Why Is My Brentwood Tax Bill So High? Mello-Roos, Explained

A tax bill arrives higher than the loan officer's estimate, and buried in the line items is something called a CFD or special tax. Nothing went wrong. The house is in a Mello-Roos district, and that line is permanent.

Brentwood has four Mello-Roos districts. In 2024/25 they charged single-family homes $271 to $955 a year — roughly $23 to $80 a month — and almost every dollar went to police and fire. Two houses four blocks apart can land on opposite sides of a district line.

You can find out which one a house sits in before you write the offer.

Am I even in one?

Look at last year's property tax bill. If there's no "CFD" or special tax line, your parcel isn't in a district and none of this applies to you.

Older Brentwood neighborhoods usually aren't. The districts were created to fund new growth, so the subdivisions built during the boom years generally are, and the established parts of town generally aren't. That's the whole logic.

If you don't have the bill yet, search the address at the Contra Costa County Treasurer-Tax Collector. The special tax shows up as its own line, separate from the regular 1% levy.

What Brentwood's four districts charged in 2024/25

Per single-family home, per year — and what that works out to monthly:

• CFD No. 2 — $271/year, about $23/month
• CFD No. 3 — $909/year, about $76/month
• CFD No. 4 — $955/year, about $80/month
• CFD No. 5 — $909/year, about $76/month

Condos and multi-family units pay less. A condo in CFD No. 2 was charged $203.

Does it ever go away?

Most people have this backwards. The common belief is that Mello-Roos is a construction bond that retires in twenty or thirty years and falls off. That holds in some California districts. It mostly doesn't hold here.

In 2024/25, Brentwood's four districts spent $8.3 million reimbursing the City for police and fire, and $1.2 million on debt service. Spending on facilities — the actual construction — was zero across all four.

Police and fire don't retire the way a bond does. They cost money every year, and the recorded liens say so:

When each district's lien expires

• CFD No. 2 — June 30, 2053
• CFD No. 3 — June 30, 2104
• CFD No. 4 — June 30, 2105
• CFD No. 5 — June 30, 2107

Those aren't typos. Unless the City Council cancels one early, plan on this as a permanent line in your housing budget.

If someone tells you the Mello-Roos on a house is about to fall off, ask them which district and what year. The answer is on the tax bill.

The number climbs every year

Yes. Every district's maximum rate climbs each year. The facilities portion goes up a flat 2%. In CFD No. 4, the services portion follows the Bay Area consumer price index, with a floor of 2% and a ceiling of 5%.

There's a second number to watch. What the City can charge and what it does charge are different. CFD No. 4's maximum for a single-family home is $1,480. The City levied $955. That gap is legal room to raise it later without a new vote.

So when you read the disclosure, look at both figures. The one you'll pay this year, and the ceiling.

What your seller has to tell you

Your disclosure notice has to tell you five things: who's charging you, what you owe this year, the most they can ever charge, how fast that ceiling climbs, and the year it ends.

Every one of those numbers is on the form.

What about Trilogy?

One more thing if you're moving your tax base under Proposition 19: that transfers your assessed value, which controls the regular part of your bill. It does nothing to a special tax attached to the new parcel. Two separate lines, two different behaviors — and I've watched that surprise people who did everything else right.

When you're comparing a Trilogy home against a resale elsewhere in Brentwood, the HOA dues are the number everyone looks at. The special tax is the number that quietly changes the comparison. Put them in the same column.

Frequently asked questions

Can I pay it off in a lump sum? Sometimes the facilities portion, under your district's Rate and Method of Apportionment. A services levy that funds police and fire generally can't be prepaid, because it isn't retiring a bond. Ask the City Clerk for the Rate and Method for your district.

Does Mello-Roos hurt resale value? It affects affordability, which affects your buyer pool. Someone qualifying at the edge of their budget feels $955 a year in the monthly payment. The fix is disclosing it early and accurately, rather than letting it surface late in escrow where it turns into a renegotiation.

Why is my neighbor's different from mine? Rates vary by district and by property type. A condo in CFD No. 2 paid $203 in 2024/25 while a single-family home in CFD No. 4 paid $955.

Does the City have to send me a report? No. The law only requires one if a resident or property owner asks. Brentwood publishes one anyway, which is more than it has to do — and you can request the full version for your district.

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Bring me an address. I'll pull the tax bill, read the disclosure with you, and tell you what that line does over ten years — not just what it says today.

Call or text me at (925) 200-0717. I answer my own phone, seven days a week.

Rates, ceilings, and expiration dates change by parcel and by year — confirm yours against the current tax bill before you write an offer. This post is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Margie Lupo, Broker Associate, SRES® · eXp Realty of Northern California, Inc. · DRE #01193496 · Brokerage DRE #02188495 · Equal Housing Opportunity

Sources

• City of Brentwood, Combined CFD Annual Reports — FY 2024/25 report: rates, parcel counts, revenues and expenditures, lien expiration dates, escalators. Accessed August 2026.
• California Civil Code § 1102.6b — resale disclosure duty and the agent's limited duty to discover. Accessed August 2026.
• Contra Costa County Treasurer-Tax Collector — parcel tax bill lookup. Accessed August 2026.