Murrieta, CA · Updated Oct 2026

What a Murrieta house pays

Property tax, water, trash and energy from public rates. Look up your address to make it yours, and see how to pay less.

Sent only to free public map services to find who serves it. Not stored unless you save your house.

Example · a Murrieta house

$12,728a year · $1,061 a month

Starts at $488,856 of value before exemptions. Typical use.

Property tax$5,301
1.100% of $488,856, less $7,000 homeowners' exemption
Flat charges on the tax bill$245
Murrieta Fire District fire suppression assessment $40 · Murrieta Parks & Recreation tax $45 · Murrieta Community Services District (Zone A) $119 · CSA 152 NPDES stormwater (City of Murrieta) $10 · Flood control NPDES stormwater assessment (Santa Margarita watershed) $4 · EMWD infrastructure availability charge $20 · MWD standby charge (East) $7
Electricity and gas$3,603
633 kWh a month $2,776 · 35 therms $827
Water and sewer$1,696
18 units (CCF) a month on Eastern Municipal Water District: water $97, sewer $44 a month
Trash$390
Residential basic service (96-gallon trash, recycling and organics carts), $33 a month
Home insurance$1,492
Typical premium $1,492

A typical Murrieta house pays about $12,700 a year: $5,550 property tax and charges, $1,700 water and sewer, $390 trash, $3,600 electricity and gas, $1,490 home insurance. Estimated from public rates, not anyone's actual bill.

Rates checked Oct 22, 2026. Insurance: what you enter, or a typical premium until you do. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Ways to pay less

Nothing here applies to every house automatically. These are worth checking:

Two free bulky item pickups a year
Murrieta residents are entitled to two free bulky item pickups during the year; there is a size/amount limit.
How: Contact Waste Management at 866-909-4458 at least twenty-four hours before your regularly scheduled collection.
Free used motor oil pickup
Residents can arrange a curbside pickup of used motor oil at no cost; the oil must be sealed in a container that cannot spill.
How: Contact Waste Management at 866-909-4458 at least twenty-four hours before a regularly scheduled pickup.
Income-qualified: SCE CARE rate32.5% off the electric bill
Through SCE's CARE program, qualifying households receive 32.5% off their electric bills and a Base Services Charge of about $6 a month.
How: Apply with SCE's CARE/FERA online application; no additional documentation is required.
Income-qualified: SoCalGas CARE20% off the gas bill
You may qualify for 20% off your monthly natural gas bill through SoCalGas's CARE program if you or someone in your household receives benefits such as Medi-Cal or CalFresh, or by household income.
How: Apply with SoCalGas's online CARE application.
Check your water budget
Your EMWD water budget uses 47 gallons per person per day indoors plus your irrigated area, which is listed on your bill; use over the budget is charged at higher rates. Irrigated areas may be customized through EMWD's variance process.
How: Check the estimated irrigated area listed on your EMWD bill; it can be customized through EMWD's variance process.
EMWD payment assistance
EMWD offers several options that customers can use to request assistance in paying their bill.
How: Call EMWD Customer Service at 1-800-426-3693, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Income-qualified: EVMWD RARE credit$38.16 water bill credit
EVMWD's RARE program applies a credit, $38.16 from July 1, 2026, to qualified customer bills for households of 1-4 people using 13 CCF or less in a 30-day period; you must be enrolled in the SCE or SoCalGas CARE program and register for EVMWD's AquaHawk alerts.
How: Complete EVMWD's RARE application with all requested documentation, including proof of CARE enrollment.
Western Water past-due helpUp to $150 once a year
Western Water customers in a CARE program from their natural gas or electric company can apply for payment assistance of the past-due amount on the bill, up to $150, once per 12-month period. Assistance is subject to funding availability.
How: Provide a recent gas or electric bill showing CARE participation and complete the Low-Income Bill Payment Assistance Form, email Western Water's Customer Service team, or call 951.571.7104.
Free landscape survey (Western Water)
Western Water offers free landscape efficiency surveys to help find leaks and ways to reduce outdoor water use.
How: Call 951.571.7104 or visit WesternWaterCA.gov/SaveWater to schedule.

Adjust to match your bills

What you know

Value before exemptionsMany Murrieta homes also pay Mello-Roos (CFD) or assessment district special taxes: in a random sample of 164 single-family 2026-27 tax bills, about 30% did, with a median of about $1,450 a year (most between about $350 and $3,400, up to about $4,000) for City of Murrieta, Murrieta Valley Unified, Perris Union High School or water district CFDs; about 26% also paid a City landscaping and lighting district assessment (median about $400). These are not included in the total; your tax bill lists them. Under Prop 13 your assessed value starts at your purchase price and can rise at most 2% a year, so it is often far below market: use the assessed value on your tax bill.

