"Such lower initial effective tax rate would keep the Valencia Project competitive with other housing projects in the area and would enhance the ability of potential homeowners to qualify for financing." That sentence comes from a January 26, 2021 letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. It explains why the special tax on new homes in Valencia by FivePoint looks the way it does.
The County has a policy that normally favors flat special taxes. The landowners asked for an exception so the facilities tax in the first part of Mission Village could rise 2.00% every year. In exchange, the owners proposed a starting effective tax rate of about 1.85%, below the 2.00% ceiling the policy allows. The structure was designed to keep the first bill low and let it grow from there. That matters if you're comparing a new Valencia home with a resale house in Saugus or Newhall at a similar price.
The Document That Shows Up in Escrow
In covered California sales, the seller makes a good-faith effort to get the special tax notice from the local agency and give it to the buyer when the agency makes one available. Civil Code Section 1102.6b describes what a qualifying notice can include. Here are the lines on that notice and what each one means in Valencia:
- District name. For new Mission Village homes, that usually means County of Los Angeles CFD No. 2021-01 (Valencia-Facilities), split into numbered improvement areas, plus CFD No. 2021-02 (Valencia-Services).
- Current annual tax. This is the year's actual levy, which the Board adopts each summer.
- Maximum annual tax. This is the ceiling set by the district's rate formula.
- Annual increase percentage. In Valencia, this is the number that makes the design work.
- End date. One district has one. The other may not.
Lines 3 and 4 work together. Your lender looks at the current bill. The formula behind the bill allows the maximum to grow every July.
How the Ceiling Is Built
The tax sheets for Improvement Area No. 4, which the Board annexed on March 11, 2025, show the setup most clearly. The consenting owners were Newhall Land and Farming Company, a Lennar-affiliated partnership, KB Home, Richmond American Homes and Paisley-Valencia. The annexation was done by unanimous consent of the landowners, as the County's process for future improvement areas requires. The builders agreed to the tax, and their buyers inherit it.
The assigned tax goes up with a home's square footage. A few rows from the FY 2025-26 table:
| Home type and size | FY 2025-26 assigned special tax |
|---|---|
| Detached, 4,201 sq ft or more | $7,120 per home |
| Detached, 3,001 to 3,200 sq ft | $4,923 per home |
| Detached, 2,801 to 3,000 sq ft | $4,605 per home |
| Detached, under 2,801 sq ft | $3,589 per home |
| Cluster, under 1,501 sq ft | $1,477 per home |
| Attached, under 651 sq ft | $1,256 per home |
Starting July 1, 2026, every rate in that table goes up by 2.00% of the prior year's amount. Run the math on the maximum alone: a $4,605 assigned rate growing 2% a year comes to about $5,613 after ten years and about $8,341 after thirty. Those figures are the maximum allowed. The actual levy each year can be lower.
IA4's tax runs until the earlier of the final bond maturity or 40 years after the tax begins. It can never be levied after Fiscal Year 2064-65, and it can end sooner once the bonds are paid and the County has committed to no new bonds other than refundings. For Improvement Area No. 1, the formation documents set the end as the maturity of the final bond series, and no later than Fiscal Year 2061-62.
Older Santa Clarita Districts Were Built Differently
Mello-Roos isn't new to the Santa Clarita Valley. What's different is the slope. Saugus/Hart School Facilities Financing Authority CFD No. 2000-1 covers 530 homes in two areas near Copper Hill Drive. Its rate summary says a developed parcel's maximum special tax stopped increasing after its first year as developed property. In that older design, the amount you saw at purchase stayed flat.
Valencia went the other way, and the County's letter says why. Escalating taxes support bonds "structured with escalating annual debt service," which "will generate more bond proceeds to fund proposed public facilities than is possible with non-escalating special taxes." What the money pays for in IA4 is listed: parks and recreation, roads and bridges, median and parkway landscaping, storm drains, sewer, water and water quality basins, with IA4 bonds capped at $50 million. A rising tax lets more of that infrastructure get funded up front. Over time, more of the cost lands on whoever owns the home later in the bond schedule.
What the 2026-27 Levies Actually Did
The maximum is a ceiling. The yearly levy is a separate decision, adopted "in amounts sufficient to provide funding" for each district's obligations. Comparing the July 29, 2025 levy letter with the July 21, 2026 levy letter shows the districts didn't all move the same way:
- IA1, developed parcels: $566.71 to $5,696.75 in FY 2025-26, then $516.51 to $5,192.16 in FY 2026-27. Both ends of the range fell by close to 9%. The letters don't say why.
