Chico’s total rate is 1.150144% — the 1% Prop 13 base plus Chico Unified bonds (1998, 2012, 2016 and 2024) and two Butte College bonds. That is the exact figure from the county rate book, and it is notably higher than the rest of Butte County: Paradise runs 1.0613%, Gridley 1.0809%, most of Oroville 1.0770%. The 2024 CUSD bond is what widened the gap. Budget for the one-time supplemental bill that arrives roughly a year after closing — it covers the gap between the seller’s old assessed value and your purchase price, and it is the single most common surprise for buyers here.

This is where Chico genuinely differs from Roseville, Lincoln, or Elk Grove. Butte County has very few Community Facilities Districts, and most Chico neighborhoods carry no Mello-Roos special tax at all. What you may see instead are smaller direct charges on the bill — landscape and lighting districts, county service areas, or a sewer or road assessment on specific tracts. They are far smaller than a CFD, but they are still real dollars, so read the parcel’s actual tax bill before you assume zero.

Check the bill for: landscape & lighting districts · county service areas · tract-specific sewer or road assessments

CAL FIRE’s 2025 maps changed the picture. The flat, densely built city core remains largely outside mapped hazard zones, but High and Very High designations now reach into the eastern edge of town — the upper Bidwell Park side, the Little Chico Creek corridor, and adjoining foothill streets. Which side of that line a house sits on decides whether it is a standard admitted policy (statewide average around $1,480/yr) or a FAIR Plan policy plus a DIC wrap (statewide average around $3,000–$3,200/yr, and materially higher on hardest-hit parcels). Two houses a few blocks apart in Chico can price very differently for this reason alone.

Chico is PG&E territory for both electricity and gas, with no municipal alternative — unlike Roseville, or Gridley just down Highway 99, which run their own cheaper city utilities. At 750 kWh a typical PG&E residential bill runs about $290/mo (June 2026), roughly double what a SMUD customer in Sacramento pays for the same usage. It is a permanent, recurring line in the cost of owning here, not a one-time cost.