I live here and have the Homeowners' exemption

Home insurance, a yearFrom your policy. We start at $1,492, NAIC data via the Insurance Information Institute; California figures from the California Department of Insurance.

Earthquake insurance, a yearSeparate from home insurance. Most owners don't have it.

Your use

Water, units a month

On your water bill. 1 unit (CCF) is 748 gallons. A typical Murrieta house uses about 18.

Electricity, kWh a month

On your Southern California Edison bill. An electric car adds about 300 kWh.

Gas, therms a month (yearly average)

Money dates

Nov 30, 2026in 38 daysLast day to file a 2026 regular assessment appeal in Riverside County (filing period July 2 to November 30, 2026).
Dec 10in 48 daysFirst property tax installment (due Nov 1) is delinquent after Dec 10: 10% penalty.
Jan 1, 2027in 70 daysEMWD's 2027 water rates start for bills dated on or after January 1 (Tier 2 rises from $4.51 to $4.88 per billing unit).
Jan 1, 2027in 70 daysRancho Water's next scheduled rate adjustment: in the Santa Rosa Division the 3/4-inch monthly service charge rises from $60.70 to $65.54 and Tier 1 from $1.84 to $2.05 per HCF.

Who serves this house

Water: Depends on your address; Four water districts
Property tax: 1.10% of value; 2026-27 tax year, Riverside County (tax rate area 024-021, Murrieta's largest: Murrieta Valley Unified, Mt. San Jacinto College, MWD East and EMWD Improvement District 22)
Garbage: Waste Management (WM); The City of Murrieta provides trash, recycling and organic waste collection through a franchise agreement with Waste Management (WM).
Sewer: Eastern Municipal Water District; EMWD's sewer rate S401 covers the Temecula/Murrieta area; it also applies to Rancho California Water District accounts billed on EMWD's behalf within I.D. U-8.
Electricity: Southern California Edison; The City lists Southern California Edison as Murrieta's electric company.
Gas: SoCalGas; The City lists Southern California Gas Co. as Murrieta's gas company.
Schools: Murrieta Valley Unified School District; The City lists Murrieta Valley Unified and Menifee Union School District as the school districts serving Murrieta.

Pay or manage your bills

Your water

Source: Murrieta is in EMWD's Skinner service area: the Robert A. Skinner Filtration Plant, owned and operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, treats water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project.
Hardness: Water from the Skinner Filtration Plant averaged 13.4 grains per gallon of hardness (range 13.3 to 13.6) in the 2025 water quality report.