- IA2, developed parcels: $1,314.84 to $4,564.26, then $1,341.14 to $4,655.54, up about 2%.
- IA3, developed parcels: $2,806.06 to $7,461.75, then $2,451.39 to $7,610.98. The district's total levy grew from $534,923.74 to $2,317,413.78 as more property came onto the roll.
- IA4, first adopted levy: $2,496.96 to $5,930.28 per developed parcel for FY 2026-27.
- Valencia-Services: $561.21 to $725.10, then $578.11 to $746.93, up about 3%.
So the escalator is a permission, not an automatic increase. The IA1 decline shows a levy can drop. The IA2 change matches the 2% schedule. For a resale buyer, the two numbers to compare are the current levy on that specific parcel and its maximum, because they can differ.
The Second Tax Has No Calendar End
Valencia-Services is a separate district and works differently. It pays for park maintenance, roadway maintenance, public landscape maintenance and water quality maintenance. Some of those services are provided by the Newhall Ranch High Country Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint powers authority made up of the County, the City of Santa Clarita and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Its boundary covers all of Mission Village, which is planned for about 4,055 homes. The first facilities district covered the first phase, about 1,268 homes.
Its escalator is the greater of the consumer price index or 2.00%, capped at 5.00% a year. The formation resolution allows the tax to be levied "for such period as the Services are needed." A facilities tax ends when its bonds are paid off. A maintenance tax lasts as long as there is something to maintain, and new things are still being added. FivePoint's September 21, 2026 announcement has Vantage Park opening in late 2026 and Mesa Park in early 2027, with pools, barbecue areas and gathering spaces.
Why This Matters on Today's Price Sheets
FivePoint's official homefinder currently lists starting prices from the upper $500,000s for Lennar's Jewel collection, the low $600,000s for KB Home's Iris and Lennar's Coral, the low $800,000s for Richmond American's Esprit and Tri Pointe's Lark, and the mid $1.3 million range for Toll Brothers' Skylar. At those prices, a few thousand dollars a year in special taxes is a meaningful share of the monthly payment.
Builders sold 90 Valencia homes in Q1 2026, according to FivePoint's first quarter 2026 results, and 78 in Q2 2026, according to its second quarter 2026 results. Total Valencia homesites sold to builders stood at 3,088 as of June 30, 2026, the same total the company's 2025 annual report gave for December 31, 2025. CEO Dan Hedigan said the company's remaining 2026 land sales were expected in the fourth quarter, "subject to market conditions." When builders are competing for each sale, a lower first-year tax bill helps them close it.
The next phase is now approved. The Signal reported on September 22, 2026 that the Board of Supervisors denied an appeal and cleared the way for Homestead South, a 3,617-home plan south of State Route 126 and west of Mission Village. Under the original formation framework, special tax terms for any area annexed later are set at the time of annexation. Whatever applies to future homes there hasn't been written yet.
A Few Questions Buyers Ask
Does a neighbor's unpaid tax raise my bill? It can, but only up to a limit. For residential parcels, the formation terms say the special tax can't go up because of other owners' delinquencies by more than 10% above what would otherwise have been levied that year.
Can the facilities tax be paid off early? The IA4 rate formula lets the maximum special tax obligation be prepaid and permanently satisfied. The amount comes from a formula set in the document. A tax professional can explain how that fits a particular household's situation.
Is the tax tied to the property or the owner? The property. When IA4 was annexed, the Board directed that a notice of special tax lien be recorded within 15 days. The lien stays with the parcel when it sells.
Which improvement area is a given home in? County documents tie the first facilities area to Mission Village's first phase. They don't map IA2 or IA3 to named builder collections, so the parcel's own tax bill and disclosure notice are the reliable sources.
If you're weighing a new Valencia home against a resale elsewhere in Santa Clarita, we'll pull the parcel's current levy, its maximum and its escalator, and help you compare the full monthly cost side by side, since our team handles financing and insurance in the same conversation. You can test numbers with our mortgage calculator, review our breakdown of buyer closing costs in Santa Clarita, or schedule a free consultation with Sterling Realty & Lending to go over a specific tax notice.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
