Mello-Roos in Carlsbad: what it costs

How much is Mello-Roos in Carlsbad?

Carlsbad’s one city district, CFD No. 1, puts nothing on a homeowner’s annual bill: under Council Policy 33 the builder pays a one-time special tax at building-permit issuance — $7,175 to $11,405 per home at up to four homes an acre and $4,528.72 to $5,233.51 at higher densities for FY 2026-27, varying with the date the land was annexed — so the annual Mello-Roos a Carlsbad buyer meets is Carlsbad Unified School District’s: $79.68 on sampled Aviara parcels in CFD No. 1, $908.22 on sampled 2005 Bressi Ranch homes in CFD No. 3, and $1,449.12 on a sampled 2018 home in Robertson Ranch’s CFD No. 5, all from the county’s FY 2025-26 roll.

The school district’s FY 2026-27 schedules, adopted June 24, 2026, fix each home’s rate by the year it was first taxed: CFD No. 3 runs $696.08 to $992.42 for detached homes and $557.28 to $794.56 attached; CFD No. 4 runs $716.96 to $992.43 detached and $574.00 to $794.56 attached; CFD No. 5 runs $1,228.54 for the 2013-14 cohort to $2,285.61 for homes first taxed in 2026-27, $934.74 to $1,739.01 for condominiums, and $1,653.94 to $2,722.93 in its Improvement Area 1 at Quarry Creek; CFD No. 1’s maximum is $1,142.33 per developed unit, levied at a small fraction of it.

Two other lines look like Mello-Roos and are not: Bressi Ranch homes pay the city’s Assessment District 2002-01, a 1913 Act assessment ($873.08 on the sampled parcels) whose 2022 refunding bonds run to 2035, and Rancho Carrillo, inside San Marcos Unified, pays that district’s CFD No. 5 at $1,227.02 to $1,838.52. The county’s parcel search shows every line for any address.

When does Carlsbad Mello-Roos end?

Carlsbad’s city district has no annual levy to end — the lien on a lot is released once the one-time tax is paid — and among the school districts only Carlsbad Unified’s CFD No. 1 has bonds with a date: $725,000 of its 2014 Special Tax Bonds were outstanding on June 30, 2025, maturing September 1, 2029, while CFDs 3, 4 and 5 fund lease obligations whose end dates the district does not publish.

The schedules escalate differently: CFD No. 1’s maximum rises 2 percent a year, CFDs 3 and 4 are fixed by cohort and identical in FY 2025-26 and 2026-27, and CFD No. 5’s cohorts step up each year for new homes. Willdan administers all four for the district and answers term questions at (866) 807-6864; the city’s CFD No. 1 questions go to Special District Financing at (760) 233-2630. Non-residential owners who chose a 25-year payoff of the city tax pay 13.81 percent of it a year, which is the only annual CFD No. 1 line that exists.

Which Carlsbad homes pay which Mello-Roos?

Carlsbad Unified’s CFD No. 5 is the district a buyer of a newer Carlsbad home meets: it covers Robertson Ranch and Rancho Costera, Quarry Creek (Improvement Area 1), Marja Acres and the Shea tracts; the county roll places Aviara in CFD No. 1 and Bressi Ranch in CFD No. 3; Rancho Carrillo, in San Marcos Unified, pays that district’s CFD No. 5 instead; and a 1981 Calavera Hills home carries no school special tax at all.

The school district publishes no boundary list for CFDs 1, 3 and 4, so those placements come from the county’s roll and fund labels rather than a district map. The city’s CFD No. 3 is the Faraday and Melrose business park, non-residential, and its CFD No. 5 is not on the county’s active list. A La Costa Oaks sample carried no school district line at all, and one Paseo Aliso parcel in San Dieguito Union High’s CFD 94-2 paid $800 — the boundary between Carlsbad Unified and its neighbors runs through the city, as the Carlsbad guide explains.