A Celina buyer closing this fall can walk into a bill that is already in the mail. Public improvement district installments for 2026 in communities like Ten Mile Creek were scheduled to go out from the Collin County Tax Office around October 1, 2026, with payment due January 31, 2027. The installment is a first lien on the property. It outranks every other claim except ad valorem taxes from the state, county, school district and other political subdivisions, and it is a personal liability of whoever owns the lot. On a 60-foot lot in Ten Mile Creek Improvement Area #1, that 2026 installment is projected at $4,797.
That figure won't show up next to the list price, and it's only one piece of a bigger pattern. Homes that share a Celina mailing address sit under at least three different tax setups. The district that sounds most expensive on paper is not the one that produces the biggest bill.
The bill you inherit comes with a payoff schedule
The MuniCap information packet for Ten Mile Creek shows how a PID actually works. The City of Celina created the district on March 15, 2022, and issued $12,010,000 in special assessment revenue bonds in 2023 to pay for its public improvements. A 60-foot lot carries an outstanding assessment of $59,164. If an owner pays it year by year through 2051, the projected installments add up to $126,255.
According to the packet, the bond principal and interest are final and will not rise over the life of the bonds. Only the administrative expense line is an estimate that changes each year. Owners can prepay the assessment at any time. Since January 1, 2024, single-family payoffs have included a $500 processing fee.
A PID is a fixed debt attached to a lot, with a known end date and an exit price. Collin County's 2026 rate summary lists every PID at a tax rate of $0.000000 and notes that "Public Improvement District is an assessment set by the district." If you compare Celina communities by tax rate alone, PIDs don't show up at all.
Three structures behind one address
Start with the 2026 base for a home inside Celina city limits with no special district. The Collin Central Appraisal District's 2026 table lists the City of Celina at $0.571677 per $100, Celina ISD at $1.2088, Collin County at $0.151414 and Collin College at $0.08122. That adds up to $2.013111. The city rate fell from $0.576401 the year before, according to Community Impact. In areas zoned to Prosper ISD, the school rate is $1.2011.
From there, the setups split:
| Setup | Example community | 2026 combined rate per $100 | Illustration on $600,000 taxable value |
|---|---|---|---|
| City limits, no district | Base case | $2.013111 | about $12,079 |
| City limits plus PID | Cambridge Crossing Phase 1, 50-ft lot | $2.013111 plus a flat $1,975 | about $14,054 |
| City limits plus PID | Ten Mile Creek IA #1, 60-ft lot | $2.013111 plus a flat $4,797 | about $16,876 |
| City limits plus MMD | Ramble, Celina MMD No. 2 at $0.77 | $2.783111 | about $16,699 |
| ETJ inside a MUD | Light Farms, Collin County MUD #1 at $0.86 | $2.301434 | about $13,809 |
The dollar column is plain arithmetic on a round number. It comes before exemptions and assumes Celina ISD. Exemptions also differ by taxing unit. The appraisal district shows the City of Celina offering over-65 and disabled-person exemptions of $30,000 with a tax freeze, and no general homestead exemption. Celina ISD carries the $140,000 state homestead exemption. As a result, the city portion of an owner-occupied home's bill shrinks less than the school portion does.
Why the MUD comes in under the MMD
Light Farms looks like it should cost the most. Collin County MUD #1's $0.86 is higher than Ramble's $0.77. What decides it is where the line falls. According to the district's own FAQ, the MUD sits in Celina's extraterritorial jurisdiction, so Light Farms parcels don't pay the $0.571677 city rate at all. The MUD rate takes the city rate's place. Part of the MUD rate even goes back to the city. Of the district's $0.89 rate for 2025, $0.0510 was a "Contract Tax" for agreements with the City of Celina, fire protection and similar services. The rest was $0.2120 for water, sewer and drainage debt, $0.4255 for road debt and $0.2015 for operations. One caveat for the arithmetic: Collin County ESD #1 levies $0.10, and whether a given Light Farms parcel falls inside its boundary should be checked on that parcel's own tax record.
