The tax nobody mentions until closing

A metro district is a small government that borrowed to build a subdivision and charges the houses inside it to pay the debt back. Two homes on the same street can cost thousands a year apart because one sits inside a district and one does not, and the listing will not say so. Here is every one of them.

The heaviest fourteen

Annual cost is this district alone on a home worth $700,000. It is on top of the county, the city, the school district and the fire district.

What a mill levy actually is

A mill is one dollar of tax for every thousand dollars of ASSESSED value, which is not the same as what your house is worth. Colorado assesses a home at a fraction of its actual value, and since 2025 it has used two fractions: 7.05 percent for school district levies and 6.8 percent for every other local government, the second applied after subtracting 10 percent of the first $700,000, capped at $70,000.

So on a $700,000 home, the assessed value that a metro district taxes is $42,840. One mill on that is about $43 a year. Forty mills is about $1,714. The number sounds small and the bill is not.

Why metro districts exist

Somebody has to pay for the roads, water mains, sewers, drainage and parks inside a new subdivision before anybody lives there. Historically the developer paid, and the cost went into the price of the houses.

A metropolitan district is the other way of doing it. Under Colorado law a developer can petition to create a quasi-municipal government covering the land being built, with an elected board. Early on, the only people eligible to vote or serve are the developer and people connected to the project, because nobody lives there yet. That district issues municipal bonds to build the infrastructure, and repays them by levying a property tax on the homes that get built inside it.

The effect is that the infrastructure cost moves out of the purchase price and into an annual tax the buyer pays for decades. That is not a scandal and it is not hidden: the districts are public entities, their budgets are filed with the state, and Colorado requires a disclosure at closing. It is simply a real cost that does not appear in the listing price, the monthly payment estimate a lender quotes, or most online affordability calculators.

Why it should change what you offer

How to check an address yourself

This page explains a mechanism and maps public records. It is not tax advice and it is not a valuation. Confirm any figure with the county assessor or treasurer before it matters to an offer.

How the number is worked out

Colorado has used two residential assessment rates since 2025: 7.05 percent for school district levies and 6.8 percent for every other local government, the second applied after subtracting 10 percent of the first $700,000 of a home's actual value, capped at $70,000. A metro district is always a local government and never a school district, so its levy converts to dollars exactly:

assessed value = (actual value - reduction) x 6.8%
annual cost    = assessed value x mills / 1000

a $700,000 home, 50 mills:
  reduction    = $70,000
  assessed     = $630,000 x 6.8%  = $42,840
  annual cost  = $42,840 x 50/1000 = $2,142

Boundaries and certified levies from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, tax year 2025, published through the state Property Tax Map. Assessment rates are tax year 2026, payable 2027, from the Colorado Division of Property Taxation. 780 of the 994 districts carry a levy; the rest are dormant and charge nothing this year, which can change. This page shows what a metro district costs and deliberately does not estimate a whole tax bill, because that needs the school and non-school mills separated and a wrong total would be worse than none. Confirm any figure with the county assessor before it matters to an offer.