Mello-Roos across the Central Valley: city by city
Mountain House is the example everyone knows, but it is not the only place here with special taxes. Parts of Manteca, Lathrop, River Islands and Tracy carry them too — on completely different formulas, published to completely different standards.
This page sets out what each city actually publishes, what it does not, and how to get the real figure for a specific address. Where a number is not verified from a primary source, it says so rather than guessing.
One thing to understand before the detail: there is no master list. San Joaquin County does not publish a single consolidated schedule of every CFD and what it charges. Each district is administered separately — some by the school district, some by the city, several by outside consulting firms — and each publishes, or does not publish, on its own terms.
So anyone showing you one tidy table of “Mello-Roos by city” has built it by estimating. The honest version is messier, and it is below.
Which communities carry special taxes
As a rule of thumb: the newer the development, the more likely it is. Special taxes were the mechanism used to fund infrastructure for the growth of the last twenty-five years, so established older neighbourhoods generally do not carry them and master-planned newer ones generally do.
Mountain House
Yes — and two of them. A Lammersville school district CFD and a separate services special tax from the city. Both fully published — the most transparent of any market here, and the most expensive to overlook.
River Islands (Lathrop)
Yes — and more than one district. A city services CFD with published lot-size tiers, plus separate bond-funded facilities districts that are considerably larger and not published in the same way.
Lathrop (outside River Islands)
Parts of it. Several districts exist across the city’s newer areas. The rate and method figures for these are not published in a form I have been able to verify, so I do not quote them.
Manteca
Parts of it — school CFDs. Manteca Unified levies CFDs on newer developments, charged per square foot of building. Published, and structured quite differently from Mountain House.
Tracy
Parts of it, including Tracy Hills. The city has CFDs, assessment districts and landscape maintenance districts — but publishes no rate table at all. See below for what to do instead.
Stockton, Ripon, Lodi
Much less common. Largely established housing stock predating the era of CFD financing. Specific newer subdivisions can still carry assessments, so it is still worth checking the actual bill rather than assuming.
School CFDs, charged by the square foot
Manteca Unified School District levies Community Facilities Districts across a number of the city’s newer developments. The structure is different from Mountain House in a way that matters: there is no lot component at all. It is charged purely on building square footage.
Two features of the Manteca formula are worth understanding, because they cut in opposite directions:
Your maximum rate is locked at the year you were built
The maximum annual special tax is fixed at the rate in force in the first fiscal year the parcel became developed property — and it does not rise afterwards. A home first assessed in 2022 sits at a lower locked rate than an otherwise identical home first assessed this year. This is genuinely good news for a buyer of an older home in the district, and it means you cannot read one home’s bill across to another.
The published figure is an average across tax classes
The rate the district publishes is an assigned average, so an individual parcel can fall either side of it. It is the right number for orientation and the wrong number for a purchase decision — for that you want the actual prior-year bill.
The published figures, CFD No. 2020-6. The assigned average for fiscal year 2025/26 is $0.4367 per square foot of building area. The base rate set in the Rate and Method of Apportionment was $0.3900 for 2021/22. The escalator is the greater of 2% or the Marshall & Swift Western Region Class D Wood Frame index. The term runs 35 years, with a final fiscal year of 2070/71. Senior and commercial/industrial parcels are exempt entirely.
Districts covered include Crivello Estates, Shadowbrook, Thomas Street, Warren Avenue, Eagles Landing, North Airport Way and Indelicato. Whether a specific address falls inside one is a question for the district and the parcel bill, not for a map on a website.
Source: Manteca Unified School District, CFD No. 2020-6 Annual Special Tax Report FY2025/26 and its Rate and Method of Apportionment at Exhibit A. Checked 14 August 2026.
The number that gets quoted is not the number that hurts
River Islands has a reputation for high special taxes, and the reputation is earned. But the district most easily found online is the small one.
There are two different kinds of district at work. Services districts fund the ongoing cost of running a community — the general-fund shortfall a new development creates for the city. Facilities districts repay the bonds that built the infrastructure. The facilities side is much larger, and it is the reason for the reputation.
What is published, and what is not. The City of Lathrop publishes an annual report for CFD 2013-1, the River Islands Public Services and Facilities district, showing a maximum special tax per single-family lot tiered by lot size. Those figures are below.
They run to a few hundred dollars a year. Taken alone they would badly understate what a River Islands home actually pays, because the bond-funded facilities assessments are separate districts and are considerably larger. I have not been able to verify their rate and method figures from a primary source, so I do not publish a number for them. Anyone who does is estimating.
| Lot size | Maximum special tax, CFD 2013-1 |
|---|---|
| Over 7,000 sq ft | $396.03 |
| 5,801 – 7,000 sq ft | $319.75 |
| 4,801 – 5,800 sq ft | $293.35 |
| 4,000 – 4,800 sq ft | $249.34 |
| Under 4,000 sq ft | $231.74 |
Multi-family and non-residential parcels are shown at $0.00. Source: City of Lathrop, CFD 2013-1 Annual Report, fiscal year 2019/20, prepared by NBS. Checked 14 August 2026 — this is the most recent report the City publishes, and it is now several years old. Treat it as indicative of scale, not as this year’s bill.
