Embedded Files
April 23, 2026
De-Annexation in Action
On April 16, 2025, we held what many claim was the largest community meeting in Summerhouse’s twenty-year history, with over 200 residents in attendance. The response was clear: there is strong and growing support for de-annexation. Except for some minor hiccups that were blown out of proportion by certain individuals, we think that overall it went well and was informative for all. Regarding the negative aspects that came to light, we apologize to all, as we are only intent on what we believe is best for our community. In the future, we will have better rules, procedures, and enforcement. This is an evolving process, and we will continue to improve it. We are scheduling additional meetings, along with virtual sessions and coordination with county service providers, to ensure residents fully understand the impacts. Keep a lookout for more info and our website. We are working hard as volunteers and will get it out as soon as we can.
Truth I
This isn’t about politics or personalities—it’s about whether the taxes property owners pay are aligned with the services they actually receive. People have a right to an opinion, no matter where they fall politically or what views they had in the past. And ultimately, this will be decided by the property owners through a vote, so everyone has a say in the outcome. The common point is to make sure whatever we decide, it is done with the best for SH in mind.
Truth II
The majority of our services—utilities, fire, EMS, roads, and amenities—are already provided by the HOA, the county, or independent providers and would remain unchanged. The only shift is law enforcement to the Sheriff’s Office, which already serves the area and is funded through county taxes. This isn’t about losing services—it’s about removing duplication while maintaining the same core coverage.
Tax & Truth
Our intent from the beginning was to keep this as neighborly as possible. After the meeting, one of the Holly Ridge Town Council attendees decided to post about the experience on Facebook and Instagram, outside of our community. Lots of drama associated with it, and, ironically, it wasn’t posted on our page for all SH residents to see. This individual publicly posted and called out our members by name, accusing them of spreading lies and propaganda, so we felt it was necessary to respond. With it, he included his notes that he prepared to counter the information we provided during the meeting. In response, over the next couple of editions of our newsletter, we will dissect his points to provide you with verifiable facts and our counterpoints. We cannot provide a link, or we would be violating our SH resident Facebook site’s established rules which we will happily respect. Google will find the comments for you.
Let’s start at the beginning: In his notes, this person states that Summerhouse is roughly 32% of the $2,776,570.85 (guessing he means property tax revenues, even if it differs from what is published in HR’s adopted budget), which, according to his notes, is $888,502. We are not math experts, but we can use a calculator. That means if we have ~600 homes and ~300 lots in SH, based on those figures he has so proudly published, the average home price would be ~$410,500 and the average lot price would be ~$50,000. How did we get that? Letting everyone know: we used verifiable averages and common rounding, but you can easily use your own calculator to make sure there is nothing out of the ordinary.
~$410,500 X ~600 = ~$246,300,000
~$50,000 X ~300= ~$15,000,000
~$246,300,000 + ~$15,000,000 = ~$261,300,000 (not including vehicles, which if we add in, makes
values go even lower)
~$261,300,000 X .34% (HR Tax Rate) = ~$888,420
So we learned some things from this:
We DON’T want to sell our homes at his average value, or even close.
We DO want that average value as our new tax assessment.
If anyone is willing to sell their home at that average value, please email DFG right away!
Even though he has claimed almost all of our figures were wrong, ours are backed by Onslow County data and basic math. Not perfect, we admit, but pretty darn close! But it seems to us that he must have different math or different calculators.
Our Figures:
SH Home 2026 Average Assessed Value ~$700,000
SH Lot 2026 Average Assessed Value ~$100,000
SH Resident Average Vehicle Value ~$50,000
SH Total Taxable Property Value ~$480,000,000
($700,000X600)+($100,000X300)+($50,000X600)
SH Projected 2026 Property Taxes ~$1,632,000 or 59%
Oh wait....sorry, we did round to 60% on our slide. But he was 27% off. Whose figures do YOU think are more accurate? Tune in next time for more examples of replacing misrepresentations with facts and math.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse