A buyer comparing a resale house in an older section of Marina against a new-construction home in Sea Haven, The Dunes, or East Garrison will often find the price tags close enough to call a coin flip. What that comparison misses is the line item that never shows up in the sale price at all.
That line item is a special tax attached to the newer developments, and in East Garrison it has a name you can look up on the county's own website: CFD No. 2006-1. It funds roads, drainage, parks, and sheriff protection inside the district, and it rides alongside the regular property tax bill rather than inside the number a listing advertises.
The Tax That Isn't on the For-Sale Sign
Marina's older neighborhoods, the streets built decades before Fort Ord closed, were never part of a Community Facilities District. Their property tax bill is close to the standard 1 percent of assessed value that California's Proposition 13 set as the baseline back in 1978.
East Garrison, Sea Haven, and The Dunes sit on land that needed roads, drainage systems, and parks built from scratch after the base closed. Monterey County didn't have a way to fund that under Prop 13's cap, so the development uses a Community Facilities District, commonly called Mello-Roos, to bond the infrastructure and repay it through a special tax on the homes built there. The county's own East Garrison FAQ page, maintained by the district's county supervisor, spells out exactly how that tax is calculated: not as a percentage of what the home is worth, but as a set amount tied to square footage, split between a facilities charge for the bonds and a services charge for ongoing maintenance.
What the Number Actually Looks Like
The same county page gives a real example rather than an abstract formula. A property tax bill of $6,750 carries an additional $4,546 for the CFD and CSD combined, adding roughly two-thirds of one percent to the effective tax rate on that home. Spread across twelve months, that additional charge works out to close to $380 a month, on top of the base tax bill of about $560 a month for a home assessed near $675,000.
The facilities portion of that charge increases 2 percent every year. The services portion increases with the Consumer Price Index, capped at 4 percent annually. The facilities piece can often be prepaid in a lump sum, which removes the bond charge permanently, but the services piece keeps going regardless. The CFD is set up to disband once the underlying bonds are paid off, roughly 30 years from formation, at which point that portion of the bill disappears for whoever owns the home at the time.
HOA dues stack on top of that, and they vary by community. East Garrison's single-family homes have shown master dues around $125 a month. The Dunes has listed dues closer to $200 a month in some sections. Sea Haven's attached homes have shown dues in the mid-hundreds. None of those figures include the CFD charge. They're separate lines on separate bills, and a buyer comparing two homes by sale price alone will miss both.
| Community | Typical monthly HOA | Mello-Roos CFD/CSD |
|---|---|---|
| Older Marina resale | Varies, often none | Not applicable |
| East Garrison | Around $125 | Yes, CFD No. 2006-1 |
| Sea Haven | Mid-hundreds | Yes |
| The Dunes | Around $200 | Yes |
Why the County Structured It This Way
Prop 13 protected existing homeowners from runaway tax increases, but it also meant a newly developing area like the former Fort Ord couldn't lean on the county's general tax base to pay for roads and parks that didn't exist yet. The Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982 gave counties a workaround: let the people who live in the new development pay for the infrastructure they use, financed through bonds and repaid as a special tax tied to the parcel rather than the home's market value.
That's the reason a 1960s or 1970s Marina street carries none of this cost while a home built last year two miles away does. It isn't a penalty or an oversight. It's a financing tool doing exactly what it was designed to do, and it happens to land differently depending on which side of the development boundary a buyer chooses.
What the Median Price Doesn't Do for You
Single-family homes in the 93933 ZIP code carried a median sale price of $1,079,000 as of July 2026, up 18.9 percent year over year, according to MLSListings data, with 56 active listings and a median of 31 days on market. That number blends resale streets in older Marina with new construction in the master-planned communities, and it treats a $1,079,000 resale home with no CFD the same as a $1,079,000 new build carrying a few hundred dollars a month in CFD and HOA charges on top.
Two buyers looking at that same median number could end up with monthly payments several hundred dollars apart before they've compared a single interior finish. The gap doesn't show up until someone pulls the actual tax bill or the CFD disclosure, which is exactly why it's worth pulling before writing an offer rather than after.
What to Ask Before You Write an Offer
- Request the property's current tax bill and look for line items reading "CFD" or a district number rather than assuming the listed tax rate is the full picture.
- Ask whether the facilities portion of the CFD can be prepaid, and get a written payoff quote from the CFD administrator if it can.
- Confirm how many years remain on the bond term. A district five years from payoff carries a very different long-term cost than one with 25 years left.
- Pull the HOA's CC&Rs, budget, and reserve study separately from the CFD paperwork. They're two different obligations with two different administrators.
- Check the Natural Hazard Disclosure report, which is required on California residential sales and must note CFD membership.
None of this is a reason to avoid new construction in East Garrison, Sea Haven, or The Dunes. Modern systems, energy efficiency, and builder warranties are real value, and plenty of buyers decide the trade is worth it. The point is knowing the trade exists before comparing a listing price against an older Marina resale as if the two numbers meant the same thing.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Early
Does the Mello-Roos tax ever go away? Yes, once the bonds financing the district's infrastructure are paid off, typically around 30 years from formation for East Garrison's CFD. The services portion can continue afterward if the district was structured to fund ongoing maintenance rather than just the initial bonds.
Can a buyer prepay it? Often the facilities portion can be paid off in a lump sum, which removes that piece of the bill permanently. The services portion generally continues regardless of prepayment, since it funds ongoing operations rather than bond debt.
Do any resale homes in Marina carry this same tax? Older sections of Marina built before the Fort Ord land transitioned to residential development generally don't carry a CFD, since those districts were formed specifically to fund infrastructure in newer developments. Always confirm with the specific parcel's tax bill rather than assuming based on the general area.
Comparing homes across Marina's older streets and the newer communities built on former Fort Ord land takes more than a sale price side by side. If you're weighing a resale home against new construction in East Garrison, Sea Haven, or The Dunes and want the actual numbers pulled for a specific address, Dave Lucas can walk through the tax bill and HOA paperwork with you before you write an offer.
