NC metros
Cost of living across major NC metropolitan areas.
What living in NC costs
Across the 9 NC metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 95.4 against a national metro median of 95.7 — line with the country as a whole. That ranks NC 24 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Hickory, NC is the cheapest metro at 89.4, while Raleigh, NC runs 98.4 — a spread of 10% between them.
A typical NC home costs $390,321, or about 6× median household income, and typical rent is $1,694/mo.
Taxes in NC
NC levies a state income tax on top of the federal one. Effective property tax runs about 0.7% of home value in a typical NC metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 7%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte, NC | 97.3 | $390,321 | $1,740 |
| Raleigh, NC | 98.4 | $438,364 | $1,694 |
| Greensboro, NC | 92.9 | $266,370 | $1,424 |
| Winston-Salem, NC | 91.6 | $283,871 | $1,546 |
| Durham, NC | 97.3 | $414,340 | $1,703 |
| Fayetteville, NC | 91.9 | $259,183 | $1,481 |
| Asheville, NC | 97.4 | $428,742 | $1,708 |
| Hickory, NC | 89.4 | $271,739 | $1,496 |
| Wilmington, NC | 95.4 | $446,210 | $1,708 |
Cities & towns in NC (64)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.