What surprises people who move to Union County NC? How much depends on a town line: 83,740 of the county’s 271,383 residents, about 31 percent, live outside any town, according to Steve Jarrell, Team Lead of The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty, citing NC Office of State Budget and Management estimates for July 2025, and that line decides who picks up your trash, what lands on your tax bill and how your street is patrolled.
There’s a good chance you’re picturing living in Union County NC the way you’d picture a suburb back home: pick a town, and the town handles the trash, the police and the water. It’s true that Union County has towns, 14 of them with residents, from Indian Trail, the largest, to Hemby Bridge, the smallest. But nearly a third of the people who live here aren’t in any of them, and even inside a town, services are split between the town and the county in ways a listing won’t show you.
This guide walks through six facts about the town line and the services that follow it, with the place to check each one for a specific house. I’m Steve Jarrell, I live in Weddington, and I sell homes across South Charlotte and Union County every week.
15 min read | By Steve Jarrell, The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty | Updated November 2026
Free · 26-Page Insider Guide
Comparing Union County towns? See them side by side.
Towns compared, NC vs SC taxes and schools side by side, and the 5 mistakes out-of-state buyers make.
What This Guide Covers
- What surprises newcomers about living in Union County NC?
- 1. Nearly a third of the county lives outside any town
- 2. Your ZIP code doesn’t tell you your town
- 3. The county doesn’t pick up your trash
- 4. Sprinklers run three days a week, and about a quarter of residents rely on groundwater
- 5. Your tax bill has layers, and the county set your value in 2025
- 6. Six towns hire their patrol deputies from the Sheriff
- What do incomes and home values look like in Union County NC?
- Frequently asked questions
What surprises newcomers about living in Union County NC?
You’ll be surprised by how much of daily life in Union County turns on one question: is your address inside a town, and which one? Union County, the county just southeast of Charlotte that holds Indian Trail, Monroe, Waxhaw, Weddington, Stallings and Marvin, had 271,383 residents in July 2025, according to the NC Office of State Budget and Management’s population estimates. Of those, 83,740 live in what the state labels unincorporated Union County, which means no town at all. That’s more people than Indian Trail and Waxhaw, the county’s largest and third-largest municipalities, hold combined.
The Short Answer
In Union County NC, the town line, not the ZIP code, decides your trash service, your town tax rate and how your street is patrolled, and about 31 percent of residents live outside any town (NC OSBM, July 2025).
Key numbers, Union County NC, checked November 5, 2026 (sources: NC OSBM, U.S. Census Bureau, Union County):
- 83,740 of 271,383 residents in no town (July 2025)
- The Town of Waxhaw covers 11.4 percent of ZIP 28173’s land
- Union County provides no curbside trash or recycling pickup
- Union County Water limits sprinkler systems to three days a week even at Stage 0, and Stage 1 began November 5, 2026
- County rate 43.42 cents per $100 for 2026-27, and 17 fire district rates from 2.57 to 10.00 cents
None of this makes Union County a hard place to live. It means the questions you’d settle by picking a town get settled address by address. The six facts below come in the order you’ll meet them as a buyer: the town line, the ZIP code, the trash, the water, the tax bill and the patrol.
If you’re comparing houses in Union County, I’d start every one with the same question: is this address inside a town, and which one? About 31 percent of the county’s residents live outside any town, and that line decides whether a town contractor picks up your trash, whether a town rate sits on your tax bill and whether the deputy on your street is there under a town contract. The city on the listing can’t settle it, because a mailing address follows the ZIP code, not the town line.
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1. Nearly a third of the county lives outside any town
About 31 percent of Union County residents live outside any town: 83,740 of 271,383 in the NC Office of State Budget and Management’s population estimates for July 2025. The state lists 14 municipalities with residents in the county, and the largest, Indian Trail, had 45,506. Monroe had 41,127 and Waxhaw had 24,579.
Why does that matter if you’re moving here? Because in North Carolina a lot of what you think of as local government is a town service. Outside a town, there’s no town council, no town rate on your tax bill and no town trash contract. You still get the county’s services, from the landfill and convenience centers to the Sheriff’s Office, and you pay the county rate like everyone else. The surprise is finding out after closing which setup you bought into.
Here’s how three addresses in the same county can differ. Indian Trail and Wesley Chapel are both Union County towns, and the third column is the unincorporated county around them.
| Measure | Inside Indian Trail | Inside Wesley Chapel | Outside any town |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residents, July 2025 | 45,506 | 9,521 | 83,740 |
| Union County rate per $100 | 43.42 cents | 43.42 cents | 43.42 cents |
| Town rate per $100 | 17 cents | 2.25 cents | None |
| Curbside trash | Town contract | Not provided by the village | Not provided by the county |
| Patrol | 23 Sheriff’s deputies under a town contract | Sheriff’s contract deputies | Sheriff’s Office patrol |
Fire district rates follow the parcel rather than the town, so they’re covered in fact 5. To find out which column a house falls in, Union County’s waste and recycling page points you to its Find My Municipality search on the county’s Municipalities page, which takes an address and tells you whether it’s inside a town, and if so, which one.
2. Your ZIP code doesn’t tell you your town
Your ZIP code and your town line are drawn by different agencies for different jobs, and in Union County they disagree a lot. The whole Town of Waxhaw sits inside ZIP 28173, but the town covers only 11.4 percent of that ZIP’s land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP code to place relationship file. About 68.4 percent of 28173 isn’t in any town, and the rest is shared among Marvin, Mineral Springs, Weddington, Wesley Chapel and the JAARS census-designated place.
ZIP 28104 is the bigger surprise. It’s one of the ZIP codes that reach into the Town of Matthews, which isn’t on the state’s list of Union County municipalities, yet only 1.4 percent of 28104’s land is inside Matthews. About 43.2 percent is inside Weddington, 25.6 percent inside Stallings, 9.6 percent inside Indian Trail and 7.3 percent inside Wesley Chapel, with most of the rest in no town at all. So two houses that share 28104 can sit in different towns, with different town rates and different trash arrangements.
The same goes for schools. Union County Public Schools assigns home schools by where a student lives, not by the town or ZIP code on a listing. Its student assignment page sends you to a lookup where you enter your address to find out your zoned home school, and that’s the step to take for any house you’re serious about, whatever the listing says. If you want the Matthews side of this story, our guide to Matthews NC ZIP codes and the town line covers 28104 and 28105 from the Mecklenburg end, and the Waxhaw community page covers the town inside 28173.
Here’s what that looks like on the ground, in a neighborhood tour from my channel.
3. The county doesn’t pick up your trash
Union County government doesn’t pick up anyone’s trash. Its curbside page says it directly: “Union County does not provide curbside garbage or recycling collection services.” Town curbside pickup, where it exists, is paid for with that town’s tax revenue or fees, not county tax dollars.
Most towns do provide it. The county lists Indian Trail, Lake Park, Marshville, Marvin, Monroe, Stallings, Waxhaw, Weddington and Wingate as providing curbside service through a contractor under a municipal contract. Five towns don’t: Fairview, Hemby Bridge, Mineral Springs, Unionville and Wesley Chapel, where the county’s advice is to check with private service providers. Add those five towns’ 25,575 residents to the 83,740 outside any town, and about 109,315 people, roughly 40 percent of the county, live where neither a town nor the county provides curbside pickup.
The county’s answer is drop-off. It runs five residential waste and recycling convenience centers, and they’re open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Residents can drop limited amounts of bagged household garbage for free under the county’s Trash Pass program, recycling is free at every county site, and the Union County Landfill on Austin Chaney Road in Wingate is open six days a week for the days the centers are closed. Buying outside a town, or in one of those five? Price a private hauler into the budget like a utility.
4. Sprinklers run three days a week, and about a quarter of residents rely on groundwater
If your house is on Union County Water, its sprinkler system is limited to three days a week, even in a normal year. The utility’s water restrictions page sets that limit at Stage 0, its year-round conservation level: even-numbered addresses water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, odd-numbered addresses on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and nobody runs a sprinkler system on Mondays.
