Communities › El Dorado County
Fifty thousand people on the good side of the hill, about half an hour from downtown Sacramento. Gated neighborhoods, a high school ranked in the top five percent of the state, and a special tax on most of it that almost nobody explains before you make an offer.
The facts, with dates on them
On the market with me
One of mine on the market right now, and three I have sold here. Take the price on any of these down to the calculator underneath and see what it would really cost you every month.
For sale
5 beds · 4.5 baths · 4,738 sq ft
$1,695,000
Sold
4 beds · 4 baths · 3,879 sq ft
$1,420,000
Sold
4 beds · 3.5 baths · 3,809 sq ft
$1,450,000
Sold
5 beds · 8 baths · 6,826 sq ft
$2,925,000
Current as of September 2026. There were 294 homes on the market in El Dorado Hills in July 2026 across every brokerage. These four are mine, sold and for sale. If none of them is your house, that is what the fifteen minutes is for.
Search El Dorado Hills
Live from MetroList across every brokerage, updated as it changes, and it does not ask for your email to look.
The number that surprises people
Most of El Dorado Hills built since the early nineties sits inside a Community Facilities District, which means a Mello-Roos special tax on top of your property tax, every year, until the bonds are paid off. It is not enormous. It is also not nothing, and because your lender counts it against what you can borrow, it quietly decides which houses you are allowed to look at.
Move it to the house you are actually looking at. The special tax does not scale with the price, so it bites hardest at the lower end.
Anything under twenty percent usually adds mortgage insurance, which is not counted below.
Thirty-year fixed. Move it to whatever you are actually being quoted.
Per month. Blackstone is about $138 and covers the gates and The Club. Most other associations here do not publish theirs, so ask before you write an offer.
Property tax is estimated at 1.1% of the purchase price, which is the one percent base plus the voter-approved additions typical of El Dorado County. Mello-Roos amounts are averages taken from El Dorado County's own continuing-disclosure filings for each district, dated between 2018 and 2022, and they vary parcel by parcel under each district's rate and method of apportionment. The only figure that counts is the one on the tax bill for the actual house, which you can get from the county or from NBS, the district administrator, on (800) 676-7516. Not included here: home insurance, mortgage insurance if you put less than twenty percent down, or utilities. This is a planning number, not a loan estimate.
Published, not glossed over
Every local agent website says the same thing about Mello-Roos, which is that it varies and you should check your parcel. Both of those are true and neither is useful. The actual numbers are in the county's continuing-disclosure filings, so here they are, with the caveat that a portfolio average is not a per-house figure.
About $525
2031
CFD 1992-1. The county levied $2,151,816 across 4,103 single-family parcels for 2025 to 2026, which averages $524. It is banded by lot size, so a large lot pays more. Gated, with a separate and optional country club membership that is not the same thing as the HOA.
About $1,905
2035 and 2044
CFD 2001-1. A levy of $1,937,771 across 1,017 developed parcels for 2025 to 2026. The highest of the three and the longest dated: the senior bonds run to 2035 and the junior bonds to 2044. Only partly gated.
About $1,420
2035
CFD 2005-1. A levy of $2,078,299 across 1,464 parcels for 2025 to 2026, every one of them built. The community has more than 1,400 homes and a clubhouse with three pools and a gym. Ask the seller for the current HOA figure rather than trusting a number off a website.
None
Not applicable
The older parts of El Dorado Hills generally carry no Mello-Roos at all. It is the single biggest reason two similar houses here can cost very different amounts to own.
Bass Lake, Carson Creek, Carson Creek Heritage and Laurel Oaks also have active districts that are not listed above, because the county filings for those did not give figures we were willing to publish. Separately, the El Dorado Hills Community Services District runs two maintenance districts that fund parks and facilities rather than infrastructure bonds. Those have no payoff date and continue as long as the service does, which is a different animal from the bonds above and worth asking about on any parcel. Source: El Dorado County Auditor-Controller.
Living here
Kindergarten through eight is split between two districts, Buckeye Union and Rescue Union, and which one you are in depends on the street. High school is El Dorado Union.
Oak Ridge High is the draw. SchoolDigger ranks it 104th of 2,162 California public high schools on 2024 to 2025 data, with a 97.6% graduation rate and results roughly thirty points above the state average across English, maths and science.
Highway 50 is the whole story. About thirty-three minutes to downtown Sacramento with clear roads, considerably more at eight in the morning, and the difference between those two numbers is the single thing most people underestimate about moving out here.
Going the other way, Tahoe is roughly ninety minutes, which is why the traffic reverses on a Friday afternoon.
About 51,000 people, a median age of 45.7 and 87.5% of homes owner-occupied, which is unusually high and tells you most of what you need to know about how often houses change hands here.
Folsom Lake is at the top of the hill, the Apple Hill orchards and the Fair Play wineries are twenty minutes east, and the town itself is a set of planned communities rather than a downtown.
Cheri on El Dorado Hills
When I first knew El Dorado Hills, it was an exit with a Raley’s, a gas station, a lot of open land, and a straight shot to the boat launch at Folsom Lake.
Over time, homes started showing up across the hills, many of them custom-built to take in the lake views and bigger lots. Then Serrano came along, with planned neighborhoods on one hillside and custom homes around the golf course on the other. Today you’ll find everything from established custom neighborhoods to newer communities and 55-plus options like Heritage and Four Seasons, and it’s still growing.
For years, Bay Area buyers have been moving here for more space, less traffic, and an easier pace of life, while staying within reach of Sacramento and the Bay. Schools are another big draw, and they’re often one of the first things buyers ask me about. El Dorado Hills is served by the Buckeye Union and Rescue Union school districts, with high school students in the El Dorado Union High School District. Which district you’re in depends on the neighborhood, so I always suggest checking the boundaries and visiting the schools yourself.
Town Center has become the heart of it all. People from all over El Dorado Hills come there for the summer concert series, walk around the ponds, and meet friends for dinner, and they almost always run into someone they know. The area has grown a lot, but it still has that small-town feel.
My husband and I built our home here 20 years ago, and it’s still where we live. I watched El Dorado Hills change long before that, and I’ve learned that every neighborhood has its own feel. Some have lake views. Some have bigger lots, golf course living, or newer homes. Others offer the single-story, lower-maintenance living many longtime homeowners are looking for.
That’s the part I love helping people sort out. A beautiful house is easy to find. The harder question is which neighborhood and home fit the life you want to live. If you’re considering El Dorado Hills, let’s talk about what matters most to you. I’ll help you find the part of this community that feels like home.
CheriCheri Kilby · CK Real Estate Services
Once a month, El Dorado Hills only
One page. What came on, what sold, what it went for against asking, and one thing worth knowing that month. Written by me, not generated, and only about here.
You already live here
Sale price, minus the payoff, minus commission, minus what it costs to get ready. A real number, and no email in front of it.
Work it out →You are thinking about moving here
Which streets, which district, what the special tax actually is on the houses you have been looking at, and whether the single story you want is likely to come up.
Book fifteen minutes →Lets connect
No contract, no obligation, and no pressure to be further along than you are. Plenty of people write to me a year before they are ready, and that is genuinely the right time to write.
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