By Prerna Kapoor, CLHMS | REAL Brokerage | May 18, 2026
Quick answer: Many new-construction subdivisions in suburban Denver sit inside a Metropolitan District (often called a metro district or Title 32 district). These districts add an extra mill levy on top of normal county, city, and school district taxes to pay back the bonds that financed roads, water lines, sewers, and parks. The extra cost can be anywhere from $3,000 to $8,000 or more per year, and it can last 30 to 40 years. Before you buy a newer home in Aurora, Castle Rock, Commerce City, or any south metro suburb, you need to ask specifically whether the property is in a metro district, check the title commitment, and calculate the real annual cost.
I had a couple last year fall in love with a new build in Murphy Creek out in Aurora. Beautiful home, four bedrooms, finished basement, walk to the golf course. They asked me about the property taxes and I gave them the number from the listing. Then I asked them to wait while I pulled the title commitment and the special district disclosure. The base property tax on the home was around $4,800 a year. The metro district was adding another $5,600 on top of that. Total annual tax: about $10,400. They had budgeted for $4,800. That extra $466 a month changed the math on their monthly payment and they ended up walking from the deal.
This is one of the most common surprises I see with buyers in new-construction subdivisions. The metro district is not hidden, exactly, but it is also not obvious unless you know to look. Let me walk through what these districts are, why they exist, where you find them, how to calculate the real cost, and what questions to ask before you sign anything.
What a Colorado metro district actually is
A Metropolitan District is a quasi-governmental entity created under Colorado’s Title 32 special district statutes. It is essentially a mini-government with the legal authority to issue bonds and to levy property taxes on homes inside its boundaries.
Developers use metro districts to pay for the infrastructure that has to exist before homes can be built: roads, curb and gutter, water mains, sewer lines, storm drainage, parks, sometimes recreation centers, and street lights. Building that infrastructure costs millions of dollars per subdivision. Instead of the developer paying for it all upfront and rolling it into home prices, the metro district issues bonds to finance the work, and the homeowners who eventually move in pay back those bonds through additional property taxes over 30 to 40 years.
The board of the metro district is initially controlled by the developer. Over time, as the subdivision builds out and is sold, control transitions to elected homeowner board members. That transition is itself a thing to watch, because some metro districts have had issues with developer-controlled boards approving favorable terms before turning over.
The math: how much extra you actually pay
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Colorado property taxes are calculated using mill levies. One mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. For residential property, the assessed value is roughly 6.7 percent of the market value (this number gets adjusted by the state periodically, but that is the ballpark right now).
The base mill levy in a typical Denver-area suburb is usually 80 to 110 mills, combining county, city, school district, fire, library, and water and sanitation districts. That alone produces a property tax bill of roughly $3,000 to $5,000 a year on a $600,000 home.
A metro district can add another 50 to 80 mills on top of that, and in some cases more. On the same $600,000 home, an extra 65 mills means roughly an additional $2,600 a year in taxes. On a $900,000 home, that same 65 mills is about $3,900 more per year. Some districts in newer Aurora and Commerce City subdivisions are even higher. I have seen total mill levies push past 175 mills, which adds up to thousands more per year compared to a comparable home one neighborhood over with no metro district.
The bonds typically have a 30 to 40 year payback schedule, and many districts have language allowing them to extend or refinance the debt. So this is not a 5 year inconvenience. It can be a multi-decade obligation.
Where metro districts are common in Prerna’s service areas
Almost any new-construction subdivision built in the Denver suburbs over the last 20 years sits inside a metro district. Some of the names that come up frequently:
Aurora. Murphy Creek, Saddle Rock, parts of Tallyn’s Reach, Sky Ranch, Aurora Highlands.
Castle Rock and Castle Pines area. Crystal Valley, The Meadows, parts of Castle Pines North, Cobblestone Ranch.
South metro. Sterling Ranch, RidgeGate (Lone Tree), Stapleton (now Central Park) had metro districts that have largely matured.
Commerce City. Reunion is a well-known example with multiple overlapping districts.
Parker. Newer pockets like parts of Idyllwilde, Pradera, Stonegate East, Reata North.
Older established neighborhoods, especially homes built before the 1990s, typically do not have metro districts. If you buy a 1985 home in central Centennial or an established area of Highlands Ranch, you are usually only paying the base mill levy.
That is one of the trade-offs to think about. A newer home in a metro district might cost the same per month as an older home in an established area, but a meaningful chunk of that monthly payment is going to district taxes that pay for infrastructure built a decade ago.
How to find out if a specific home is in a metro district
Here are the steps I take with every buyer looking at newer construction:
Ask the listing agent directly. The question is: “Is this property in a metropolitan district or Title 32 special district, and if so, what is the current mill levy and what is the projected payoff date?” A good listing agent will have this information ready. A vague answer is a flag to dig deeper.
Pull the title commitment. Once you are under contract, the title company sends a title commitment that lists every special district the property sits in. Read the schedule of exceptions carefully. Metro districts will be listed there with their formal names.
Check the Colorado Special Districts website. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs maintains a database of every special district. You can search by district name and pull up budgets, mill levies, board members, and bond schedules. It is dry reading but tells you exactly what you are signing up for.
Look up the property on the county assessor’s site. Most county assessor websites show the full tax breakdown for a parcel, including each individual mill levy. You can see how much of the total tax bill goes to the metro district versus the school district, the county, and so on.
Read the disclosures. Colorado requires sellers and developers to provide a special district disclosure form. Read it. The disclosure should include the total mill levy, the debt service mill levy, and the estimated annual amount the buyer will pay.
How to decide whether the extra cost is worth it
Metro districts are not automatically bad. The infrastructure they pay for is real, and you are getting roads, parks, water service, and sometimes recreation amenities that you would not otherwise have. The question is whether the total cost (purchase price plus the extra taxes over 30 years) is competitive with comparable homes outside metro districts.
A few things I work through with buyers:
Calculate the real monthly cost. Add the metro district tax to your base property tax, divide by 12, and add it to your principal, interest, and insurance. Compare that total monthly cost against comparable homes in established neighborhoods. Sometimes the metro district home is still the better deal because the purchase price is lower. Sometimes it is not.
Check the debt service ratio. Some metro districts have very high debt relative to assessed value, which makes future tax increases more likely. The disclosure should give you the debt per home and the total district debt.
Look at the payoff schedule. A district with 38 years left on its bonds is a different proposition than one with 8 years left.
Understand the amenities. If the district maintains a pool, clubhouse, miles of trails, or a recreation center, you are getting something for the money. If it just paid for roads that the city would have maintained anyway, the value is less obvious.
Think about resale. Metro district homes are not harder to sell, but informed buyers will negotiate based on the extra tax cost. A home with $6,000 a year in metro district taxes will typically sell for less than an otherwise identical home without that cost.
If you are looking at newer construction anywhere in the Denver suburbs and want help running these numbers for a specific property, I do this analysis with every buyer client. It usually takes 30 minutes once we have the title commitment and the assessor data, and it can change the math on what looks like the right home. Reach out anytime you want to walk through a specific listing.
Prerna Kapoor | REALTOR® | Luxury Home Specialist
REAL Brokerage | 720-949-5450 | info@prernakapoor.com
CLHMS • RENE • PSA • ABR | International Sterling Society Award Winner
Prerna specializes in residential real estate across Parker, Aurora, Lone Tree, Castle Pines, Highlands Ranch, Cherry Creek, Greenwood Village, and Centennial. She speaks English, Japanese, and Hindi.
