San Marcos, CA · Updated Oct 2026

What a San Marcos 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 San Marcos house

$17,752a year · $1,479 a month

Starts at the typical market value, $969,000; your assessed value is often lower. Typical use.

A San Marcos house at the typical market value ($969,000) pays about $17,700 a year: $11,000 property tax and charges, $1,980 water and sewer, $420 trash, $2,850 electricity and gas, $1,490 home insurance. Estimated from public rates, not anyone's actual bill.

Rates checked Oct 21, 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:

Opt down to Clean Impact for a lower electric billLower generation rate
Most Clean Energy Alliance customers are on the default Clean Impact Plus product. In the August 2026 comparison for a typical TOU-DR1 customer using 346 kWh a month, Clean Impact averages $158.82 a month and Clean Impact Plus $172.56.
How: Opt down at thecleanenergyalliance.org/opt-down/ with your SDG&E account information, selecting Clean Impact, or call CEA Customer Service at (833) 232-3110.
CARE households: 20% off gas20% off gas
Customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program receive a 20% discount on their SDG&E natural gas bill.
How: See SDG&E discount programs at sdge.com/assistance.
Turf replacement rebate$2.00 per square foot
Vallecitos Water District customers may get turf replacement rebates through the Metropolitan Water District: for qualified applicants, $2.00 per square foot to replace water-intensive turf grass.
How: See the current rebate list linked from Vallecitos' conservation rebates page (vwd.org).
Free water-efficiency surveyNo cost
Vallecitos customers can sign up for a free indoor/outdoor residential water survey, in person or virtual, offered by the Metropolitan Water District; a property may receive one survey for the life of the program.
How: Complete the online application linked from Vallecitos' free landscape irrigation audits page (vwd.org).
Free bulky-item cleanup couponTwice a year
Twice a year, EDCO mails a free bulky-item cleanup coupon; the coupon and details are printed in the Environmental Times newsletter inserted in your billing statement.
How: Watch for the coupon in the newsletter that comes with your EDCO bill.

Adjust to match your bills

What you know

Value before exemptionsUnder Prop 13 your assessed value is usually below market value if you bought years ago: enter the assessed value from your tax bill. Most San Marcos homes built since 1999 also pay Mello-Roos (CFD) special taxes, not included here: CFD 98-01 $382.54 and CFD 98-02 about $76 to $880 a home, and in San Elijo Hills CFD 99-01 about $0.56 to $1.21 per square foot of house (about $1,400 to $3,000 a year). Check the fixed charges on your bill.

I live here and have the Homeowners' exemption

Home insurance, a yearFrom your policy. We start at $1,492, California statewide average, 2022 (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 San Marcos house uses about 13.

Electricity, kWh a month

On your SDG&E delivery with Clean Energy Alliance generation bill. An electric car adds about 300 kWh.

Gas, therms a month (yearly average)

Money dates

Dec 10in 48 daysFirst property tax installment delinquent after close of business; 10% penalty after that.
Feb 15in 115 daysHomeowners' exemption deadline for the full exemption (about $70); late filings through December 10 get 80%.
Apr 10Second installment payment deadline; 10% penalty plus $10 cost added to payments made after this date.

Who serves this house

Water: Depends on your address; Vallecitos Water District
Property tax: 1.14% of value; 2025-26 tax year, San Diego County (tax rate area 13260)
Garbage: EDCO; EDCO holds the City of San Marcos exclusive franchise for solid waste and recyclable services, and bills customers for collection; residential service is weekly trash, organics and recycling collection
Sewer: Vallecitos Water District; Sewer Service is a line on the Vallecitos utility bill, next to the water ready-to-serve and usage charges: $38.99 a month for a single-family residence
Electricity: SDG&E, with Clean Energy Alliance as the default generation provider; Clean Energy Alliance generation charges and SDG&E delivery charges come on one SDG&E bill
Gas: SDG&E; Bundled residential average gas rate about $2.768 a therm (March 2026)

Pay or manage your bills

Your water

Source: Vallecitos buys most of its water from the San Diego County Water Authority, which buys it from the Metropolitan Water District (Colorado River and Northern California water). Desalinated seawater from the Carlsbad plant is about 27 percent of the District's annual supply.
Lead: There are no lead service lines in Vallecitos' service area, and Vallecitos has never had a sample exceeding the EPA's allowable lead level.
PFAS: Vallecitos tested for PFAS as the EPA requires, and none were detected in its drinking water supply.

