopted 5–0 on June 11, 2024.
Mahaffey's motion set the rate at 35.6 cents: flat except the voter-approved 1.6-cent bond step. Passed 3–2 on May 8, 2025; budget adopted 5–0.
The manager's draft began at a 3.54-cent increase. Mahaffey published an alternative aimed at 1.75 cents, then moved it on May 21, 2026, seconded by Council Member Gray: unanimous, 5–0. Adopted June 9, led by public safety positions.
Your own bill
See your address, year by year
Search any Apex address to see its tax bills since 2016, split into town, county and fire, with a view that backs out the revaluation resets. Built from Wake County public records.
taxinfo.peaknewsnetwork.org ↗Bottom line
Two halves of every bill
Apex's rate today is below where it stood ten years ago. Bills move with values as well as rates, and when homes outpace the rest of the tax base, homeowners pay a larger share. Of the rate increases since 2016, the largest piece is bonds voters approved; public safety leads the rest. In the last three budgets, Council changed the manager's number, and in the last two it came down on Mayor Pro Tem Mahaffey's motions.
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