North Carolina by the numbers
In North Carolina, the median worker earns $46,950 a year, the typical home is worth $259,400 and carries $1,815 of property tax, and the average household pays $150 a month for electricity at 15.09¢ per kilowatt-hour.
South Southeast (non-RTO) Regulated monopoly
Energy
North Carolina's rate advantage rests on nuclear generation. Duke Energy's Carolinas fleet supplies a large share of the state's electricity at low marginal cost from plants whose construction costs were recovered long ago.
Working the other way is the state's carbon-reduction law, which sets interim and final emissions targets and requires Duke to file a carbon plan showing how it will meet them. The plan involves retiring coal, building solar and storage at scale, adding gas capacity, and evaluating new nuclear. That is a very large capital programme, and it recovers through rates over time.
North Carolina also grew quickly. Population growth adds distribution investment, but it also adds customers to spread fixed costs across, which is why fast-growing Southern states have generally held rates better than shrinking ones.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, North Carolina households used 1,036 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $150. At the state median wage that is about 6.6 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, a heat pump costs less to run than gas here, by about $2.85 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median North Carolina worker earned $46,950 in 2024, 5.2% below the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 6.93× | $36,520 |
| Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 6.73× | $35,910 |
| Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders | 6.07× | $33,980 |
| Upholsterers | 5.78× | $50,140 |
| Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers | 5.36× | $44,660 |
Property tax
The median North Carolina homeowner pays $1,815 a year on a home worth $259,400, an effective rate of 0.70% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 98 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in North Carolina run at 94.3 where the national average is 100, ranking it #31 of 51. Goods sit at 96.6, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 81.4, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $46,950 therefore buys what $49,788 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Raleigh-Cary (98.2) , Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk (97.9) , Durham-Chapel Hill (97.6) , Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia (97.3) , Asheville (96.5) .
Housing
House prices in North Carolina rose 0.4% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +116.6%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: Greensboro-High Point (+5.1%) , Raleigh-Cary (+2.3%) , Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk (+1.8%) , Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia (-0.1%) .
Who supplies the power
51 utilities report residential service in North Carolina, together serving 4.9 million customers. Regulated monopoly.
North Carolina: common questions
What does it cost to live in North Carolina?
Prices overall run at 94.3 against a national average of 100, with rents at 81.4. The typical home is worth $259,400 and carries $1,815 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 0.70% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $150 a month at 15.09¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $46,950.
What is the property tax rate in North Carolina?
The effective rate is 0.70% of home value, from a median bill of $1,815. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 98 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in North Carolina?
The median wage of $46,950 buys what $49,788 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line North Carolina falls on.
Is North Carolina expensive for electricity?
It ranks #35 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 15.09¢ per kilowatt-hour, -18.2% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 29 of 51, because households there use 1,036 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in North Carolina?
$46,950 across all occupations, about $22.57 an hour, covering 4,898,270 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in North Carolina?
51 utilities report residential service, the largest being Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC with 1.9 million customers. Regulated monopoly.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources