I am looking at homes in North County, RSF, and CV. Can someone advise which are subject to Mello Roos. How much additional does it add to the taxes? Which areas are exempt (I was told the Bridges paid in advance so none apply there.) Are homes built before a certain year grandfathered in? Thanks; any help would be appreciated.
A pretty decent rule of thumb is that homes that are in subdivisions created in the last 15 years are subject to Mello Roos, or shall I say are in Mello Roos districts. It is not always the case but most of the time that will be correct. Mello Roos can add as much as .8% of the purchase price to your property taxes. Your base property tax rate (including other municipal bond fees and such) is about 1.1-1.15% depending on where you live in the county.
If you are looking at new homes simply ask the person in the sales office if the homes are subject to Mello Roos. If you are looking at homes of the quality of the Bridges it may be hard for you to find a subdivision that is not subject to Mello Roos. Buy an older home in RSF or Fairbanks or Solana Beach and those homes will not be subject to MR. Essentially the answer to the grandfather question I guess is yes. Either a home has MR or it does not. If a home was built before MR then it will never have MR. Awhile ago I posted a long post on MR fees in San Diego and had some links to it. You can google san diego mello roos and find really good resources. As you said you do have the option of paying all your MR fees up front when you purchase but that is a hefty buy in and I would advise not to do that and pay as you go. Well actually I have a big issue with MR so I would buy the older home and not pay but new homes are very attractive to people.
Hope this helped...oh yeah and again, any home generally over 15 years will not have MR fees with regards to your question about exempt.
Maybe we should ask the builders
to suck up this unholy tax.
What a rip off.
Richmond homes in Luminara drpped their prices $573K. The mello roos is $509 monthly .plus HOA,plus tax base= about 12,ooo total
SD Realtor, I will look into some older homes in the Covenant because that would be my first choice anyway. I have heard horror stories about permits and remodeling these older places. Is that the case in RSF? What about new construction there (buying a lot;) is it difficult and expensive for all the fees? It seems that Crosby, Santaluz, and Meadows del Mar are all subject to high MR. I'm looking for a community to hopefully retire and play some golf. Thanks..
pf -
It all depends on the ccrs and any other deed restrictions that homes in the covenant may be subject to. During the disclosure period you are delivered all of that documentation to review. There indeed may be restrictions about conformance of design, certainly also with respect to landscaping, that may be subject to a review by the HOA of that particular subdivision. The permit process which in and of itself is not much fun is independent of ccrs/deed restrictions placed on individual homes.
As far as looking to retire and play some golf, I envy you bigtime! There is alot to choose from and if you are in no rush you will do well to be selective.
SD Realtor
Farbet you can ask the builders to pay this tax... you may want to read up on the origination of MR to find out the names of the state politicians who originated the ideas. I will give you a hint, they are either democrats or republicans. Go to google, look it up to find out.
SD Realtor
Thanks SD Realtor..I have built and remodeled several homes and businesses so not afraid to get dirty. I also am in no hurry. My question is whether or not this falling market makes more sense to buy a home which someone has already spent too much and can't recover their investment. I want to avoid MR. I look at sdlookup.com and see that many homes on the market for 2.4M (or thereabouts) were sold a few years ago for 1.4- 1.7M. I know that construction costs (concrete!!) have risen but know that I can general a home by myself, saving quite a few $$. Do you think it is worth spending big bucks on a covenant lot and doing it myself while renting or waiting for the hammer to fall on some homeowner who got in too deep?