Other CA cities

How these numbers are made

Water (Eastern Municipal Water District, the largest of Murrieta's four water districts, 2026 rates for bills dated on or after January 1, 2026): the daily account charge ($0.220), 5/8- or 3/4-inch demand charge ($0.419) and supply and reliability capital projects charge ($0.231), $0.870 a day or about $26.46 a month at 365/12 days. EMWD's tiers are a budget set for each home (47 gallons a person a day indoors plus an outdoor allowance from irrigated area and weather), so we model EMWD's own average customer, 18 billing units a month at 100% of budget (from EMWD's 2023 rate presentation): Tier 1 ($1.55) up to 3.6 units (20% of budget), Tier 2 ($4.51) up to 18, Tier 3 ($7.68) up to 27 (150% of budget, per EMWD's 2023 rate notice), Tier 4 ($14.85) above. The page starts at 18 units. On the County parcel map about 13,000-15,000 of Murrieta's roughly 30,000 single-family and condo parcels are in EMWD's water system, about 5,400-7,300 in Rancho California Water District's, about 5,100 in Elsinore Valley MWD's and about 3,500 in Western Water's Murrieta system; the page picks your district from your address.
Water (Rancho California Water District, Santa Rosa Division, rates effective January 1, 2026 from its 2024 Proposition 218 notice, which the district says were approved): the 3/4-inch monthly service charge ($60.70); the energy rate for pressure zone 1500 ($0.17 per HCF, the zone in the district's own Santa Rosa sample bill; zone 1305 pays none and higher zones up to $1.28) added to each tier. Most RCWD homes in Murrieta (between I-15 and I-215 and west of I-15, south of about Kalmia St) are in the Santa Rosa Division on the district's division map; a smaller area east of I-215 near Murrieta Hot Springs Rd is in the Rancho Division, whose rates are lower (3/4-inch $27.89, Tiers 1-4 $0.92/$2.06/$4.99/$6.52 per HCF). Tiers are a budget per home (47 gallons a person a day indoors, plus an outdoor allowance from irrigated area and weather), so we model the district's sample residential customer: Tier 1 up to 8 HCF, Tier 2 up to 14 HCF (its 8 indoor plus 6 outdoor units), Tier 3 up to 21 HCF (50% more), Tier 4 above.
Water (Elsinore Valley MWD, rates effective July 1, 2026 in the Administrative Code): the 3/4-inch monthly fixed meter charge ($25.25) plus the capital replacement charge ($20.24), $45.49 a month; power zone 1 charge ($0.09 per CCF, the lowest; zones 2 and 3 pay $0.37 and $2.02) added to each tier. Tier 1 is the indoor budget at EVMWD's default 4 people x 47 gallons a day (about 7.6 CCF a month); Tier 2 runs to 20 CCF, the single-family usage EVMWD uses for its rate comparison, assumed to be within the outdoor budget; Tier 3 above. Your real budget depends on household size, irrigated area and weather. EVMWD serves the California Oaks area of Murrieta.
Water (Western Municipal Water District, Murrieta, rates billed on or after July 1, 2026, adopted June 4, 2025): the 5/8-inch monthly system charge ($43.24; a 3/4-inch meter is $59.02 and Western Water's median Murrieta customer has one); Power Zone 107 (no pumping charge; Grizzly Ridge, zone 108, adds $0.28 per HCF). Tiers modelled on Western Water's median Murrieta customer (four people, 18.90 HCF a month, assumed at 100% of budget): Tier 1 indoor budget 4 x 55 gallons a day (about 8.9 HCF a month), Tier 2 up to 18.9 HCF, Tier 3 width 54% of the outdoor budget (to about 24.3 HCF), Tier 4 above. With a 3/4-inch meter this reproduces Western Water's own $138.30 sample bill for July 2026 to within a few cents.
Sewer: EMWD's Temecula/Murrieta-area daily sewer rate S401 ($1.303) plus the $0.156 daily sewer system capital projects charge, about $44.38 a month for a 3-4 person household (block factor 100%); 1-2 person households pay 65% and larger households more. S401 also applies to Rancho California Water District accounts that EMWD sewers. Homes in the Western Water and Elsinore Valley MWD areas pay those districts' own sewer rates, which we do not model. Trash: the City's 2026/2027 WM residential basic rate, $32.52 a month (service, franchise fee, organics and disposal), billed quarterly by WM.
Property tax: Riverside County's 2026-27 rates (Resolution 2026-153, adopted August 25, 2026) for tax rate area 024-021, the Murrieta area with the most single-family parcels (2,819 on the County parcel map): the 1% levy, Murrieta Valley Unified (0.08645%), Mt. San Jacinto College (0.0031%), MWD East (0.0085%) and EMWD Improvement District 22 (0.00216%), 1.10021% in total, less the $7,000 homeowners' exemption. Areas served by Western Water or RCWD's Santa Rosa Division pay MWD West (also 0.0085%) instead of MWD East and EMWD's 0.00216%; some RCWD areas also pay an RCWD debt tax on land value only (0.3% or 0.5% of land value), and about 2,100 homes in the northeast are in Menifee Union and Perris Union High school districts (0.075% plus 0.04712%) instead of Murrieta Valley Unified. The starting value is the median assessed value (land plus structures) of Murrieta's single-family parcels on the County parcel map, which on the bills we checked runs about 2% above the 2026-27 roll value.
Fixed charges: the lines on a 2026-27 single-family bill in tax rate area 024-021: Murrieta Fire District fire suppression assessment ($40), Murrieta Parks & Recreation tax ($45), Murrieta Community Services District Zone A ($119.20: $45.44 for flood/drainage control and street sweeping plus Zone A's parks, parkway and street light charges), CSA 152 NPDES ($10), Santa Margarita watershed NPDES ($4), EMWD infrastructure availability charge ($20) and MWD standby charge ($6.94), $245.14 in all. Every Murrieta bill we checked carried the fire, parks, CSA 152 and NPDES lines; the CSD amount depends on the zone ($39.72 to $342.66 on the bills we checked; $115.38 and $45.44 were the most common) and the Santa Margarita NPDES amount on lot size, and areas served by other water districts pay their own standby or availability charges (for example MWD West $9.22 and Western Water standby charges) instead of EMWD's and MWD East's.
Mello-Roos and other special taxes: not included in the total because they depend on the tract. In a random sample of 164 single-family parcels on the County parcel map, we read each 2026-27 bill on the Riverside County Treasurer-Tax Collector's site: 50 (30%) carried CFD or assessment district special taxes, median $1,440 (10th to 90th percentile $350 to $3,395, highest $4,004); 43 carried a City landscaping and lighting district assessment, median $407. The City's own CFDs levy about $9.3 million in 2026-27 on about 5,200 parcels (Resolution 26-4958).
Electricity: SCE's Tiered Rate Plan (Schedule D) with SCE generation, rates as of 10/1/26: 30¢ per kWh up to the baseline allocation and 39¢ above. Murrieta is in SCE baseline region 10 (19.3 kWh a day June to September, 12.1 kWh a day the rest of the year), averaged over the year to about 441 kWh a month, plus SCE's $24.15 monthly Base Services Charge. The page starts at 633 kWh a month, the usage in SCE's published residential rate comparison for San Jacinto (SCE rates as of June 1, 2026). Gas: SoCalGas's August 2026 average non-CARE bill ($68.91 at 35 therms), taken as including the $0.16-a-day customer charge. The State Controller's city tax data show no utility tax revenue for Murrieta (fiscal years 2020-2024), so no city tax is applied to energy bills. Insurance is the 2022 California average.
Nothing here is legal, tax or insurance advice.

