A buyer under contract on a resale home in Triple Creek recently got a number three weeks before closing that nobody had mentioned at the showing: $4,200 a year, sitting quietly on the property tax bill as a non-ad valorem assessment. Nobody lied to him. Nobody hid anything on purpose. The seller didn't know he was supposed to bring it up, and the listing agent had no legal obligation to volunteer it. That's the part that catches Hillsborough buyers off guard, not the size of the fee, but the fact that whether anyone has to tell you about it depends entirely on whether the home is brand new or already lived in.
Community Development District assessments are common across Hillsborough County's newer master-planned neighborhoods, and the dollar amount is knowable well before you write an offer. What's less understood is that Florida law treats the disclosure of that number very differently depending on where the home sits in its life cycle. That gap, not the fee itself, is the thing worth understanding before you shop in a CDD community here.
The clause that only fires once
Florida Statute 190.048 requires that any initial sales contract for property within a Community Development District include a specific disclosure, spelled out in bold type, telling the buyer they're purchasing inside a CDD, that assessments will apply, and what the outstanding bond principal looks like. That protection is real and it's mandatory. When a builder sells a new lot in FishHawk West or one of Waterset's active phases, that bold-type language has to be in the contract.
The statute governs the initial sale. Once that home changes hands again, the specific disclosure obligation doesn't reattach itself automatically to the resale contract. The CDD assessment is exactly the same. Nothing about the fee changes. What changes is that the law's built-in nudge to tell you about it goes quiet, and the responsibility to find it shifts to the buyer and the buyer's agent. A first-time Hillsborough buyer touring a five-year-old resale in a CDD community is, in a strict legal sense, on their own to go looking for a number that a brand-new buyer down the street would have seen in bold print.
What the fee actually looks like, community by community
CDD totals vary widely across Hillsborough, and the variance holds even within a single ZIP code. Here's what recent district assessment charts show for a handful of the county's better-known communities:
| Community | District | Annual Assessment Range | Fiscal Year Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| FishHawk Ranch (Lithia) | FishHawk Ranch CDD | $529.66 to $2,096.93 | FY2026 |
| Waterset (Apollo Beach) | Waterset North CDD | $1,590 to $3,534 | FY2024-25 |
| Waterset (Apollo Beach) | Waterset Central CDD | $1,834 to $3,598 | FY2024-25 |
| Triple Creek (Riverview) | Triple Creek CDD | $2,566.94 to $4,536.41 | FY2025-26 |
| Creek Preserve (Riverview) | Creek Preserve CDD | $1,102 to $1,654 | FY2026 |
| Waterleaf (Riverview) | Waterleaf CDD | $1,644.95 to $2,302.93 | Current adopted budget |
| River Pointe (Riverview) | No CDD | Not applicable | Current builder and HOA information |
The spread inside a single community is the part worth sitting with. FishHawk's own realtors note that older sections carry lower CDD assessments simply because their bonds have had more years to pay down, while newer sections like Starling carry higher ones. Waterset isn't governed by one CDD at all, it has three separate districts (North, Central, and South), each with its own bond schedule and its own line on the tax bill. And in Riverview, a buyer comparing Triple Creek to River Pointe purely on list price could miss that one carries a CDD topping $4,500 a year and the other carries none. None of that shows up in the number a portal search sorts by.
Hillsborough County's own tax collector distribution records confirm these aren't marketing figures. The county's January 2026 non-ad valorem collection report lists Spring Lake CDD, Waterset North CDD, Magnolia Park CDD, Triple Creek CDD, and FishHawk IV CDD as active line items the county collected and disbursed that month, alongside dozens of others across the county.
Two numbers wearing one label
The word "CDD fee" hides the fact that it's really two separate charges bundled into one tax bill line. The debt service portion repays the bonds that financed roads, drainage, and amenities, and it's fixed for the life of the bond, typically 20 to 30 years. The operations and maintenance portion covers the ongoing cost of running the district, landscaping the common areas, managing stormwater ponds, keeping the amenity center open, and it's reset every year by the district's board based on that year's budget. It doesn't expire when the bonds are paid off. It doesn't expire at all.
That distinction matters at the negotiating table. The debt-service portion can sometimes be prepaid in a lump sum, but district managers are clear that it typically costs tens of thousands of dollars up front and rarely pays off unless you plan to stay well past the bond's maturity. The O&M portion isn't something you can buy your way out of. It's baked into owning inside the district, for as long as you own there.
A standard title search will confirm your property tax status is current, but it won't show you the remaining bond balance behind that CDD line. That number only surfaces through a municipal lien search paired with a written estoppel or payoff letter from the district manager, and district sites are explicit that those figures are only good through a stated date and can shift once the next assessment roll is certified.
What actually shows up at the closing table
For a resale purchase inside a CDD, a few mechanical things happen whether or not anyone flagged the fee earlier in the process. The recurring annual assessment gets prorated between buyer and seller based on the closing date, the same way property taxes are, and it lands as a line item on the settlement statement. If a prior year's assessment ever went unpaid and landed on a tax certificate, that's a real risk a routine title search can miss, which is exactly why district estoppels matter. And because the CDD assessment rides on the tax bill, lenders count it inside your debt-to-income ratio when they qualify you, which means a $3,000 annual CDD can move the number a lender is willing to approve, not just the number you write a check for later.
What to actually check before you write an offer
- Pull the current property tax bill from the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser or Tax Collector and look under non-ad valorem assessments for the district name and dollar amount.
- If you're buying resale, ask directly for a written estoppel or payoff letter from the district manager rather than relying on the seller's most recent tax bill, since a paid-off bond or a change in phase can move the number.
- Match the home's exact lot type and section to the district's current adopted assessment chart, since product type inside the same community can shift the total by well over a thousand dollars a year.
- Ask your lender specifically how they're treating the CDD assessment in your debt-to-income calculation before you get attached to a number.
A few questions worth asking directly
Does a CDD fee ever go away? The debt-service portion ends once the bonds are retired, generally 20 to 30 years from issuance, or sooner if a homeowner or the district prepays. The operations and maintenance portion doesn't have an end date. It continues for as long as the district operates and can change from year to year with the adopted budget.
Can the CDD assessment be negotiated at closing? The annual assessment itself runs with the property and isn't something buyer and seller negotiate, it's set by the district. What is negotiable is how any outstanding balance or bond question gets handled in the purchase contract, which is exactly why the estoppel letter matters before you finalize terms.
Does a lower CDD always mean a better deal? Not automatically. A lighter assessment in a community like River Pointe or Creek Preserve can mean a smaller amenity package compared to something like Waterset's trail network and multiple clubhouses. The honest comparison is total carrying cost against what the fee is actually funding, not the sticker number alone.
The CDD assessment on any given Hillsborough home is a matter of public record the moment you know where to look. What isn't guaranteed is that anyone will hand it to you before you fall for the house. If you're comparing communities across FishHawk, Waterset, Riverview, or anywhere else in Hillsborough County and want the real carrying-cost picture before you write an offer, The REvest Group will walk the numbers with you line by line. Schedule a free consultation and home valuation to start with a clear picture instead of a surprise at the closing table.