Other CA cities

How these numbers are made

Individual bills are not public, so we calculate yours from public rates and what you tell us.
Garbage (EDCO): $35.22 a month, the San Marcos rate effective July 1, 2026 for basic weekly residential service (one trash, one recycling and one organics cart) as listed in EDCO's 2026 rate comparison in National City's June 2026 council agenda packet. The City of San Marcos does not publish EDCO's rate schedule online; the 2021 franchise agreement's rate exhibit is older.
Water (Vallecitos Water District, rates from January 1, 2026, Ordinance 231 adopted October 15, 2025): $47.05 a month ready-to-serve charge for a 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch meter, then $5.32 a unit for 1-6 units, $6.75 for 7-21 units and $11.02 above that. We start at 13 units a month, the District's average single-family use. Homes in higher-elevation pump zones pay an extra $0.25 to $1.56 a unit (the District says most customers are not in a pump zone). About 5% of single-family parcels in the city, on its western edge, are inside Vista Irrigation District's water service area instead (by our overlay of SanGIS parcels on the EPA water-system boundaries); the address lookup uses that district's rates there.
Sewer: Vallecitos Water District's $38.99 a month single-family charge (unchanged since July 1, 2015), billed on the monthly water bill. Some parcels pay a sewer service charge on the property tax bill instead (about 2,000 Vallecitos parcels in 2025-26), and some homes on the Vista side are in Buena Sanitation District; we do not model those.
Property tax: 1.14247% of assessed value (tax rate area 13260, fiscal year 2025-26; the 2026-27 rate book is not out yet): 1% general levy, 0.08544% San Marcos Unified bonds, 0.01903% Palomar Community College, 0.031% Palomar Health bonds and 0.007% Metropolitan Water District, less the $7,000 homeowners' exemption. By our count of SanGIS parcel records, about 78% of single-family parcels in the city are in tax rate areas at 1.14247% and about 21% (areas without the Palomar Health bond) at 1.11147%. The starting value is the Census median market value; under Prop 13 your assessed value is likely lower if you bought years ago (the median SanGIS assessed value of single-family parcels in the city is about $656,000).
Flat charges: only the $13.08 county vector control assessment (2026-27) is included. Not included, because they apply only to some parcels or vary by parcel: Mello-Roos special taxes, which are very common in San Marcos. The County's 2025-26 rate book lists City of San Marcos CFD 98-02 (lighting, landscaping, open space; 10,604 parcels), CFD 98-01 (police and fire; 4,846 parcels; $382.54 a dwelling unit in the City's fiscal 2025 report), San Marcos Fire Protection District CFD 2001-01 (5,785 parcels), CFD 91-02 (police and fire; 1,763 parcels), CFD 99-01 San Elijo Hills improvement areas, CFD 2011-01, San Marcos Unified school CFDs, and Lighting District No. 1 (5,561 parcels). About 46% of single-family homes in the city were built in 1999 or later, when CFD 98-01 and 98-02 began. Also not included: the county vector service charge and water standby or availability lines. Check the Fixed Charge Assmts section of your tax bill for lines that include CFD. CFD 98-02 runs about $76 to $880 per dwelling unit by zone and CFD 99-01 (San Elijo Hills) $0.56 to $1.21 per square foot of building (city FY2025 parcel-tax filings).
Electricity: Clean Energy Alliance's published comparison for a typical TOU-DR1 customer, $172.56 a month at 346 kWh on the Clean Impact Plus plan (rates as of August 1, 2026, from 12 months of billing history, so seasons and time-of-use periods are averaged). We split it into SDG&E's $0.79343 a day Base Services Charge averaged over the year ($24.13 a month) and $0.42898 per kWh for the rest ((172.56 - 24.13) / 346). Customers on Clean Impact pay less ($158.82 a month at 346 kWh). Gas: SDG&E's $0.13 a day fixed charge (CPUC table, September 2025) averaged over the year ($3.95 a month), plus $2.5469 a therm, so that 24 therms a month gives SDG&E's March 2026 average non-CARE bill of $65.08. Insurance starts at the 2022 California average premium, $1,492.
Nothing here is legal, tax or insurance advice.

Sources

How San Marcos compares

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

Per year	San Marcos	Median	Where it falls
Property tax rate	1.14%	1.13%	higher than 63 of the other 109 California cities we cover
Water	$1,515	$955	higher than 101 of the other 109 California cities we cover
Sewer and utility-bill fees	$468	$584	lower than 49 of the other 76 California cities we cover
Trash	$423	$438	lower than 56 of the other 101 California cities we cover
Electricity and gas	$2,852	$3,556	lower than 98 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	$17,752	$15,240	higher than 81 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. Water

The fact: Water here costs about $1,515 a year at typical use, higher than 101 of the other 109 California cities we cover.

Ask: "Water here costs about $1,515 a year at typical use, higher than 101 of the other 109 California cities we cover. What drives that cost, and would you change anything?"

2. Electricity and gas

The fact: Electricity and gas for a typical house here cost about $2,852 a year, lower than 98 of the other 109 California cities we cover. Rates are set mostly by the utility and the state.

Ask: "Electricity and gas here cost about $2,852 a year for a typical house, lower than 98 of the other 109 California cities we cover. Which parts of that can the city influence, and what would you do about them?"

See who is running in your city →

Common questions about San Marcos house costs

What is the property tax rate in San Marcos?

About 1.14% of the value before exemptions a year (2025-26 tax year, San Diego County (tax rate area 13260)), plus flat charges on the same bill (County vector control assessment $13).

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

About $5,645 a year on $500,000 of the value before exemptions with the homeowners' exemption, including $13 of flat charges.

How much is the water bill in San Marcos?

About $165 a month for water and sewer at typical use (13 units, or 9,724 gallons a month) on Vallecitos Water District.

How much does trash pickup cost in San Marcos?

$35 a month for a house.

When is property tax due in San Marcos?

Dec 10: First property tax installment delinquent after close of business; 10% penalty after that. Apr 10: Second installment payment deadline; 10% penalty plus $10 cost added to payments made after this date.

Where can I get help paying utility bills in San Marcos?

CARE households: 20% off gas: Customers enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program receive a 20% discount on their SDG&E natural gas bill. See SDG&E discount programs at sdge.com/assistance.

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

All California cities All cities