Here is the moment nobody plans for: escrow is thirty days in, contingencies are lifted, and the preliminary title report lands with a line item nobody mentioned on the model home tour. It reads something like "CFD Special Tax" followed by a dollar figure that wasn't in any of the conversations about square footage, upgrades, or the builder's incentive package. By the time most buyers see this number, they've already committed.
That line item is Mello-Roos, and in Brentwood it isn't rare. The city has run four Community Facilities Districts under the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act since 2002, built specifically to fund infrastructure for new development. If you're cross-shopping a new build against a resale home in one of Brentwood's established pockets, the sticker price is telling you less than half the story. The other half is a per-square-foot premium that shows up before you even get to the tax bill.
What the Same Price Range Actually Buys
Pull current new-construction listings in Brentwood and a pattern shows up fast. Here's a sample of active listings in two subdivisions on the market right now:
| Community | Builder | Plan | Price | Square Feet | Price per Sq Ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Kindred Balfour | Shea Homes-Trilogy | Affirm | $765,860 | 1,622 | $472 |
| The Kindred Balfour | Shea Homes-Trilogy | Venture | $791,575 | 2,048 | $386 |
| The Kindred Balfour | Shea Homes-Trilogy | Vantage | $844,459 | 2,134 | $396 |
| The Orchard Trails | Shea Homes | Plan 2 | $1,275,000 | 3,184 | $400 |
| The Orchard Trails | Shea Homes | Plan 3 | $1,500,000 | 3,741 | $401 |
Every one of those figures sits above Brentwood's blended citywide price per square foot, which recent market tracking puts at $356. That gap, somewhere between $30 and $116 per square foot depending on the floor plan, is the new-construction premium. It's not a rumor real estate agents repeat to justify their fees. It's what the current listings actually show.
The more interesting wrinkle is inside that table. The smallest floor plan at The Kindred Balfour, the Affirm at 1,622 square feet, carries the highest price per square foot of the group at $472. The largest plan in the same community, the Vantage at 2,134 square feet, comes in at $396. Buyers who assume a smaller floor plan is the more efficient purchase per square foot are working from an assumption the builder's own price sheet doesn't support. Fixed costs, kitchens, baths, mechanical systems, get spread over fewer square feet in the smaller plan, and the price per foot climbs accordingly.
The Tax That Compounds the Premium
New construction's second cost isn't in the sale price at all. It's in the annual tax bill, and it's structural, not incidental.
A Mello-Roos district gets approved before most of the people who will eventually live there ever cast a vote. Community Facilities Districts require a two-thirds vote of property owners, and when the district encompasses fewer than a dozen registered voters, the vote requirement drops to the property owners themselves, who in a new subdivision is usually just the developer. The developer approves the tax, then sells homes with the obligation already attached. As one legal explainer on the mechanism puts it, most CFDs are formed while the only landowner is the developer, who votes to approve the tax and passes the obligation on to future homebuyers. That's why Mello-Roos shows up constantly in master-planned communities and almost never in Brentwood's older, already-built neighborhoods. The infrastructure bill has to be paid by somebody, and the district structure guarantees it's paid by whoever buys next, not by the party who decided the tax was worth it.
The dollar impact is real enough to change a monthly budget. In CFD-heavy areas, effective property tax rates, the base 1% plus all local add-ons, can reach 1.5% to 1.7% of the purchase price, compared with 1.1% to 1.3% in areas without a CFD. On a home in the $800,000s, that half-point spread is thousands of dollars a year. To put it in monthly terms the way a lender would: a $3,600 annual Mello-Roos tax adds $300 a month to housing costs, and that $300 counts against debt-to-income the same way a mortgage payment does. Depending on the district and the size of the bond it's servicing, annual Mello-Roos charges in 2025 and 2026 range from around $360 in smaller or older districts to more than $10,000 in larger, newer developments in high-growth areas, which is exactly the category Brentwood's newest subdivisions fall into.
Stack the two costs together and the picture sharpens. A buyer choosing new construction in Brentwood is paying more per square foot up front, and in many of these subdivisions, paying an additional recurring tax that a comparable resale home in an established neighborhood typically doesn't carry at all. Neither cost is disclosed anywhere near the price on the yard sign.
Where the Older Math Still Applies
Brentwood isn't only new subdivisions. Established neighborhoods such as Rose Garden, Garin Ranch, Apple Hill Estates, Deer Ridge Country Club, Sterling Preserve, and Palmilla represent some of the city's more settled housing stock, the kind of streets that were already built out before Brentwood's CFD program took shape. As a general pattern, a CFD only exists where a district was formed to fund infrastructure for a specific development, so older, already-built neighborhoods typically fall outside any district. That doesn't mean every resale home is CFD-free and every new build carries the tax. It means the presence of a CFD tracks development history, not neighborhood reputation, and the only way to know for certain is to check the specific parcel.
This is where the two paths for a Brentwood buyer diverge in a way that's easy to miss if you're only comparing listing photos. A resale home in one of these established neighborhoods might list for less per square foot and carry a lower effective tax rate, while offering a lot size, mature landscaping, or proximity to downtown that a newer subdivision on the city's edge doesn't. A new build offers current finishes and builder warranties, but the true cost of ownership includes a tax obligation that could run for decades, since Mello-Roos taxes remain in effect until the bond is repaid or for a maximum of 40 years, whichever comes first.
What to Ask Before You Remove Contingencies
The fix for the escrow surprise is simple and almost nobody does it early enough: request the preliminary title report and the CFD disclosure documents before you're deep into your contingency period, not after. Ask for the specific annual tax amount for that address, not a subdivision average, since Mello-Roos amounts frequently vary by phase, lot size, and floor plan within the same community. If you're comparing a new build against a resale, run both properties through the same math: base rate plus any CFD or special assessment plus HOA, expressed as a monthly number, not just a purchase price.
Brentwood's broader market context makes this worth doing carefully right now. Citywide typical home values were running about $805,000 as of late June 2026, down roughly 7% from a year earlier, and closed sales over the three months ending in May 2026 averaged in the $740,000s, with homes typically taking around 26 days to sell in that window. That's a market with enough movement to negotiate and to ask hard questions before you're locked in, which is exactly the position you want to be in when a five-figure tax obligation is on the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does every new-construction home in Brentwood have Mello-Roos? No. It varies by subdivision and even by phase within the same subdivision. The only reliable way to confirm the amount for a specific home is the preliminary title report or a direct request to the title company.
Does the Mello-Roos tax ever go away? Yes, but not quickly. These taxes remain in effect until the underlying bond is paid off or for a maximum of 40 years, whichever comes first, and some districts continue a smaller charge afterward to fund ongoing maintenance or services.
Can I deduct Mello-Roos on my taxes? Sometimes, and only partially. A portion may be deductible if it funds ongoing maintenance or interest rather than new construction, but the burden is on the taxpayer to document it, and many California homeowners have already hit the SALT cap before a Mello-Roos deduction becomes meaningful. Talk to a tax professional before assuming either way.
Is new construction ever the better financial choice despite the premium? It can be, depending on what you value. Builder warranties, current code compliance, and energy efficiency have real value, and for some buyers that's worth paying more per square foot and carrying a recurring tax. The point isn't that new construction is a bad decision. It's that comparing it to resale on listing price alone leaves out most of what actually determines your monthly cost.
If you're weighing new construction against an established Brentwood neighborhood and want the actual numbers run for a specific address before you write an offer, Chris Strange can pull the title history and CFD disclosures so you're deciding with the full picture, not just the flyer. Start building your East Bay home wealth.
