Which El Dorado Hills neighborhoods have no Mello-Roos?

No neighborhood name answers this reliably, because a Mello-Roos district is drawn around parcels rather than around subdivisions, and two houses on the same street can sit on opposite sides of a district line. The answer that holds is the other direction. There are twelve districts that levy on El Dorado Hills parcels: county CFDs 1992-1 Serrano, 2001-1 The Promontory, 2005-1 Blackstone, 2005-2 Laurel Oaks, 2014-1 Carson Creek, 2018-1 Bass Lake Hills, and 2024-1 and 2024-2 at Heritage Village; Community Services District CFDs 2018-01 and 2019-01; and two school facilities districts, the El Dorado Schools Financing Authority CFD No. 1 and Buckeye Elementary CFD 2007-1 for Valley View. If an address sits in none of them, it has no Mello-Roos. Every one of those districts was formed in 1992 or later, so broadly what was built before the early nineties sits outside all of them, including much of the older part of town nearer the lake and the original village.

Does El Dorado Hills CFD 2019-01 apply to every house in town?

No. It is described as a district master district, which has frightened people, but it only levies on parcels where a building permit was issued after 1 January 2019. The Community Services District annual report for 2024 to 2025 shows 298 developed parcels paying $228.18 per single-family unit, $67,997.64 in total, originating at Saratoga Estates with one annexation of 122 planned units since. An older house is not caught by it. A newly built house can be, even on an old street, and because it funds maintenance rather than bonds it has no end date.

Is the library charge on my El Dorado Hills tax bill a Mello-Roos?

No. The library services charge for El Dorado Hills, Zone E, comes from the election of 2 November 2004 and is levied through County Service Area 10 under tax code 53251. The Measure B CC&R compliance charge, tax code 54405, dates to the election of 8 November 1983 and belongs to the Community Services District. Neither is a Mello-Roos special tax, and neither goes away when a Mello-Roos district's bonds mature.

Is a home with no Mello-Roos always the better buy?

Not always. A home with no Mello-Roos in El Dorado Hills is usually an older home, so the money often goes elsewhere, into a roof or a kitchen or a system at the end of its life. A district with a near maturity date can be the better buy, because the charge falls away during the years you own the house and the asking price rarely reflects that.

How do I find out whether a specific address has Mello-Roos?

Get the parcel number from the listing, the title report or the county assessor's parcel lookup. Pull the actual secured property tax bill rather than a lender's or listing's estimate, which is often the prior owner's figure or, on a new build, the unimproved land. Read the direct charges beneath the ad valorem section: anything beginning “Mello-Roos CFD Act Special Tax” is one. Then check the bond maturity year, which is public in the county's continuing-disclosure filings.

Mello-Roos districts · El Dorado Hills

Every Mello-Roos district that touches El Dorado Hills, and how to check an address against them.

No neighborhood name will ever tell you for certain which homes carry a Mello-Roos special tax. The tax follows the parcel, not the subdivision. So the honest way to answer this is backwards: here is every Mello-Roos district that touches El Dorado Hills. If the address you are looking at sits in none of them, it probably carries no Mello-Roos special tax, and the only thing that settles it is that parcel’s own tax record.

Why nobody gives you a list of neighborhoods

Because the list would be wrong. A Mello-Roos district is drawn around parcels, and parcel boundaries were drawn by whoever was developing at the time, not by whoever named the neighborhood afterwards. Two houses on the same street can sit on opposite sides of a district line. A subdivision can straddle one. A neighborhood name is marketing; a district boundary is a legal description recorded with the county.

So an agent who hands you a tidy list of Mello-Roos-free neighborhoods is giving you something that reads well and will not survive the title report. What follows is the other direction, which is checkable.

Every district that exists

These are the Mello-Roos districts that levy on El Dorado Hills parcels, as the county’s direct charge master and its continuing-disclosure filings list them. Eight are the county’s, formed to finance the master-planned developments between 1992 and 2024, and the bonded ones stop when their bonds mature. Two belong to the Community Services District and fund upkeep rather than construction, so they have no end date. Two more are school facilities districts, and they do not end either.

County districts, with an end date

CFD 1992-1, Serrano. The oldest of them. Bonds mature 2031. County tax code 51001 on your bill.

CFD 2001-1, The Promontory. Two bond series, maturing 2035 and 2044.

CFD 2005-1, Blackstone. Fully built out. Bonds mature 2035.

CFD 2005-2, Laurel Oaks. Ninety-nine parcels, the smallest district in the county. Bonds mature 2036.

CFD 2014-1, Carson Creek. Covers the earlier phases at Heritage. Bonds run to 2048.

CFD 2018-1, Bass Lake Hills. The longest dated, running to 2051.

CFD 2024-1 and CFD 2024-2, Heritage Village. Formed in 2024 for the newer phases, both still building out. The first funds roads, water, drainage, wastewater, parks and trails. The second funds services rather than construction, ambulance among them, so that one has no end date at all. Neither has published a bond maturity I can find.

Community Services District, no end date

CFD 2018-01, Bass Lake Hills Specific Plan. Formed 18 September 2018 for park and facility upkeep inside that specific plan area, which includes the Bell Ranch and Hawkview developments. This is a different thing from the county’s CFD 2018-1 and it covers much of the same ground. People confuse the two constantly.