What this means if you are buying here: the prior year’s actual tax bill for the specific parcel is not a nice-to-have, it is the only reliable source. Ask for it early, and read the Notice of Special Tax in the disclosure pack for the list of districts the home sits in — there is usually more than one.
Districts exist. Verified figures do not.
The City of Lathrop administers a number of community facilities districts across its newer areas beyond River Islands.
I have not been able to obtain rate and method figures for these from a primary source I would be willing to publish. So this page does not carry a number for them, and neither does the calculator on this site — the tool reports the gap and asks for the figure from your own disclosure pack rather than inventing one.
That is deliberate. A confident wrong number on a monthly cost estimate is worse than an admitted gap, because you would plan around it.
What to do instead: ask the City of Lathrop Finance Department which districts a specific parcel falls within, then request the prior year’s tax bill from the seller or pull it from the county. Both are quick. I do this as a matter of course for any address a client is considering.
The city publishes no rate table at all
This surprises people, so it is worth stating plainly: Tracy has assessment districts, community facilities districts and landscape maintenance districts, and it does not publish their rates.
The City contracts the administration of these districts out to specialist consulting firms, and directs rate enquiries to them — asking people specifically not to call the City or the County Assessor for these figures.
Which means there is no formula for me to model for Tracy, and the calculator on this site does not pretend otherwise. It also means the figure has to be chased down per parcel rather than looked up — so send me the address and I will chase it. That is a phone call and a parcel number, and it is quicker for me to make than for you to work out who to ask.
For Tracy Hills in particular — the newest large master-planned community in the city — assume there is a CFD and find out the amount before you write an offer, not after.
Source: City of Tracy, Finance — Assessment Districts, CFDs and LMDs. Checked 14 August 2026.
Four ways to get the real number
In order of reliability. The first is the best evidence there is.
The prior year’s tax bill
San Joaquin County itemises every special tax as a separate line. Last year’s bill for the actual parcel beats every published table, every estimate and every calculator — including mine. Ask the seller, or pull it from the county.
The Notice of Special Tax
California requires this in the disclosure pack. It names the district and states the current amount. If a home carries more than one district — common in River Islands and standard in Mountain House — this is where you find that out.
The district itself
Lammersville and Manteca Unified publish their schedules. Lathrop and Tracy route through their administrators. All of them will confirm a specific parcel if you ask with an APN.
Send me the address
I do this for every client as a matter of course — the district, the current figure, whether it escalates, and when it ends. No charge, no obligation, and you do not need to have chosen an agent to ask.
Compare on monthly cost, not on list price
Two homes at the same asking price, a few miles apart, can differ by thousands of dollars a year once special taxes are counted. Shopping on list price alone means comparing the wrong number — and the cheaper-looking house is sometimes the more expensive one.
The other three things people are surprised by: a special tax does not fall when the market falls; in several districts here it rises automatically every year; and it sits on top of a supplemental tax bill that arrives months after closing and is usually not covered by your impound account.
It sets a ceiling on your buyer pool
A buyer qualifies on total monthly payment, and a special tax is part of it. Two similar houses on the same street can carry different annual bills, and the one with the higher assessment has a smaller pool of buyers who qualify at any given price.
It also changes how the home should be presented. A buyer who discovers a second special tax late in escrow renegotiates or walks; a buyer told the real figure up front does neither. I put it in the marketing from day one, which is a strange thing to volunteer and it saves deals.
Send me the address and I’ll pull the real figures
The district, the current amount, whether it escalates, when it ends, and what the total monthly cost actually looks like. From the county and the districts themselves, not an estimate. No charge and no obligation.
Where these figures come from
Every number on this page is from a primary source, with the date it was last checked. Where no primary source exists, the page says so rather than estimating. If you find something out of date, tell me and I will correct it.
- Manteca Unified School District — CFD No. 2020-6 Annual Special Tax Report FY2025/26 and Rate and Method of Apportionment, Exhibit A.
- City of Lathrop — CFD 2013-1 (River Islands Public Services and Facilities) Annual Report FY2019/20, prepared by NBS.
- City of Tracy — Finance, Assessment Districts, CFDs and LMDs page, which directs rate enquiries to the district administrators named above.
- Lammersville Unified School District and Mountain House — see the Mountain House guide for the full FY2026/27 tables and their sources.
- San Joaquin County Auditor-Controller — Multi-Year Tax Rates, tax year 2025, published 10 September 2025, for the underlying ad-valorem rates.
Rates change, CFD amounts rise annually in several of these districts, and the county publishes a new rate book each September. This page was last checked in August 2026. Nothing here is tax advice — verify against the disclosure pack and the county bill for any specific property, and speak to a qualified tax professional about your own position.