Ramble works the other way. Hillwood's roughly 1,380-acre community on North Preston Road, about two miles north of downtown, publishes a tax breakdown that includes the City of Celina rate and Celina MMD No. 2 together. The MMD pays for water, sewer, drainage and roads, plus right-of-way landscape maintenance, on top of the city's own levy. With 2026 rates applied, Ramble's combined figure lands about $0.48 per $100 above Light Farms. That's roughly $2,890 a year on the $600,000 illustration. The buyer gets something for that gap: the Dallas Morning News reports that city residents may receive police, fire and waste collection from their city, while MUD residents typically don't unless the district has an agreement in place.
Light Farms' lower rate comes with a debt load and a future decision point. The MUD reports $168,515,000 in outstanding principal, made up of $54,165,000 in utility bonds and $114,350,000 in road bonds. Under its development agreement, Celina may annex the district any time after December 31, 2027, but it is not required to. Annexation would mean the city takes on that debt. The agreement also contemplates converting the MUD into a limited district with a small tax for park and landscape upkeep. If annexation happens, the city rate would come back onto Light Farms bills. A buyer holding for ten years should run the numbers both ways.
A flat installment weighs more on a smaller house
Rates scale with value, and PID installments don't. Here are the 2026 projected installments from MuniCap's 2026–27 packets:
- Cambridge Crossing Phase 1: $1,975 for 50-foot lots, $2,353 for 60-foot lots and $2,905 for 74-foot lots, with schedules running through 2046.
- Glen Crossing Phase 1: $2,461 for 50-foot lots and $2,966 for 60-foot lots, through 2045. A TIRZ 6 credit can reduce a following year's installment.
- Legacy Hills Phase 1A: $2,162 for 40-foot lots, $2,700 for 50-foot lots and $3,241 for 60-foot lots, through 2051. Legacy Hills also sits inside North Parkway Municipal Management District No. 1, but its disclosure says the PID properties are outside that district's SF Defined Area No. 1 and aren't subject to its tax.
- Ten Mile Creek Improvement Area #1: $2,878 for townhomes, $4,317 for 55-foot lots and $4,797 for 60-foot lots, through 2051.
MuniCap labels every schedule as projected and subject to change in each year's service and assessment plan update. To see the effect, convert an installment into a rate. On a $450,000 home, Cambridge Crossing's $1,975 works out to about $0.44 per $100. On a $900,000 home, the same dollar amount is about $0.22. Ten Mile Creek's $2,878 townhome installment on a $400,000 purchase works out to roughly $0.72 per $100. That's close to the effective weight of a MUD rate, sitting on top of full city taxes. An entry-level buyer in a PID community carries a bigger effective special-district burden than a luxury buyer two streets over.
Celina is steering new districts inside the line
Celina's newer districts are going inside city limits. In the same Dallas Morning News article, Celina Mayor Ryan Tubbs said that after Senate Bill 2038 took effect, around 50 properties pulled out of the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction, ranging from a 1-acre homestead to 50-acre tracts. The paper reported that the city works with developers to bring special purpose districts into city limits when possible, with Ramble as the example. Tubbs told the paper, "It's not fair for city taxpayers to have to subsidize service to unincorporated residents." The same article puts Collin County MUD rates in 2025 generally between $0.80 and $1.20 per $100.
For buyers, this means the pattern in the table is likely to continue. New Celina inventory is more likely to come with a city rate plus an MMD or PID on top than with a MUD rate in place of the city rate.
FAQ
Where do Mustang Lakes and Lilyana fit? Both communities say they're inside Celina city limits. The Mustang Lakes FAQ says homes are assessed under Mustang Lakes PID No. 1, with amounts that vary by lot size and can be prepaid. Lilyana's developer describes a lot-size-based PID assessment that can be prepaid or paid over 28 years. Both follow the in-city-plus-PID pattern, so the specific lot's disclosure sets the dollar amount.
Who sets a MUD's rate? Under state law, the district's board sets the rate every year. Collin County MUD #1 has five elected directors, all residents or property owners in Light Farms, and regular elections are usually held in May of even-numbered years.
Where can I see the taxing units on a specific house? Search the parcel on the Collin Central Appraisal District site. For PID lots, ask for the recorded PID disclosure, which shows the outstanding balance and the year-by-year schedule.
This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm how these rates and assessments apply to a specific property with a tax professional or attorney before you rely on them.
Before you write an offer, the Tomlin Team can pull the taxing units and PID schedule for each Celina home on your shortlist, so you're comparing them on the full yearly cost of ownership. Schedule a Consultation and we'll walk through the numbers with you.
