The base price of a new home is a starting line, not a total

A brand-new house is the strangest purchase in real estate, because it is the one where the buyer has both the most information and the least. You can walk the model, read the included-features sheet, pick the counters. And almost none of the costs that will follow the address for the next thirty years appear anywhere in that packet.

None of what follows is a reason not to buy new. It is a list of things that are knowable before you sign and are usually discovered afterward.

1. You will get two tax bills, and one of them is not in your escrow account

When new construction is completed, the county assessor reappraises the property as of the completion date and bills the difference between the new value and the old one as a supplemental assessment, prorated over the rest of the fiscal year. This is a separate bill, mailed to you, on top of the annual bill. It is generally not paid out of your impound account — check with your servicer, because counties word this differently and a few homeowners do have it escrowed.

The timing detail that catches people: if the triggering event falls between January 1 and June 30, you can receive two supplemental bills, because the event straddles two fiscal years.

On a new build there is a second wrinkle. The land was assessed as dirt. The house is the improvement. The gap between those two numbers is the supplemental bill, and on a new tract it is not small. Treat it as cash you will need after you move in, not as part of the monthly payment.

2. The special tax came with the dirt and it outlives the builder

Most new tracts in Placer, Sacramento and El Dorado counties sit inside a Community Facilities District — the Mello-Roos structure that paid for the schools, parks, roads and sewer that made the tract buildable. The special tax rides on the county property tax bill, so unlike the supplemental bill it usually is inside your impound and does show up in your monthly number. What it does not show up in is the listing price, and it is not a fee you can shop.

California gives a first purchaser real protection here, and it is worth using. A subdivider selling into a CFD must give the buyer a Notice of Special Tax — in at least 8-point type, signed before the purchase contract is executed — stating the maximum special tax, the annual escalation, what the bonds paid for, and how long the tax runs. If it is hand-delivered you have three days to cancel; if it is mailed, five.

Ask for it at the sales office, on the first visit, for your specific lot. Special taxes vary lot to lot inside one tract, and the model home is often not in the same tax zone as the home you are buying. (On a resale, the equivalent document comes from the levying agency, which must furnish a notice to any requester within five working days for a small fee.)

We run the CFD numbers by address in the county breakdowns — Placer, Sacramento — and in the city guides for Lincoln, Roseville and Rocklin.

3. The panels on the roof are required — and on a new home they may be worth less

Since the 2019 Energy Code took effect on January 1, 2020, California has required solar photovoltaic systems on essentially all newly built low-rise residential. The 2022 code kept it. The 2025 code, in force for permits applied for on or after January 1, 2026, keeps it too. So the panels are not a builder upgrade or a green gesture. They are code.

Here is the part that is genuinely not well known, and it is the single most under-disclosed cost item on a new California home.

Since April 15, 2023, new solar customers go on the Net Billing Tariff — what most people call NEM 3.0 — under which exported power is credited at grid-value rates rather than the retail rate. That change alone made new solar worth substantially less per exported kilowatt-hour than a legacy system next door. But there is a further wrinkle: the CPUC provides a residential export adder to improve those credits, and customers whose solar exists because a building code required it are excluded from that adder.

Read that again in the context of a new tract. The house across the street that added panels voluntarily in 2021 is on a different, better tariff. The house you are buying has panels because the state told the builder to install them — and is excluded from the sweetener the voluntary adopter gets. Two roofs, same street, same sun, meaningfully different electric bills.

So the honest way to model a new home’s power cost is: assume the panels reduce the bill, do not assume they eliminate it, and get the builder’s actual production estimate for your lot and orientation rather than the model home’s.

4. Leased, PPA, or PACE: three ways the roof becomes the next buyer’s problem

If the system is owned outright and paid for in the purchase price, there is nothing here to worry about. If it is not, this matters enormously — at purchase, and far more at resale.

