bearishgirl, I’ll address some of the other issues and find examples later because I need a little time to research closed listings on redfin, but for now, let me explain the taxes.
We don’t have traditional mello roos here but most houses are in an assessment district. I actually live in the unincorporated area south of temecula city, between temecula proper and the sd county line, I have more traditional mello roos, specifically a water bond to pay for the installation of the water/sewage system. I paid less in purchase price because of it, so it was baked into the cake in my opinion.
Most Temecula houses have a fixed dollar amount to pay for certain things, they are itemized on the tax bill. Each tract can vary, but these things include trash service, about $600 a year for schools to have additional money that we voted for years ago, a few hundred a year for street lights, landscaping and street sweeping, etc, etc. This bill can vary between 1k a year and 2k a year for the average house. Certain areas, like redhawk, have big waterfalls and lots of landscaping, they pay a bit more than a neighborhood with less landscaping. On the reverse, the hoa is extremely low, just $30 a month, because the hoa doesnt do the landscaping. My current hood has that stupid water bond and is in the county, so my yearly tab is 3k fixed plus 1% and I don’t get my trash included.
Everyone pays 1%, plus their fixed assesment district tab, which some parts will never go away, they aren’t bonds, they are ongoing expenses.
My old house in redhawk has about $1800 a year in fixed fees, I bought it for 180k in the late 1990’s, so my rate was initially 2% (1800 based on value plus 1800 fixed). My neigbors paid 600k in 2006, so their rate was closer to 1.3% since they paid 6k based on value and 1800 fixed. They were paying 7800 in taxes, while I paid 3600, for the same house, our percentages were wildly different. My current pad has 3k a year fixed, the worst in all the land, and 2700 in value at 1% so I’m at near 6k a year, about 2%, but when the former owner purchased it new, they paid 650k, so that 3k represented .5%, so they paid 1.5%, while I pay 2%, yet my bill is less.
So don’t think of it as a tax rate, everyone pays 1% plus a fixed annual fee, which can vary by neighborhood, but for the most part is about $1500 a year.
