Buying or selling in Fillmore

Yes. Heritage Valley Parks, which the City says is commonly known as the Bridges, is in the City of Fillmore's Community Facilities District No. 5. The City's budget says the district was set up in 2006 to finance a new elementary school; the Area B bonds also paid for the El Dorado flood control channel and the Pole Creek bridge. It has two parts with their own bonds: Area A, with bonds sold in 2015 whose final maturity is September 1, 2045, and Area B, with bonds sold in 2023 whose final maturity is September 1, 2053.

For 2025-26 the county's list shows Area A charging about $1.09 million across 336 parcels and Area B about $1.34 million across 418 parcels. That works out to about $3,200 a parcel on average in each. The tax on a given home is set by a formula, so it can be higher or lower. On the twelve 2026-27 bills I checked, the Mello-Roos line ran from about $2,640 to about $4,130 in Area A and from about $2,190 to about $4,210 in Area B, each about 2% more than the year before.

Two more districts are on every Heritage Valley bill I checked: for 2026-27 the Heritage Valley landscaping and lighting district at about $850 or about $940, and Storm Drain District 7 at $392.50. A year earlier those were about $705 or $785, and $347. Not every home near Heritage Valley Parkway is in these districts, so check the tax bill to see which apply to a given home.

The year the bonds mature is not always the last year of the tax, and I did not find the tax formula on the City's site, so read the Notice of Special Tax in the disclosures. Send me the address and I will check the tax bill before you write an offer.

Sespe Creek runs along the west side of Fillmore and the Santa Clara River along the south, and the city relies on levees. On FEMA's current map, effective April 11, 2024, about 19% of the land inside the city limits is high-risk, and that is mostly the river and creek channels themselves.

By my reading of that map in October 2026, about 53% of the developed parcels in the city are in what FEMA calls an area with reduced flood risk due to levee. About 41% are in the minimal zone, including nearly all of Central Avenue. Only two developed parcels are centered in a high-risk zone, both small lots near Sespe Creek. About 27 more have an edge or corner in one, mostly on Reading and Rio Grande streets beside the river. Nearly all of the newest Heritage Valley Parks tract and of Creekside is in the levee zone.

FEMA's map lists the levees behind that. Sespe Creek has two reaches owned by the county watershed district: one is accredited and the other is provisionally accredited. The Heritage Valley Parks levee on the Santa Clara River and the Pole Creek floodwall, both owned by the City, are accredited. FEMA's layer also shows three more Santa Clara River segments here: one it lists as accredited (Ventura County Levee 35), and two for which it lists no accreditation status (SCR-5, owned by the City, and Ventura County Levee 21). In 2013 the county approved raising part of the Sespe Creek levee by one to six feet to help it qualify for FEMA certification.

Flood insurance is required in high-risk areas with government-backed mortgages. The levee zone is not mapped as high-risk, but FEMA's own name for it is reduced risk, not no risk, so ask for a flood insurance quote anyway. Send me the address and I will check the flood zone before you write an offer.

A large part of it is. The City adopted the state's fire hazard severity zone map on May 13, 2025, effective July 1, 2025, without adding to it. On that map about 39% of the land inside the city limits is Very High, about 16% is High and about 14% is Moderate.

Counting developed parcels, roughly 26% are Very High, 18% High and 15% Moderate. It is not only the hillside. Every addressed parcel on Foothill Drive is Very High, but so is nearly half of the newest Heritage Valley Parks tract, where every parcel I checked is in one of the three zones, and all of Creekside is High or Very High.

The 2003 Piru Fire, about 63,700 acres in all, is the largest mapped fire to reach the city limits since 1980: its perimeter covers about 8% of the land inside them, along the north edge. The 2017 Thomas Fire perimeter does not overlap the city limits.

Get a homeowners insurance quote during your contingency period, before you are committed to the purchase.

For 2026-27 it is about 1.152% of assessed value, and unlike most cities in the county it is the same all over town. The county lists 21 tax rate areas for Fillmore, but every parcel I found is in an area with that same total.

