Learning about Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee and Wildomar Property Taxes
As a Temecula real estate broker, I am always getting questions about property taxes in Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar, Menifee, French Valley and Winchester. These are all fairly new communities that flourished over the last decade. The same builders were involved in each community and so was the same property tax practice.
When looking at real estate in Temecula, Murrieta and for homes in Menifee and Wildomar, you need to be aware of the accurate property tax. By getting it wrong, you can get a nasty surprise in how much your loan payment goes up or after a year a major hike to your escrow account. It can also force you to cancel escrow after you have realized expenses. Often lenders do not accurately account for the special assessments involved.
This blog is to help with general Temecula property tax knowledge and how to specifically narrow down some communities for homes in Temecula. To actually see how this can dramatically effect payment and how to figure how the impact of property taxes, read my article on Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, and Wildomar property taxes.
Property taxes in both Temecula and Murrieta are usually around 1.08% and lower. However, when the builders were building homes they decided to pass along certain bonds they used to pay for. Things like street lighting, water district, road and school bonds were added to homes as a special assessments that stack on top of the base rate, often equaling a combined tax rate for 2% or higher.
This was very much the case when Murrieta and Temecula real estate really exploded from 2002-2007. Builders sold everything months in advance to people actually staying the night in campers to participate in lotteries for a limited amount of available homes. All those homes started with a combined rate of 1.9%. That rate has actually increased a bit because prices have fallen so far. However, There are neighborhoods where the builder started before the craze or elected to pay those bonds in advance and in such communities tax rates can to 1.25% or lower.
As a Temecula and Murrieta real estate agent, it can drive you nuts because clients either don't know the tax rates or want you to run it on every house they look at. I know a lot of them because I focus on it and have been in the business a long time. But I don't know them on the fly and we actually have to look them up individually! Here are a few tips I can offer for Temecula Central and South though:
- Paloma and Paseo del Sol usually run 1.5% and lower
- Crown Hill and Morgan Hill start at 1.9% and can be up to 2.25%
- Wine Country adjacent Chardonnay Hills is around 1.25% and under
There are plenty of tracts that really can very such as Redhawk and Vail Ranch, Vintage Hills. But when you start to search Temecula homes maybe this will help introduce you to property taxes so you can ask the right questions!
Stefan West, Broker
West Realty, Temecula, Murrieta, Wildomar and Menifee CA Real Estate
951-894-6199
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