Re: Bond?
The purpose of the bond is to cover the cost to the developer of infrastructure--roads, water and sewer lines, underground utilities, and so forth. So with new construction the bond is never paid and is instead there waiting for the new home buyer. The amount of the bond depends on the style (i.e., cost) of the house and the date of construction, that is, bonds on houses built some years ago started out as less than those on the same style houses being built today. Buyers of new houses have the option of taking on the bond, involving an annual payment which I believe comes with the annual tax bill, or paying it off upfront.
With resales, if the original buyer (or a subsequent buyer) chose to pay off the bond, then a current buyer benefits by no longer having a bond to pay off. (This was true in our case, which is why I'm not exactly sure how the annual bond payment is made.) However, many original owners chose not to pay off the bond for financial reasons, instead making the annual payments, so when a buyer buys a resale home in this situation, he/she 'inherits' the bond and must continue making payments on it. Depending on how old the house is, the bond will be larger or smaller based on the size of the original bond (as mentioned above) and for how many years the previous owner(s) made their annual bond payments.
Hope this helps....
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