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Practice Of Real Estate DisclosuresMello_roos_and_special_taxesHARD

When a California buyer is purchasing a property subject to a Mello-Roos special tax, how do mortgage lenders typically treat that tax when calculating the buyer's debt-to-income (DTI) ratio?

Correct Answer

B) Lenders include the full Mello-Roos tax as part of total housing expense (PITI plus Mello-Roos) when calculating DTI

Lenders include the full annual Mello-Roos special tax — prorated monthly — as part of the buyer's total housing expense when underwriting the loan. Because Mello-Roos taxes are a recurring, mandatory obligation collected on the property tax bill, they are treated the same as ad valorem property taxes within the PITI calculation. A higher total housing expense reduces the loan amount a buyer can qualify for at a given income level.

Answer Options
A
Lenders average the Mello-Roos tax over the remaining bond term and count only half the annual amount toward housing expense
B
Lenders include the full Mello-Roos tax as part of total housing expense (PITI plus Mello-Roos) when calculating DTI
C
Lenders treat the Mello-Roos tax as a non-recurring cost and exclude it from the monthly housing expense calculation
D
Lenders capitalize the remaining Mello-Roos obligation and add it to the loan balance rather than counting it as monthly expense

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Related Topics & Key Terms

Key Terms:

mello_roosDTIlender_qualificationhousing_expensePITI

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