The most useful document in a Celina home purchase this fall rarely appears on a listing. It is a few pages filed by the district administrator MuniCap, titled a "Schedule of Projected Annual Installments." It lists one dollar figure per year for a single lot type in a single phase of a Public Improvement District. For a 60-foot lot in Phase 1 of the Mustang Lakes (Annex) PID, the 2026 figure is $5,187.
This season, builder incentives in Celina range from $15,000 to $20,000. One of these numbers is paid once, at closing. The other is paid every year by whoever owns the lot. When you compare the two across communities, the real price difference between two Celina homes changes.
What builders are offering this fall
Celina's new-construction market has room to bargain right now. D Magazine reported in September that builders in Prosper and Celina were offering mortgage rates below 5 percent and discounts approaching $100,000 on some new homes. Builder pages in Celina carried these offers in late October 2026:
- First Texas Homes, The Bluffs at Legacy Hills: the detailed terms on the community page list a promotion of up to $15,000 in Flex Cash or seller credit. It applies to homes contracted from September 1 through November 30, 2026, and the page also lists a promotional interest rate as low as 3.75%. A banner on the same page advertises a 3.49% rate buydown or up to $20,000 in FlexCash. That banner offer is limited to a promotional 5/1 ARM on select inventory with the preferred lender, so the exact terms depend on the home and the loan. Two homes on Champion Way showed markdowns: one from $424,975 to $409,950, and one from $432,520 to $423,950.
- David Weekley Homes, Mustang Lakes: a DFW 50th Anniversary offer of up to $16,500 in financing incentives through Priority Home Mortgage, plus up to $3,500 toward closing and financing costs. That totals up to $20,000 on purchases made January 1 through December 31, 2026. Two Ready Now homes on Genuine Risk Court were listed at $674,952 and $558,153.
- Highland Homes, Mustang Lakes: a "$20K Goes A Long Way!" headline on its community page.
Builder offers can change or end without notice. These are the terms the pages showed in late October, not a guarantee of what a sales office will offer later.
MLS data shows why builders are offering this much. In September 2026, Celina single-family homes in the NTREIS MLS Summary Report had 6.3 months of inventory, 119 active listings, 69 days on market, and a sold-to-list price ratio of 92.0%. The report is produced by Texas A&M's Texas Real Estate Research Center. Prosper showed 6.5 months and a 90.1% ratio for the same month. Collin County as a whole closed at 93.2%. The September median for Celina in that report was $435,000, compared with $575,000 in September 2025. That comparison rests on only 10 and 11 closed sales, so the median is too thin to show a trend. The inventory and sold-to-list figures say more. Buyers in Celina have leverage, and builders are using incentives to compete for them.
The bill that comes due in January
Most of Celina's master-planned communities sit inside Public Improvement Districts. A PID pays for streets, utilities, and other infrastructure through an assessment on each lot, paid off in annual installments. The 2026 installments are billed around October 1, 2026, and due January 31, 2027. Here is how the projected 2026 installments compare for a 60-foot lot in each district's published example:
| Community and district section | Outstanding assessment | Projected 2026 installment |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge Crossing PID, Phase 1, Lot Type 2 | $26,695 | $2,353 |
| The Parks at Wilson Creek PID, Phase 1, Lot Type 2 | $42,495 | $3,059 |
| Legacy Hills PID, Phase 1A | $44,345 | $3,241 |
| Ten Mile Creek PID, Improvement Area #1, Lot Type 1 | $59,164 | $4,797 |
| Mustang Lakes (Annex) PID, Phase 1, Lot Type 3 | $52,998 | $5,187 |
Every lot in these communities has the same 60-foot frontage. Even so, the 2026 installment for the Mustang Lakes Annex example is $2,834 higher than the Cambridge Crossing example. Each row also covers only one phase and lot type. Ten Mile Creek has a separate Major Improvement Area packet, and that packet tells owners to look up their own installment by address. Lilyana's FAQ confirms the community is in a PID, that assessments vary by lot size, and that owners can prepay or pay over 28 years. It does not publish an amount.