Sources

How Murrieta compares

A typical Murrieta house against the 110 California cities we cover, using the same default numbers as the total above.

Per year	Murrieta	Median	Where it falls
Property tax rate	1.10%	1.13%	lower than 84 of the other 109 California cities we cover
Water	$1,164	$955	higher than 82 of the other 109 California cities we cover
Sewer and utility-bill fees	$533	$584	lower than 43 of the other 76 California cities we cover
Trash	$390	$438	lower than 71 of the other 101 California cities we cover
Electricity and gas	$3,603	$3,556	higher than 57 of the other 109 California cities we cover
Home insurance	$1,492	$1,492	in the middle of 108 other California cities we cover
Total	$12,728	$15,240	lower than 85 of the other 109 California cities we cover

Cities bill differently (some put trash on the tax bill, some cover more services), so a higher number isn't necessarily worse. The property tax rate is compared instead of dollars because house values differ.

Questions to ask your candidates

Each one starts from a number above. Any candidate can answer them.

1. Property tax rate

The fact: Murrieta's property tax rate is 1.10%, lower than 84 of the other 109 California cities we cover. The rate adds up every agency on the bill, not only the city.

Ask: "Property tax in Murrieta is 1.10%, lower than 84 of the other 109 California cities we cover. What should that money pay for first, and would you change anything about how it is set?"

2. Water

The fact: Water here costs about $1,164 a year at typical use, higher than 82 of the other 109 California cities we cover.

Ask: "Water here costs about $1,164 a year at typical use, higher than 82 of the other 109 California cities we cover. What drives that cost, and would you change anything?"

See who is running in your city →

Common questions about Murrieta house costs

What is the property tax rate in Murrieta?

About 1.10% of the value before exemptions a year (2026-27 tax year, Riverside County (tax rate area 024-021, Murrieta's largest: Murrieta Valley Unified, Mt. San Jacinto College, MWD East and EMWD Improvement District 22)), plus flat charges on the same bill (Murrieta Fire District fire suppression assessment $40, Murrieta Parks & Recreation tax $45, Murrieta Community Services District (Zone A) $119, CSA 152 NPDES stormwater (City of Murrieta) $10).

How much is property tax on a $500,000 house in Murrieta?

About $5,669 a year on $500,000 of the value before exemptions with the homeowners' exemption, including $245 of flat charges.

How much is the water bill in Murrieta?

About $141 a month for water and sewer at typical use (18 units, or 13,464 gallons a month) on Eastern Municipal Water District.

How much does trash pickup cost in Murrieta?

$33 a month for a house.

When is property tax due in Murrieta?

Dec 10: First property tax installment (due Nov 1) is delinquent after Dec 10: 10% penalty. Apr 10: Second property tax installment (due Feb 1) is delinquent after Apr 10: 10% penalty.

Where can I get help paying utility bills in Murrieta?

Income-qualified: SCE CARE rate: Through SCE's CARE program, qualifying households receive 32.5% off their electric bills and a Base Services Charge of about $6 a month. Apply with SCE's CARE/FERA online application; no additional documentation is required.

How much does a house in Murrieta cost to run each year?

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