• A lease or a power purchase agreement. Fannie Mae requires the lender to obtain the agreement, and the monthly lease payment is counted in the buyer’s debt-to-income ratio. A PPA priced strictly on energy actually produced may be excluded. Either way it is a document your lender will want and your future buyer’s lender will want.
• UCC fixture filings. Where the panels are collateral under a fixture filing recorded in the land records, the amount counts toward the combined loan-to-value on the property, and if the filing is senior to the mortgage it has to be subordinated before the loan can close.
• Transfer at sale. Most residential solar lease and PPA contracts require the incoming buyer to qualify with the solar provider before assuming the agreement. Read the transfer clause in the actual contract — it varies by provider and it is the clause that strands sales.
• PACE. Property Assessed Clean Energy financing is repaid through an increased assessment on the annual property tax bill. It is also, in first position, close to a financing veto: FHA has not insured forward mortgages on PACE-encumbered properties since a 2017 mortgagee letter, and Fannie Mae will not purchase a loan on a property with an outstanding PACE loan unless the program does not take priority over first mortgage liens. As of March 1, 2026, residential PACE transactions are also subject to Truth in Lending disclosure and ability-to-repay rules under a CFPB rule.

On a brand-new home most of these are the builder’s choices, made before you arrived. Ask, in writing, who owns the system.

5. The homeowners association you are joining does not exist yet

On a new tract, the association is controlled by the developer at first. Under the state regulations that govern subdivision public reports, the subdivider holds a weighted class of membership that converts to ordinary owner control on defined triggers — for a standard single-phase tract, no later than the second anniversary of the first conveyance; for a multi-phase tract, no later than the second anniversary of the first conveyance in the most recent phase or the fourth anniversary of the first conveyance in the first phase, whichever comes first. Master-planned communities run on a separate, substantially longer framework. Ask which one you are in.

Why it matters to your wallet:

• Dues during developer control are a budget, not a history. There are no years of actual costs behind them. The number that is most likely to move after control transfers is the one you are quoted today.
• Stacking. In a phased or master-planned community you can belong to a sub-association and a master association, each levying separately, and a CFD on top of both. The brochure typically shows one figure.
• The reserve study is a projection with nothing behind it. California requires an association board to have a visual inspection of major components performed at least every three years, with an annual review, covering components with a remaining useful life under thirty years, and to set a funding plan from it. On a brand-new association that study is entirely estimates and the reserve account is close to empty. That is normal. It is also exactly the condition in which a special assessment appears later.

Ask for the budget, the reserve study, and the CC&Rs before the contingency period closes, and ask specifically whether the developer is subsidizing the current budget.

6. The warranty is shorter than ten years

"New homes come with a ten-year warranty" is the most repeated wrong sentence in new construction.

California’s Right to Repair Act sets functionality standards with their own periods, and they are not ten years. Plumbing and sewer: four years. Electrical: four years. Exterior pathways, driveways and hardscape: four years. Paint and stains: five years. Noise transmission between attached units: one year from the original occupancy of the adjacent unit. Separately, the builder must give a minimum one-year express written limited warranty on fit and finish — cabinets, mirrors, flooring, interior and exterior walls, countertops, paint finishes and trim.

The ten years is an outer limit on bringing an action at all, measured from substantial completion. It is a ceiling, not a promise that every component is covered for a decade.

And before any of that: if you have a claim, the statute requires you to serve the builder written notice by certified mail, overnight mail or personal delivery and give them the opportunity to repair. Using the builder’s own customer service portal does not satisfy that notice. Keep a paper trail from the first walkthrough.

7. The things the base price simply does not include

This varies enormously by builder and region, so the only reliable move is to read the included-features sheet line by line and ask what is missing. Commonly excluded or partially excluded: rear-yard landscaping and irrigation, fencing, window coverings, some appliances, garage door openers, rain gutters, hardscape, and the lot premium itself. None of these are optional in the sense that you will live without them; they are optional in the sense that they are not in the price.