The rate is the basic 1%, plus about 0.11% for Fillmore Unified School District bonds, about 0.013% for the community college bond and about 0.026% for the United Water Conservation District. On a home assessed at one million dollars that is about $11,500 a year.

What differs from one street to the next is the fixed charges. For 2025-26 the county's list shows Mello-Roos districts at Heritage Valley Parks, River Oaks and the North Fillmore industrial park area, two landscaping and lighting districts, seven storm drain districts and a citywide swimming pool tax of $15 a home. On the River Oaks bills I checked for 2026-27, the Mello-Roos line ran from about $1,680 to about $4,090, and the bonds' final maturity is September 1, 2036.

Property tax is 1% of assessed value plus voter-approved debt, and assessed value normally starts at the purchase price and can rise no more than 2% a year until the next sale or new construction.

About 75% of Fillmore's homes are detached houses, about 6% are attached single-family homes, about 10% are mobile homes, and about 8% are in buildings of three or more units. About 68% are owned by the people who live in them.

The median home was built in 1978. About 12% of homes were built before 1940 and another 12% in the 1950s, about 18% in the 1970s and about 14% in the 1980s. About 23% were built in 2000 or later, and the City counts about 770 homes at Heritage Valley Parks since 2004.

The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey puts the median value of owner-occupied homes in Fillmore at a little under three quarters of the county's median. That is a survey figure, not a sale price, so ask me for recent sales in the neighborhood you are looking at.

On mobile homes: I searched the city code and found no chapter that limits mobile home space rents, unlike Santa Paula next door. If you are buying in a park, ask the park for its rules, any age limit and the current space rent before you make an offer.

Yes, in two places as of October 2026. Creekside, by Williams Homes, is in North Fillmore: 134 detached homes planned, with homes for sale now. The builder estimates association dues of $180 at build-out and a total tax rate of 1.65% including Mello-Roos.

That Mello-Roos district is still being formed. A City staff report of August 25, 2026 scheduled the public hearing on Community Facilities District No. 7, for Creekside, for the council meeting of October 13, 2026. As proposed, the 2026-27 special tax would run from $2,995 for a home under 1,800 square feet to $3,823 for one of 2,800 square feet or more, rise 2% a year, and could be levied through 2066-67.

At Heritage Valley Parks, Comstock Homes is selling homes at Heritage Grove, in a neighborhood it calls The Orchards: detached homes of about 2,400 to 3,500 square feet with no homeowners association, by the builder's site. The City's 2026-27 budget says that project is nearing completion.

In 2008 a voter measure cut the North Fillmore plan from as many as 700 homes to no more than 350. You can bring your own agent, but most builders expect that agent to be registered on your first visit, so call me before you tour.

Fillmore has its own fire department, so the Ventura County Fire Department's sale inspection rule does not reach inside the city limits. I searched the city code and the fire department's pages and found no city requirement for a defensible space inspection at sale. State law still applies: in a High or Very High fire hazard severity zone the seller must give the buyer documentation that the property meets defensible space rules, or agree in writing that the buyer will get it after closing, and for a home built before 2010 a home-hardening disclosure. The county fire department tells owners in Fillmore to contact the city's fire prevention bureau.

The city code does contain a resale report. Chapter 5.10 says the owner of a residential building must apply to the City, within three days of signing a sale agreement, for a report on the building's records covering unpermitted units, garage conversions and additions. But the same chapter says the program ends June 30, 2017 unless the council extends it, and I found no extension in the code, although the City still posts the form. Ask Building and Safety whether it applies before you list.

The city's transfer tax is the standard share that state law credits against the county's, so the total is $1.10 per $1,000 of price. And the city code bars installing a home water softener that discharges brine to the sewer.

Before you list, I walk the home, show you what has actually sold nearby, and tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

One district covers the whole city: Fillmore Unified. Its elementary schools, for kindergarten through 5th grade, are Mountain Vista, Rio Vista and San Cayetano in Fillmore and Piru Elementary in Piru. Fillmore Middle School serves 6th through 8th grade and Fillmore High School 9th through 12th. Sierra High School is the district's continuation school.