Union County moved to Stage 1 effective November 5, 2026. The three-day schedule holds, the county now asks residents to limit sprinkler use to two days a week voluntarily, and a second violation brings a $100 penalty. Stage 2, if it comes, allows sprinklers just two days a week, before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m., and the page notes that many water rates go up at that stage. Because the schedule runs by house number, your next-door neighbor may water on different days than you do.
Many Union County homes aren’t on county water. Union County Environmental Health’s wells page says about 25 percent of the county’s population relies on groundwater for drinking water. A new well needs a county permit with a $500 fee, and the county recommends a coliform bacteria test every year. Septic is the same story: the county permits and inspects septic systems, and it requires an inspection of an existing system before you add a garage, a deck or a pool on that lot. Our post on well and septic in Weddington covers what changes day to day when you leave city water.
Before you write an offer on a Union County house, I’d check four things for that exact parcel. First, the town line, through the county’s Find My Municipality search, and the fire district the parcel sits in. Second, whether the house is on Union County Water or a private well. Third, if it’s on septic, the permit records, which you can request from Union County Environmental Health. Fourth, the zoned schools, run through the UCPS address lookup yourself rather than taken from the listing.
Talk to a local broker
Weighing a Union County house against one in Mecklenburg?
A 15-minute call is enough to compare the tax lines, water and trash service for the addresses on your list.
Book a 15-minute call →5. Your tax bill has layers, and the county set your value in 2025
A Union County property tax bill can stack several rates, and the town’s is only one of them. Union County’s rate for 2026-27 is 43.42 cents per $100 of assessed value, and its 2026-2027 rate sheet splits it into five funds: 26.78 cents for education operating, 3.89 cents for education debt, 11.24 cents for the general fund, 1.06 cents for county debt and 0.45 cents for economic development. Education takes 30.67 cents of the 43.42, about 71 percent.
On top of that, a parcel in one of the county’s 17 fire tax districts pays that district’s rate, from 2.57 cents in the Sandy Ridge district to 10.00 cents in Wingate’s. Then comes the town rate if you’re inside a town, from nothing in Hemby Bridge to 53 cents in Marshville, with Waxhaw at 29 cents and Monroe at 44. Marvin adds a $250 solid waste fee to its 5.63 cents.
Here’s what that does to a bill. On $403,000, Union County’s median home value as of its January 2025 reappraisal, the county rate alone comes to about $1,750 a year. A fire district rate adds anywhere from about $104 to $403, depending on the district. Inside Waxhaw, the town’s 29 cents adds about $1,169 more. Our guide to Union County NC property tax rates works through the rates for Weddington, Waxhaw, Marvin, Indian Trail and Monroe.
There’s also how the value is set. Union County completed a general reappraisal in 2025, and its reappraisal page puts the county’s median home value at $403,000, up from $293,377 at the 2021 reappraisal, and the total value of the county’s residential property up 63.45 percent. For 2026, the county sends a new value notice only when something about the property changes, such as new construction, an addition, a demolition, a renovation, a rezoning or a change in acreage. A sale isn’t on the county’s list of examples. State law requires a reappraisal at least once every eight years.
6. Six towns hire their patrol deputies from the Sheriff
In Union County, six towns have contracts with the Sheriff’s Office for patrol deputies, and Indian Trail, the county’s largest town, is one of them. The Union County Sheriff’s Office lists current town contracts in Weddington, Lake Park, Wesley Chapel, Marvin and Wingate, along with what it calls a particularly strong and well-established presence in Indian Trail.
Indian Trail’s contract is spelled out in detail. The Sheriff’s Office says its Indian Trail division has a captain, two lieutenants, four sergeants and 23 deputies contracted by the town, working staggered shifts for 24-hour patrol coverage, with detectives, a crime scene investigator and a crash investigator assigned on top of that. The Sheriff’s patrol bureau runs four rotating squads on 12-hour shifts for continuous 24-hour coverage.
For a buyer, what this changes is how your street is covered: in a contract town, deputies are assigned to that town under its contract, and outside any town, coverage comes from the Sheriff’s patrol bureau and its four rotating squads. If public safety figures matter to your search, the Sheriff’s Office publishes crime mapping and a daily bulletin on its site, which is the place to look for any specific area.
What do incomes and home values look like in Union County NC?