Four years of installments can use up a $20,000 incentive
The Mustang Lakes Annex schedule projects $5,187 for 2026, $5,340 for 2027, $5,347 for 2028, and $4,751 for 2029. That adds up to $20,625 over four years, which is more than a $20,000 builder incentive. At Cambridge Crossing's $2,353 a year, the same $20,000 would cover more than eight years of installments.
The schedule also shows how slowly the balance comes down. The outstanding Mustang Lakes Annex assessment is $52,998 in 2026 and $51,900 in 2030. After roughly $20,000 in payments, the balance has fallen by about $1,100. In those early years, most of each installment goes to interest and administrative costs, not principal.
So a buyer could take a $20,000 incentive in one community and pay $2,834 more each year than in another. In that case, the incentive covers a difference that keeps coming back every year. The Mustang Lakes Annex PID may also not cover every section where builders are selling inside Mustang Lakes. Whether a given address sits in a PID, and which phase and lot type it falls under, is a question about that parcel, not the community name.
Why a resale home in the same section carries the same bill
The incentive goes to the first buyer at closing. The PID installment stays with the property and passes to each new owner. The packets are designed as notices to purchasers, and their schedules run year by year without regard to who owns the home. A three-year-old resale home in Mustang Lakes Annex Phase 1 has the same installment as the new home being built next door. The new home comes with a builder offer, and the resale home does not.
That changes which comparison matters. Within one PID section, new and resale homes carry the same recurring cost, so the comparison is mostly about price and incentive. Between sections, the recurring cost can differ by thousands of dollars a year, and a one-time incentive cannot close that gap.
Standard tax lookups do not show this. Collin County's 2026 rate table lists Cambridge Crossing, Legacy Hills, Mustang Lakes (Annex), Ten Mile Creek, Parks at Wilson Creek, and Wilson Creek Meadows with a $0.000000 ad valorem rate. That is because PIDs are labeled as assessments, not taxes, so the zero does not mean there is nothing to pay.
Some communities use a different structure. Light Farms is served by Collin County MUD No. 1, a utility district whose board adopted a 2026 tax rate of $0.86 per $100 of taxable value, down from $0.89, in an update posted October 7, 2026. A MUD rate grows with the home's value, while a PID installment follows a fixed schedule. On $500,000 of taxable value, $0.86 works out to $4,300 a year. Legacy Hills has its own layer as well. Its packet describes a $0.408 per $100 North Parkway MMD No. 1 tax for one defined area, and it states that Legacy Hills PID properties are outside that area and do not owe it.
All of these charges come on top of the base rates. For fiscal year 2026-27, Celina adopted a city rate of $0.571677 per $100 and Celina ISD adopted $1.2088. Community Impact puts the combined rate for a Collin County resident in Celina ISD at $2.013111. Not every address with a Celina mailing address uses that rate. Lilyana's FAQ notes that homes there are assigned to either Celina ISD or Prosper ISD, depending on the section.
Questions to settle before comparing two Celina addresses
- Is the parcel in a PID, a MUD, both, or neither, and which phase and lot type applies?
- What is the projected installment for 2026 and the next few years, and what is the outstanding assessment?
- Has the 2026 installment, which is due January 31, 2027, been paid, or will the buyer owe it after closing?
- Which school district's rate applies to that specific address?
- Does the builder's incentive require a preferred lender, and does it apply to the home you are looking at or only to select inventory?
- Once the incentive is divided by the annual difference in district charges, how many years does it actually cover?
This post is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Before acting, confirm the assessments, taxes, and loan terms for your property with a qualified professional.
Before you compare an incentive with a PID schedule, check the parcel. At Go Real Estate, we gather the district packets, tax rates, and builder terms for each Celina address you are considering, so you can compare the recurring costs as well as the price. Let's Talk Strategy.
