Christine Lynch

Hi Deanna,

You must have looked in all the right places because your information is correct. My husband and I were not able to have children so I am impartial and I will speak to what I hear about our schools in Tracy.

Jefferson School district is the desired district over Tracy Unified. This district only covers a small portion of city of Tracy homes and will include all south & east side rural county properties. If you want to be in this school district you will want to find as home south of Valpico Rd including all country homes south of Tracy city county lines. Everything North of Valipco will be in Tracy Unified.

Now, Lammersville is also mostly country properties around HWY 205 and west of city of Tracy county lines. The city of Mountain House also falls in the Lammersville school district at this time. Mountain House is currently talking about creating their own school district. As they grow in population, actually become self contained and have their own high school(s) I believe they will create their own district. Mountain House is a new city about 5 miles west of Tracy city lines that broke ground a couple years ago. At total build-out they will have 40,000 residents. They do have elementary schools but the kids do have to come into Tracy for high school until they have enough residents to support a high school. They have 2 planned in their general city plan.

I hope this helps you understand a little more about these 3 districts. I can be very confusing. - Mon Apr 21 2008, 08:29

Hi Kristen,

Cheryl did give you good advice about talking with an insurance agent. If I was representing a buyer in that area I would make it clear that today you might not be on a flood map for levee breaks but 10 years from now it could change again and you can be.

I have a seller in the rural area of the levees, when they purchased 4 years ago they were in a flood zone and needed flood insurance which they did obtain. 2 years ago their insurance company informed them they are no longer in a flood zone. I'm glad you did give that some thought...you’re smart. - Thu Apr 3 2008, 16:59

Hi Mike,

Toni is right use the 1.5% rate for Mountain House. The actual county tax is still 1% of the sales price just like everywhere else. the extra .5% is to cover "special taxes" that Mountain House has for the exact reason's Toni gave. It's a new city that started from scratch. They currently have no shopping or a high school...but they will! They do have their own fire department to keep you safe that way.

In Tracy you'll want to use 1.25% again 1% property taxes and .25% for special taxes and/or mello-roos tax. Homes built 1989 or newer will have the possibility to have mello-roos tax. Any home built prior to 1989 will not have mello-roos. There are a couple builders who pre-paid the mello-roos for each home therefore you can be living in a home built in 2003 but have no mello-roos tax. Here is something to make you crazy…each neighborhood can have a different mello-roos amount. That’s right, it depends on what mello-roos district the home is in. I used to live in district 87-9, I bought my home in 1994 and had a monthly mello-roos of a little over $100.00 but as there were more homes built in that district and the bond was paid down so did our monthly fee. When I last saw a natural hazards report for this district their mello-roos is down to $167.00 a YEAR. Soon that bond will be paid off and the homes in that district can say they have no mello-roos.

I find it interesting how cities like Mountain House and Patterson that dropped the word mello-roos. If you go to these area's and ask do you have mello-roos the answer is No. this is correct, they do not call it mello-roos but they have special taxes that total more than Tracy’s possible mello-roos. Mello-roos is a special tax that became a 9 letter word and thus the name was dropped by some cities.

Patterson’s special taxes total 238.00 a month when I last checked. This is huge! They also had no end in sight. - Thu Apr 3 2008, 16:50

Hi again Lance,

You are going to find that if a neighborhood was sold as new homes in late 2004 or 2005 that they will be riddled with foreclosed homes. Nearly the entire neighborhood was sold in a period of time when teaser interest rates were common.

The area of the street named Whispering Wind (Edgewood neighborhood) is also flooded with bank owned homes for the same exact reason. - Thu Apr 3 2008, 15:16

Hi Lance,

Oh boy..I do wish it was easy. Basically each time a developer started a track home development they named it and usually had some kind of a wall with it's name on at least one of the entrances (but not all). I'm going to copy and paste your street references and try to help.

#1) South of 11th St, West of Corral Hollow, North of Schulte. Is that considered a single neighborhood? No, this is not a single neighborhood. In fact that area would make up at least 4 areas depending on how far west you go.

#2)"What about the area south of Schulte? I've heard Barcelona, Lourance Ranch, and Redbridge but don't know the boundaries of those areas or anything more about them."

Ok, Barcelonla will be the first development when you come off of Corral Hollow, as you go west you will hit the Summer Lane are and then that turns into Lourence Ranch. Lourence Ranch is also reached from 11th street which is where they have the wall announcing the neighborhood (around the new big sports park). Now, Redbridge is an easy one to identify...this is a HOA (homeowner's association) you enter this neighborhood from Lammer's Rd, south of 11th street. If you go north on Lammer's and north of 11th that will be Westgate.

#3) What about North of 11th, but South of Byron? What's that called? East of Corral Hollow, South of 11th, North of Schulte, West of N Tracy. Is that all considered the same neighborhood?
Your not going to like this….that triangle is 3 different neighborhood’s. From Lammer’s going east you have Westgate, Crossroads and Belconte.

The hardest part is that all these homes flow together once you’re in the neighborhood streets. Yes, you will be bale to see a difference in the home styles, construction and age’s that is when you know your now in a different neighborhood.

If you want a specific neighborhood to keep your eye on I recommend you contact an agent and have them create a profile by using the MLS map feature. We can draw lines around the specific streets you want and save that search, then anytime something happens in that area you will be alerted by e-mail. Think of me if you need more help.

If you think this is hard wait till you have to figure out the school boundaries. There is no rhyme or reason to that either . - Thu Apr 3 2008, 15:12