CFD 2019-01, the District Master district. Formed 9 January 2020. This is the one worth reading the next section about.

School facilities, no end date

El Dorado Schools Financing Authority CFD No. 1. County tax codes 56001 and 56002.

Buckeye Elementary CFD 2007-1, Valley View. County tax code 55001.

Which of these reaches a parcel depends on the school districts it sits in. They appear as direct charges on the same bill, they fund facilities rather than bonds you can date, and they do not end. This layer is the most commonly missed one. When a figure somebody quotes you does not match what is actually on a bill, it is often because separate lines have been added together without anyone noticing.

The one that catches new construction

CFD 2019-01 is described as district-wide, and that wording has frightened people into assuming every house in El Dorado Hills now carries a Mello-Roos. It does not work that way.

The district only levies on parcels where a building permit was issued after 1 January 2019. The Community Services District’s own annual report for 2024 to 2025 puts it at 298 developed parcels paying $228.18 per single-family unit, which comes to $67,997.64 in total. The original area was Saratoga Estates. One annexation has happened since, adding 122 planned units in 2023 to 2024, and the report says plainly that new areas will be annexed as they are developed.

What that means in practice is the thing to take away. An older house is not caught by it. A brand new house can be, even on an old street. If you are buying new construction anywhere in El Dorado Hills, this is a line to look for specifically, because it has no maturity date. It is a maintenance charge, not a bond, so it does not stop.

Three lines that look like Mello-Roos and are not

People send me tax bills with a line circled and the question “is this the Mello-Roos.” Usually it is one of these.

Library services, El Dorado Hills, Zone E. A special tax from the election of 2 November 2004, levied through County Service Area 10, tax code 53251. It applies across El Dorado Hills and it is not Mello-Roos.

Measure B, CC&R compliance. A Community Services District special tax dating to the election of 8 November 1983, tax code 54405. Older than most of the houses paying it.

Voter-approved school and district bonds. These show as a percentage of assessed value rather than a flat charge, and they move with your assessment. A Mello-Roos special tax does not; it is set by parcel class.

None of the three disappears when a Mello-Roos district’s bonds mature, which is worth knowing before you count on a date.

So where are the houses without it

Every district above was formed in 1992 or later, and each one was formed to finance a specific development. That is the whole pattern, and it is the most useful thing on this page.

Broadly, what was built before the early nineties sits outside all of them. The older parts of El Dorado Hills, nearer the lake and the original village, largely predate the first district. Those homes are generally on older lots, often larger ones, and they are a different kind of house from what the master plans produced.

Broadly is not certainly, and I am not going to pretend otherwise on a page with my licence number at the bottom of it. There are pre-1992 parcels that were later annexed into something, and there are newer infill houses on old streets that picked up CFD 2019-01. The only answer that holds is the one tied to an address.

What being outside a district can be worth

Two thousand dollars a year is not a rounding error and it is also not the whole story. It is roughly a hundred and sixty-five dollars a month that does not go toward principal, does not build equity, and does not stop when you refinance. On a thirty-year horizon in a district with a long maturity, it is real money.

But the absence of it is priced in, and not always in the direction people expect. A home outside these districts is often an older home, which usually means the money goes somewhere else: a roof, a kitchen, a system that is at the end of its life. And a district with a near maturity date, which almost nobody markets, can be a better buy than one with none at all, because the charge falls away during the time you own it and the price does not reflect that.

That is the conversation I would rather have with you than the one about whether a neighborhood is on a list.

How to check an address yourself, in about five minutes

One. Get the parcel number.

It is on the listing, on the title report, and on the county assessor’s parcel lookup if you only have a street address.

Two. Pull the tax bill, not the estimate.

El Dorado County publishes the actual secured property tax bill by parcel. You can also work the whole monthly cost out here once you have that figure. The estimate a lender or a listing gives you is frequently the prior owner’s figure, and on a new build it is frequently the unimproved land.

Three. Read the direct charges, not the total.

The special taxes sit underneath the ad valorem section as separate lines with their own codes. Match them against the districts above. Anything beginning “Mello-Roos CFD Act Special Tax” is one.

Four. Check the maturity.

If there is a district, the year its bonds mature is public and it is in the county’s continuing-disclosure filings. Ask me for the district and the maturity year on any parcel you are looking at.

Send me an address and I will pull the real number.

Not an estimate and not a range. The actual line on the actual bill, the district it belongs to if there is one, and the year it stops. It takes me a few minutes and it costs you nothing, and I would rather you knew before you fell in love with the house than after.

If you are working out which parts of town you can afford, the El Dorado Hills page goes through the rest of what it costs to live here, and the single-story and 55 plus page covers the communities most people ask me about next.

Every Mello-Roos district that touches El Dorado Hills, and how to check an address against them.

Why nobody gives you a list of neighborhoods

Every district that exists

County districts, with an end date

Community Services District, no end date

School facilities, no end date

The one that catches new construction

Three lines that look like Mello-Roos and are not

So where are the houses without it

What being outside a district can be worth

How to check an address yourself, in about five minutes

One. Get the parcel number.

Two. Pull the tax bill, not the estimate.

Three. Read the direct charges, not the total.

Four. Check the maturity.

Send me an address and I will pull the real number.

Send me an address and I will pull the real number.

Start with a conversation.