Buying or selling in Moorpark

In the 90 days ending September 22, 2026, 91 houses, condos and townhomes sold in Moorpark, and the median sale price was $1,005,000, according to Redfin. Half sold for more and half for less.

The spread is wide. A condo near the college, a 1980s house in Mountain Meadows and a newer hilltop home are very different purchases, so the median is a starting point, not a price for any one home. Tell me the neighborhood and the kind of home you want and I will send you what has actually sold there.

About 77% of Moorpark's homes are detached houses, about 9% are attached single-family homes such as townhomes, about 13% are in buildings of three or more units, and about 1% are mobile homes.

The median home was built in 1987. About 42% of homes date from the 1980s, about 11% from the 1970s, about 15% from the 1990s, about 15% from 2000 to 2009 and about 9% from 2010 to 2019. Only about 9% were built before 1970.

With a home from the 1980s, the inspection matters. Roofs, plumbing and heating and cooling equipment can be at or past the end of their lives, and it is better to know that before you remove your contingencies.

For 2026-27 it is 1.0703% of assessed value for practically every home in the city, before fixed charges. The county lists 86 tax rate areas in Moorpark, 78 of them carry that rate, and the few with a lower rate hold almost no parcels.

The rate is the 1% base plus voter-approved debt: two Moorpark Unified School District bond levies, a community college bond and a Metropolitan Water District levy. On a home assessed at one million dollars, that is $10,703 a year for 2026-27.

Assessed value normally starts at your purchase price and can rise no more than 2% a year after that. What differs from one neighborhood to the next is the fixed charges on the bill, and the next two questions cover them.

The City has two bond districts, and the one that covers a whole neighborhood of homes is Moorpark Highlands. Not every home there still pays the tax. The district covers 685 homes, but builders and owners have prepaid the tax on many of them. The county's 2025-26 list shows it on 334 parcels, at an average of about $1,600 a parcel.

The amount depends on the tract and the size of the home. The City refinanced the bonds in January 2025 and estimated a saving of about $250 a year per home, the bonds mature on September 1, 2038, and the district's rules do not allow the bond tax after the 2044-45 tax year. The same rules also allow a separate services tax with no end date that cannot be prepaid. It was not on any of the 51 Moorpark Highlands tax bills checked for 2026-27.

The City's other bond district is on the Carlsberg business park and shopping center, not on the homes: none of 16 Carlsberg home tax bills checked for 2026-27 carries a Mello-Roos line. Its bonds mature on September 1, 2027. I found no school district Mello-Roos in Moorpark on that county list of charges billed on tax bills.

New communities are different. Beltramo Ranch has a services district with a maximum tax of $364 a home for 2026-27, rising at least 4% a year, and in September 2026 the City Council told staff to form a citywide services district that only new development would join. Send me the address and I will check the tax bill before you write an offer.

Homes across the city pay three small citywide charges. For 2026-27 a single-family house pays $20.84 for street lighting, $13.20 for landscaping and $77.31 for parks.

Many neighborhoods also sit in a zone with its own landscape charge. For 2026-27 a single-family lot pays $76.54 in Mountain Meadows, $446 in the Carlsberg area, $631.48 in the Masters tract, $881.48 in Country Club Estates, $1,128.65 in Moorpark Highlands and $1,648.28 in Meridian Hills. Older zones such as Steeple Hill, Pheasant Run and Pecan Avenue pay between about $108 and $129.

These charges are on the property tax bill and are separate from any homeowner association dues. The zones formed since 2000 can rise with inflation up to a set maximum, and the maximums are well above what is charged today: $4,510.69 in Moorpark Highlands and $3,615.37 in Meridian Hills for 2026-27.

No. The City's own answer is that it prohibits short-term rentals throughout the city and that homes may be rented for periods longer than thirty days. The zoning code defines a short-term rental as a stay of 30 consecutive days or less and lists it as not permitted in every residential zone.

If rental income is part of your plan, count on leases longer than 30 days, and read the association's rules as well, because an association can be stricter than the City.

Most of it is. On the State Fire Marshal's 2025 map, about 80% of the land in the city is in the Very High fire hazard severity zone and about 8% more is in the High zone. Counted by lot, about two out of three Moorpark addresses are in one of those two zones.

The part the state left unzoned is in the middle of the south side: about half the lots in Peach Hill, about a third of the lots between the arroyo and the railroad along Los Angeles Avenue, and fewer than one in four in Mountain Meadows. About half of Mountain Meadows lots are in a High or Very High zone, so check the address. Moorpark Highlands, Meridian Hills, the country club area and the Carlsberg area are almost entirely Very High, and Campus Park is Very High or High almost throughout.

Fire has crossed today's city limits before. The City's General Plan says the 2003 Simi Fire burned about 107,560 acres, including areas in eastern Moorpark along the 23. The state's fire map shows the December 2006 Shekell Fire over roughly 2,600 acres of the north side, and the Easy Fire of October 30, 2019, which started in Simi Valley, reaching roughly to the edge of the Carlsberg area. The 2024 Mountain Fire came within roughly two miles of the city limits and did not enter the city.

The Ventura County Fire Department serves Moorpark. Since January 1, 2026 its rule requires the seller of a home in a High or Very High zone to give the buyer documentation that the property meets defensible space rules. The inspection is free, and the department recommends at least two weeks before escrow closes. If you are buying, get a homeowners insurance quote during your contingency period, before you are committed to the purchase.

A small part of it. About 7% of the land in the city is in a FEMA special flood hazard area: mostly the Arroyo Simi channel, which runs through the middle of the city, and canyons on the north side. About 270 lots with addresses, roughly 2.5% of the city's, are in one.