What is the median household income in Union County NC? It was $102,900 in the 2020-2024 American Community Survey, against $87,005 in Mecklenburg County and $72,388 statewide, according to Steve Jarrell, Team Lead of The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty, citing the Census Bureau’s survey as published by Census Reporter. The same survey put the county’s median home value at $417,300, against $406,800 in Mecklenburg and $288,900 for North Carolina.
Keep the two home value figures straight. The survey’s $417,300 isn’t a sale price and it isn’t the county’s assessed value; the county’s own 2025 reappraisal put its median home value at $403,000.
The ZIP code trap from fact 2 applies here too. Income and home value figures published by ZIP code cover land well outside the town on the mailing address, since Waxhaw covers 11.4 percent of 28173 and Matthews just 1.4 percent of 28104. For a figure about a town, use the town’s own Census profile, not its ZIP code. The South Charlotte communities hub is the place to compare the towns themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions About Living in Union County NC
What surprises people who move to Union County NC?
How much depends on a town line: 83,740 of the county’s 271,383 residents, about 31 percent, live outside any town, according to Steve Jarrell, Team Lead of The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty, citing NC Office of State Budget and Management estimates for July 2025, and that line decides who picks up your trash, what lands on your tax bill and how your street is patrolled. Union County also provides no curbside trash pickup, and Union County Water limits sprinkler systems to three days a week even at its year-round Stage 0.
What towns are in Union County NC?
The NC Office of State Budget and Management lists 14 municipalities with residents in Union County as of July 2025: Indian Trail (45,506), Monroe (41,127), Waxhaw (24,579), Stallings (17,836, Union County part), Weddington (14,906, Union County part), Wesley Chapel (9,521), Marvin (7,161), Unionville (7,055), Wingate (4,790), Fairview (3,731, Union County part), Lake Park (3,489), Mineral Springs (3,482), Marshville (2,674) and Hemby Bridge (1,786). Another 83,740 residents live outside any town, and if you’re checking a specific address, the county’s Find My Municipality search tells you which side of the line it’s on.
Does Union County NC pick up trash?
No. Union County does not provide curbside garbage or recycling collection, according to its waste and recycling department, checked November 5, 2026. Nine towns provide curbside pickup through a contractor, while Fairview, Hemby Bridge, Mineral Springs, Unionville and Wesley Chapel do not, and residents anywhere in the county can use its five convenience centers, open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
What are the Union County NC water restrictions right now?
Union County Water moved to Stage 1 restrictions effective November 5, 2026. Sprinkler systems can run three days a week: even-numbered addresses on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, odd-numbered addresses on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and no residential sprinkler use on Mondays. The utility also asks residents to keep sprinkler use to two days a week voluntarily.
What is the median household income in Union County NC?
Union County’s median household income was $102,900 in the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey, compared with $87,005 in Mecklenburg County and $72,388 across North Carolina. The same survey put Union County’s median home value at $417,300 against $406,800 in Mecklenburg, so if you’re comparing the two counties, the gap in home values is much smaller than the gap in incomes.
Is a Waxhaw or Matthews ZIP code address in that town?
Not necessarily. The Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP code to place file shows the Town of Waxhaw covers 11.4 percent of ZIP 28173’s land, with 68.4 percent of that ZIP in no town at all, and only 1.4 percent of 28104 lies inside the Town of Matthews, while 43.2 percent is inside Weddington and 25.6 percent inside Stallings. Before you make an offer, check the town line for the address you’re buying.
About the Author
I’m a licensed North Carolina and South Carolina broker and the Team Lead of The Longleaf Group at eXp Realty, which I co-lead with my wife Amanda. Before real estate, I joined VisualTour as President, led its rebrand to Paradym, and led the company to its acquisition by Constellation Software in 2020. I hold an MBA from the University of Tennessee with concentrations in Marketing and Innovation. The Longleaf Group is an eXp ICON Team and a RealTrends Verified Top Team by Volume for 2026, with 175+ five-star reviews.
I live in Weddington, one of the Union County towns in this guide, and I sell homes across South Charlotte and Union County. If you want the town, tax and service lines checked for a specific Union County address, call me at 704-774-7170.