Riverpark details (Oxnard, Santa Clara, Camarillo: sale, 2015, rent)

[bases loaded]

I'm finally moving to Ventura County this month from out-of-country, and am looking at Riverpark as one of the best value areas. Wondering if I could get some inside updates on the area beyond what's been posted in the past to get a head start.

It seems property taxes in Riverpark are nearly double the rest of Oxnard, and other cities as well. Is this accurate? Or maybe it's a one-off tax or something?

Is there any kind of reference one can look at to know if and how much the Mell-Roos fees might be for a property? Certainly it can't just be randomly charged. It would be very helpful to know in advance.

I'm also curious about how near to completion are the Riverpark developments, and I read in previous posts here about nearby farm smells, wonder if that's still a problem at all?

In total, I'm hoping to keep our housing costs in the $2500-3000 range, but there doesn't seem to be many houses in this range in the county. (I'm counting mortgage principal, property taxes, insurance, HOA fees, and other misc. fees such as Mell-Roos). But seems like it should be workable.

Really looking forward to getting moved, and I want to give a big thank you to all who regularly contribute with info on these forums which I've been reading a lot. Any info is much appreciated.

[jw2]

I don't know much about Riverpark so I won't address that

Mello Roos requires new developments pay for the infrastructure requirements of the immediate neighborhood. Sometimes these are paid for with bonds by the homeowner through property tax payments. Sometimes the building developer pays the fees and rolls the costs into the price of the homes.

If bonds were issued and the homeowner is to pay them through the property tax payments, you can go here County of Ventura - WebTax - Search for Property and enter the address or APN. Then select "View Your Tax Bill". There you will see every additional charge on the property tax including any Mello Roos bond with a phone number. Call the number and ask them how much remains on the bond.

I just pulled a random listing from Riverpark County of Ventura - WebTax - Secured Tax Payment
Excuse the formatting, if you go to the link, it is much easier to read.

I included just 3, 2 look like Mello Roos, and 1 looks like a school bond that was probably voted in by the voters. Each one of these has a lifetime. You can call the number next to them and find out when they expire. You are wise to look at these because the cost of what remains on the bond should be added to the purchase price to get the true cost of the house.

PHONE SPECIAL ASSESSMENT DIST/ZONE AMOUNT

805-385-7472 OXNARD BLVD-101 CFD/MR 16-11 198.74
877 250 1503 CFD#1 RIO ELE SCHL DIST 16-18 1,635.68
805 385 7472 OX CFD#5 RIVERPARK/MR 16-21 2,013.68

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Property tax in the state is set at 1% of the sale price of the property. This does not include school bond issues or other bond issues that the voters say yes to. We live in an older home that does not have Mella-Roos. The average we pay is 1.25% of the value of the home, based on when we bought the home.

In addition, as values go up, the county can reassess the value of the home and increase the value by 2%. So lets say you have a $500,000 home that you bought 2 years ago. Your base line tax is 1% plus the assessments, or in most of Oxnard, 1.25% of the purchase price of the home. Lets say that after 2 years the value of the home went up 10% so is now valued at $550,000. The County would assess the value of the home and increase it by 2% from baseline. The county considers the value of the home $510,000.

With Riverpark this is not the case. You still have your 1% property tax. You also pay additional for the city services. Riverpark has its own city employees, Police, Fire, Park maintenance, ect. Last I heard the base at Riverpark was 1.99%. This could go up or down depending on how many properties are paying the bill. Riverpark is a different beast than other communities in the area.

The development is in its final stages. I think only three neighborhoods are left.

The bright spot for the area is the Collection. People from all over hang out at the collection. My kids are there often. My wife loves it there.

Im not a big condo, town house kind of guy, but the area turned out nice. I think you will like it.

[nightlysparrow]

Have you lived in the US before? Because a percentage of mortgage interest and property taxes can be deducted from income taxes, which should factor into your numbers. Based on that you may be able to afford more house.

[bases loaded]

Super, thanks, jw2. That is excellent information. I hadn't seen any reference to it before.

Hopefully all these extra payments have a positive impact. And I could note that it's not just California with this kind of tax - I bought a house in Maryland previously and had to pay a $15,000 assessment to connect water and sewer to the house plus $10,000 added to the property taxes to boost the county education system. The $10k tax was by default added to property taxes for 10 years at a rate of $1,333 per year so property taxes were increased by that amount.

[SoCalMomma]

Why don't you rent first? Then you can make sure that the area is what you are looking for. I think coming from out of the country you'd be in for quite a culture shock.

[nightlysparrow]

Also, understand that HOA fees are not fixed. They can legally increase every year, up to 20%! And there can also be "special assessments." If you haven't lived under HOA rules before, you might want to think twice.

Here's the law: CA Codes (civ:5600-5625)

[bases loaded]

Wow! That's news I would have never expected. I have bought a house and lived in Maryland before, and I lived a couple years up on the other side of SLO. My HOA in Maryland was only $43/month and never changed to this day.

Of course, just about every neighborhood built in the last 30 years has an HOA so it's hard to avoid if you want to live in a modern house.

But this is good info and does make me think twice, I'm going to try to have to look hard for a house without the HOA.

Between that, the Mell-Roos, and other fees, it's seems pretty easy for a homeowner to get trapped in a house-poor state or even forced to sell out. Buyer beware, yes? Wow.

[bases loaded]

@SOON2BNSURPRISE,

Thanks, that is good info about Riverpark. Helpful along with your many other posts. I'm with you on preferring a single house over a townhouse - but trying to get a nice house for ~$450k doesn't have many options. But it looks like there are a few acceptable choices from judging online. Very difficult to know since you can't guess all the fees on a house.

In any case, I think the area is very nice overall, as many have stated the crime all over the East Coast seems to be much worse than anywhere in Ventura County. Interestingly, I compared the crime stats for Wilmington, NC (a city of 110,000 off by itself with seemingly little traffic) to Oxnard, nearly 2x the size and next to the 2nd biggest metro in the US, and Wilmington looks to have much worse crime. That's one example (another: Philly vs. LA).

On top of that, having lived near to both coasts, I can say all the extra days you get of comfortable weather in So Cal are worth a lot of money.

Back to the Riverpark subject, we're looking anywhere south of the Santa Clara River but as you know I've not found much in T.O., Simi, or even Camarillo. Looks like the "villages" of Camarillo all have very high HOA fees.

[nightlysparrow]

Sorry, didn't mean to shock. It varies by the size of the dwelling, but I believe the current highest HOA dues in Riverpark Collection---the Luminaria model---are $248 per month.

There are many houses in all 10 cities in the county that have neither Mello-Roos nor an HOA.