About four out of five of those lots are in two tracts in the middle of the city: about 130 attached homes in the 500 block of Spring Road and about 90 lots in the Ivy Lane tract around Edenbridge Road. A wider band, about 17% of the city's lots and reaching north to Poindexter Avenue, is in the 500-year zone, which is not a special flood hazard area.

The arroyo runs between levees that the county manages. The City's General Plan says those levees protect 336 buildings, and that the largest flood risk in Moorpark is the levees being overtopped or breached in a major flood.

If the home is in a special flood hazard area and your loan is federally backed, you will be required to carry flood insurance. Send me the address and I will check the flood zone before you write an offer.

The Moorpark Unified School District. It runs five elementary schools through 5th grade (Arroyo West, Flory, Mountain Meadows, Peach Hill and Walnut Canyon), Campus Canyon, which goes through 8th grade, two middle schools for grades 6 to 8 (Chaparral and Mesa Verde), and two high schools for grades 9 to 12: Moorpark High School and The High School at Moorpark College.

Moorpark College, one of three colleges in the Ventura County Community College District, opened in 1967 on Campus Road in the northeast corner of the city. Its teaching zoo is open to the public on weekends.

Attendance boundaries do not follow neighborhood names, so check the address with the district's school locator before you write an offer.

Two freeways meet on the east side of the city: the 118 runs east to Simi Valley, and the 23 runs south to Thousand Oaks. West of there, Highway 118 becomes Los Angeles Avenue, the city's main commercial street, and continues toward Somis and Camarillo. The City's General Plan counts up to 1,500 trucks a day in each direction on Los Angeles Avenue.

From the train station on High Street it is about 48 road miles to downtown Los Angeles, about 54 to Santa Barbara, about 12 to Simi Valley or Camarillo and about 10 to Thousand Oaks.

The station is on Metrolink's Ventura County Line, which runs to Los Angeles Union Station on weekdays, and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner stops there too. Parking at the station is free.

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.

I help veterans and active-duty buyers with VA purchases, and my Veterans page explains how.

Yes, though only one community was under construction on the City's July 2026 list: Beltramo Ranch, 47 detached homes by KB Home south of Los Angeles Avenue. KB sells it as The Bungalows at Beltramo and listed its final phase as selling in October 2026.

The large one is Hitch Ranch, a Lennar project of 755 homes on about 277 acres north of Poindexter Avenue on the west side. The City approved the plan in 2022 and approved its first 239 homes, in Planning Area 3, on September 17, 2026.

Also approved but not started as of July 2026 were North Ranch (134 homes and 5 estate lots), Pacific Communities (284 homes south of Los Angeles Avenue), Vistas at Moorpark (110 homes) and Everett Street Terraces (60 condominiums). Shea Homes had an application in review for 52 houses and 60 duplexes on Walnut Canyon Road, and Warmington for 180 attached homes on Los Angeles Avenue.

At a new-home community the sales agent works for the builder. 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.

Two things. The first is the urban boundary. Moorpark set a City Urban Restriction Boundary in 1999, and voters extended it in 2016. Until December 31, 2050 the City may not extend urban services or allow urban uses outside the line without a vote of the people, and the line follows the city limits almost everywhere.

So new neighborhoods have to fit inside today's city. The City's Housing Element, adopted in 2023, said most of the projects approved or pending were in the Hitch Ranch area in the northwest, and Hitch Ranch is still the largest.

The second is the hillside rules, which apply to any property with slopes of 20% or more. They limit grading, protect ridgelines, require part of the steeper land to stay open space, and bar building on slopes of 50% or more with narrow exceptions. Adding on to an existing house on a lot that predates the rules is exempt as long as it does not add units or change the use. If you plan a larger project on a hillside lot, talk to the City's planning division before you buy.

It has one mobile home park: Villa del Arroyo, with about 240 spaces on Arroyo Drive in the northeast part of the city. The city code has a mobilehome park rent stabilization chapter. In a park it covers, a space rent increase no more than once a year and within an adjusted Consumer Price Index figure (the full index change up to 7%) needs no hearing, a larger one needs City approval, and the increase when a home is sold in place is capped at the lesser of 5% or that index. Spaces on a lease longer than month to month are exempt while the lease runs, and so is a park with its own rent agreement with the City, so ask the park which rules apply to the space before you buy.

For age-restricted housing, the City's Housing Element lists two apartment communities for residents 55 and older, Vintage Crest and Tafoya Terrace, both income-restricted rentals. A 390-unit senior community on Casey Road is approved but had not started construction as of July 2026. I found no age-restricted neighborhood of homes for sale in the City's housing plan, General Plan or project list.

The City itself adds little. I read the chapter list of Moorpark's municipal code, current through July 1, 2026, and found no City report, inspection or certificate required when a home is resold. The City's transfer tax is the standard city share, so the total stays at $1.10 per $1,000 of price, the same as the rest of the county.

What does apply to most Moorpark sellers is the fire department's rule. If the home is in a High or Very High fire hazard zone, you need the defensible space documentation before closing, and state law adds a home-hardening disclosure for homes built before 2010 in those zones.

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.

Water and sewer come from Ventura County Waterworks District No. 1, which the county runs from an office on Spring Road. As of a 2022 review, about 75% of its water was imported through the Calleguas Municipal Water District and about 25% came from its own wells.

Trash, recycling and organics are picked up by Waste Management, the City's hauler, and billed every two months. Electricity is delivered by Southern California Edison, the City also lists Clean Power Alliance as an electricity provider, and gas comes from Southern California Gas.

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. Camarillo is the next city southwest of Moorpark, and I work across Ventura County. I have 22 years in real estate, the last 17 in Ventura County.

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