The Heritage Valley Parks plan set aside land for an elementary school, and the City's budget says the Mello-Roos district there was set up in 2006 to help finance a new one. Because there is only one district, school bonds do not change the tax rate from one part of town to another.

Highway 126 is the main road: about 26 road miles west to Ventura and about 20 east to Interstate 5 near Castaic. Santa Clarita is about 23 miles, downtown Los Angeles about 55, and Santa Paula about 10 miles west.

Highway 23 leaves town to the south and reaches Moorpark in about 11 road miles. Thousand Oaks is about 21 miles by that route.

There is no commuter train. The rail line through town belongs to the Ventura County Transportation Commission. The Fillmore and Western Railway's lease ended in June 2021, and Sierra Northern Railway has run the line under a 35-year agreement signed in December 2021, for freight and film work. A sister company has run rail bikes on it since March 2023, and the commission says excursion trains will be developed later. Trains must sound their horns at crossings. The nearest Metrolink station is Moorpark, about 11 road miles away. Camarillo is about 20 and East Ventura about 22.

The commission's Highway 126 bus line stops in Fillmore and Santa Paula.

Only with a conditional use permit from the City, obtained before you list or rent. The rental has to be a single-unit dwelling in a residential zone, only the owner can apply, and a short-term stay means less than 30 days.

The rules cap the number of guests: two or fewer when the owner is on site, or two per bedroom plus two when the owner is away. The owner needs a city business license, collects the city's hotel tax, and must show the City that any homeowners association has approved.

The permit is personal to the owner and does not run with the land, so a buyer does not inherit it and would have to apply fresh.

The City runs both systems. As of the county boundary commission's 2018 review, drinking water came entirely from city wells in the Fillmore groundwater basin, and the City's water recycling plant has treated the sewage since September 2009.

Sewer is the charge people notice. Every home pays a flat $103.36 a month, a rate in place since March 2017 and adopted through 2027. Water, under rates that took effect September 1, 2023 and run through 2027, is $25.13 a month for a five-eighths or three-quarter-inch meter plus $3.14 per hundred cubic feet, with no water included in the base charge.

Southern California Edison and the Gas Company hold the City's utility franchises. A private company, Santa Clara Valley Disposal, picks up trash under an exclusive city franchise and bills customers directly.

No. Both are unincorporated county land. Bardsdale addresses carry the Fillmore name and ZIP code but lie south of the city limits, and Piru is its own community about 8 road miles east on Highway 126.

That changes the rules. The City's ordinances on this page, such as its short-term rental permit, stop at the city limits. Outside them, fire protection comes from the Ventura County Fire Department, so its sale inspection rule for homes in High and Very High fire zones applies there.

Piru Elementary is a Fillmore Unified school, and Piru's sewer service is billed by a county district. For 2026-27, tax rates in the school district outside the city run from about 1.126% to about 1.197%.

Yes. Fillmore has a City Urban Restriction Boundary, and in November 2016 voters approved Measure A, which extended it from December 31, 2020 to December 31, 2050. The City's general plan says the line limits urbanization outside it without a vote of Fillmore's citizens.

Voters have also acted on a single plan: in 2008, Measure I cut the North Fillmore Specific Plan from as many as 700 homes to no more than 350. The county's boundary commission also recognizes a greenbelt between Fillmore and Piru.

Yes. For 2026 the conforming loan limit and the FHA loan limit for a single-family home in Ventura County are both $1,035,000. With your full entitlement, VA sets no loan limit: the amount depends on what your lender approves and what the home appraises for.

At a new-home site, ask your lender to count the Mello-Roos and any association dues when it figures your payment. I help veterans and active-duty buyers with VA purchases, and my Veterans page explains how.

It depends on price and condition more than on the city. Across Ventura County, my own 49 listings since 2022 sold in a median of 11 days on the market, at a median of 100% of the asking price.

Before you list, I walk the home, show you what has actually sold nearby, and tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

I'm Jason Walters, and my office is in Camarillo, on Village Commons Boulevard. I have 22 years in real estate, the last 17 in Ventura County, and I work across Ventura County, including Fillmore and Santa Paula.

You work with me directly, from pricing strategy to closing day.