Pull up almost any San Diego listing online and you'll see an annual property tax figure. Ignore it. That's the seller's tax bill, and in California it has very little to do with what you'll pay.
This is Prop 13 at work. A home's assessed value resets when it sells, and after that it can only go up about 2% a year. Say the sellers bought their Clairemont ranch house in 2004. Their bill is based on a 2004 price plus small yearly bumps. You're buying at today's price, so your bill starts over.
The math is easy enough to do on your phone. Multiply the purchase price by roughly 1.1% to 1.25%, depending on the local bonds in that area. On an $850,000 condo, that comes to about $9,500 to $10,600 a year, or $800 to $900 a month. If the listing shows $3,200, that gap is real money. First-time buyers usually find out late, when the lender's Loan Estimate comes back higher than the number in their spreadsheet.
Then there's Mello-Roos.
A lot of the newer master-planned communities in San Diego County were built with special tax districts that pay for schools and roads. Otay Ranch in Chula Vista, Del Sur, and parts of 4S Ranch are all examples. That tax gets added on top of your regular property tax, and on some homes I've seen it run several thousand dollars a year. It doesn't always show up clearly on a listing, either. Some districts step down or expire after a set number of years and some don't. Ask for the actual tax bill and the district disclosure, not someone's summary of it.
Here's where I disagree with a lot of buyers (and some agents): Mello-Roos isn't a reason to cross a neighborhood off your list. It's a cost, just like an HOA due, and you should treat it that way. A $780,000 house with a $4,000-a-year special tax and an $820,000 house without one cost you about the same each month. Compare them on that basis and the "cheaper" house stops looking cheaper.
With my buyers, we build the monthly number from the ground up before we tour anything. That means principal and interest, estimated property tax at your purchase price, any Mello-Roos, HOA dues if there are any, and insurance. Then we shop for homes that fit that monthly number, not the list price.
If you're looking at a listing right now and want the real figure, send it to me. Pulling the actual tax bill takes me about five minutes.