Inside Johnson Ranch: MUD Tax, HOA, Schools, and New Build vs Resale

New construction buyers ask me about Johnson Ranch all the time, and the honest answer is that the house is the easy part. The MUD, the HOA, and the school boundary are what separate a smooth purchase from a surprise. Here is the parcel-level picture with every figure sourced and dated.

The MUD tax, the honest way

Johnson Ranch is served by the Johnson Ranch Municipal Utility District, which provides water and wastewater services with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) involved in the regional system. The MUD's rate is 0.850000 per $100 of assessed value for tax year 2025, per the Comal County adopted rates.

Stacked with Comal County and Comal ISD, the combined planning figure is about 2.23 per $100 before exemptions. That total does not include an ESD or city layer, and whether a given parcel sits inside Bulverde city limits is unverified, so it must be checked per parcel. The 2026 MUD rate is not yet verified. The official method: pull the parcel on the Comal CAD record, read the taxing jurisdictions, and confirm the current MUD rate at jrmud.org.

The HOA assessment schedule

For 2026, the Johnson Ranch Master Community assessment is $259.08 per quarter, including trash and recycling, an annual total of $1,036.32, due on Jan 1, Apr 1, Jul 1, and Oct 1. The HOA is managed by CCMC. Two add-on assessments apply in specific sections: Stonegate adds $55.80 per quarter and Lakeview adds $58.44, and Solera has its own separate association. These figures come from the HOA's assessment schedule; confirm the current amounts for the exact address with the Johnson Ranch HOA before you budget.

Schools: the FM 1863 split

Johnson Ranch sits in Comal ISD, and the boundary changed for the 2024-25 school year. Students living south of FM 1863 in the Johnson Ranch Elementary, Smithson Valley Middle, and Smithson Valley High attendance zones now attend Bulverde Middle School and then Pieper High School, while students north of FM 1863 are not impacted. On top of that, about 220 Johnson Ranch Elementary students were rezoned to Indian Springs Elementary for 2025-26 due to overcrowding per Comal ISD.

Boundaries move, so the official method is the address, every time: check the current Comal ISD elementary, middle, and high school attendance-zone maps for the exact lot number.

The market snapshot

The Redfin neighborhood data for Johnson Ranch showed a median sale of $647,188 in August 2026, up 14.5% year over year, with about 85 homes for sale spanning $374,999 to $1,379,900 (captured Sep 24, 2026). That range tells the real story: Johnson Ranch includes entry-level production homes and half-acre and larger custom lots, so a ZIP-level median says little about the specific plan you are considering. Dated figures, direction only.

New build vs resale, and what the builders are offering now

New construction and resale both exist here, and the comparison is about more than price per square foot: new builds carry the MUD tax and HOA from day one, while resales may carry the improved lot, the mature landscaping, and an existing fence. Builder incentives change weekly. As of Sep 24, 2026, per NewHomeSource, Beazer's Johnson Ranch was advertising a "Hot Deal" from $659,990 and Perry's Johnson Ranch Half Acre was "recently reduced" from $956,900.

The comparison math I run with buyers is the all-in monthly picture: price, MUD and property taxes, HOA with any section add-on, insurance, and the utility difference between a new build and a resale. That is where the honest answer lives, and it is specific to each floor plan and lot.

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