What is the deal with property taxes?

Welcome to this week’s The Mortgage Minute. This week’s topic is annual property taxes.

The Mortgage Minute is weekly informational series presented by Laura Borja, Your San Diego home loan expert.

Our look at property taxes will begin with an overview of the property tax system.

Prefer video to reading? Then click to watch the full video now.

The county runs on a fiscal year which begins on July 1st and ends June 30th.

Property Tax Year and Payments
Every October property tax bills are issued and are based on the assessed value as established on January 1st.
When you purchase a property you can expect to receive a supplemental tax bill.

For more details on that check out next week’s episode of The Mortgage Minute where I will go into more details.

Your annual property tax bill allows you to pay in two installments.
The first one is due on November 1st and delinquent December 10th.
The second half is due February 1st and delinquent on April 10th.

Now let’s look at how your property taxes are calculated.

The calculations begin with establishing the assessed taxable value of your property.Assessed Property Tax ValueBase Property Tax
Next comes the base tax, which in San Diego is 1% of that assessed taxable value.

 

Then come voter-approved bonds. And those are things that we all voted on, different propositions, which normally go to school districts water districts etc., and those are also based on a percentage of your taxable value.Voter approved bonds

Fixed Charge Property Tax AssessmentsThe next category are fixed rate charges. Those are set amounts and they usually go for things like mosquito control, vector disease control as well as Mello-Roos.

Mello-Roos are a repayment of bonds that were used to finance improvements of an area, usually when a new area is being developed. They pay for things like schools, parks, roads, sewage, police, fire, etc.Mello-Roos Property Taxes

 

 

Example of property tax bill in San Diego CountyLet’s check out the information in your property tax bill.

At the top of the bill you’re going to see the established assessed value of your property. if you disagree with the amount, there is a process for you to appeal it through the tax assessor’s office.

The next section shows what is actually being collected and it’s broken down by category. Your base tax, any voter approved bonds as well as any fixed rate charges.

The bottom of the bill has a two vouchers for you to pay the first and second installment of your tax bill.

Now, if you have an impound account what you get is actually a copy of the bill which will be stamped “copy”. It is sent to you for your records but your annual property tax bill will be sent to your mortgage company to be paid out of your impound account.

The county of San Diego publishes an excellent New Homeowner’s Property tax Guide which can be found here: New Homeowners Property Tax Guide

 

 

 

So there you have it. A look at annual property taxes here in San Diego county.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to send me an email, give me a call or shoot me a text. I’ll be happy to help.

Thanks for checking out this week’s The Mortgage Minute.  Until next week!



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