One more: insurance on a new home is not automatically cheap. New construction and modern materials help, but California pricing is set by location and wildfire exposure far more than by build year, and a new tract on the edge of open space can price like anything else on that edge. Get a real quote for the actual address before your contingency expires, not an estimate from the sales office. Our piece on what it costs to insure covers how that number is actually built.

What to ask, and when

Before you sign the purchase contract: the Notice of Special Tax for your lot; the estimated total tax rate for your lot; who owns the solar and under what contract; the HOA budget, reserve study and CC&Rs; whether there is a master association; the included-features sheet with exclusions called out.

Before your contingency expires: a real insurance quote for the address; confirmation of whether any PACE or fixture filing touches the property; the builder’s written warranty document.

Before you close: a written estimate of the supplemental tax and whether your servicer will escrow it.

Anything involving how these figures land inside a loan approval — the special tax inside the qualifying payment, a solar lease payment inside debt-to-income — is a lender question, and mortgage brokers such as Cali Mortgage will run those numbers before you are in contract if you ask.

Start with the county breakdowns in our guides, or run your specific address on the home page. And if you are financing a new build in south Placer, the lender-side view of the same special tax is written up at calimortgage.com.

Sources

• California Revenue & Taxation Code §§ 75 et seq. (supplemental assessments on change of ownership and completed new construction); § 75.10 — current as of January 1, 2026. California State Board of Equalization Property Tax Law Guide.
• San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder-Clerk, supplemental tax FAQ (separate bill; generally not paid from impound; one or two bills depending on the date of the event) — checked August 14, 2026.
• California Government Code § 53311 (Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982); § 53341.5 (subdivider Notice of Special Tax, 8-point type, three-day hand-delivered / five-day mailed cancellation right); § 53340.2 (agency notice on request within five working days) — current as of January 1, 2026.
• California Civil Code § 1102.6b (seller disclosure of Mello-Roos, 1915 Act and contractual assessments on resale) — current as of January 1, 2026.
• California Energy Commission, 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards PV fact sheet (mandate effective for permits applied for on or after January 1, 2020); 2022 and 2025 Energy Code support pages (mandate retained; 2025 code effective January 1, 2026).
• California Public Utilities Commission, Net Energy Metering and Net Billing (Decision 22-12-056, adopted December 15, 2022; Net Billing Tariff effective April 15, 2023; customers required to install solar by building code do not receive the residential export adder) — checked August 14, 2026.
• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-3-04, Special Property Eligibility Considerations, dated October 8, 2025 (solar lease and PPA treatment, DTI inclusion, UCC fixture filing and subordination).
• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B5-3.4-01, Property Assessed Clean Energy Loans, dated October 8, 2025.
• HUD Mortgagee Letter 2017-18, December 7, 2017 (properties encumbered with PACE obligations not eligible for FHA-insured forward mortgages). Confirm current treatment with your lender.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Residential PACE final rule (issued December 17, 2024; published January 10, 2025; compliance date March 1, 2026).
• California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, PACE (repayment through increased property tax assessments) — checked August 14, 2026.
• 10 CCR § 2792.18 (subdivider Class B membership and conversion triggers); 10 CCR § 2792.32 (alternative arrangements for master planned communities).
• California Civil Code § 5550 (reserve study: visual inspection at least every three years, annual review, components with remaining useful life under thirty years, funding plan) — current as of January 1, 2026.
• California Civil Code §§ 895 et seq. (Right to Repair Act); § 896 (component periods — plumbing and sewer four years, electrical four years, exterior hardscape four years, paint and stains five years, interunit noise one year); § 900 (one-year fit and finish express warranty); § 910 (pre-litigation written notice); § 938 (applies to units sold under agreements signed on or after January 1, 2003); § 941 (ten-year outside limit from substantial completion) — current as of January 1, 2026.

Figures and rules change. Every item above carries the date it was checked; verify anything you are about to rely on.