FishHawk Ranch Rental Investment: The CDD Math Most Landlords Miss
FishHawk Ranch commands the highest rents in east Hillsborough on the strength of A-rated schools — but two CDDs add a four-figure annual cost most pro formas miss. Here's the real math for Lithia 33547.
A FishHawk Ranch rental investment commands more rent than any other neighborhood we track in east Hillsborough. Zillow puts the median rent at $2,529 a month and the median home value at $517,353 as of May 2026. The pull is simple: A-rated schools, 25 miles of trails, and a master-planned address out in Lithia. The catch is just as simple, and it's the line most out-of-state buyers leave off their spreadsheet. FishHawk sits inside two Community Development Districts, and those CDD assessments stack on top of your property tax and HOA. Underwrite without them and your cap rate is a fiction.
What does the FishHawk Ranch rental market look like?
FishHawk Ranch is a 3,000-acre master-planned community in unincorporated Lithia, ZIP 33547, in east Hillsborough County. Zillow's May 2026 numbers show a $2,529 median rent (up 2.0% year over year) against a $517,353 median home value (down 3.4%). It's the priciest east-Hillsborough rental we track, and demand runs on schools.
| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Median Rent | $2,529/mo | +2.0% YoY (Zillow Research, 2026-05) |
| Median Home Value | $517,353 | -3.4% YoY (Zillow Research, 2026-05) |
| Est. Cap Rate (pre-CDD) | ~3.3–3.5% | Worked below; CDD pushes it lower |
| Days on Market | Weeks, not months | ~23–70 days range (Redfin, 2025–26) |
| Walk Score | Low / car-dependent | Suburban, drive-everywhere layout |
| Flood | Mostly inland Zone X | Verify each parcel (Hillsborough County) |
| Bevis Elementary | 10/10 GreatSchools | In-community A-rated draw |
| Barrington Middle | 6/10 GreatSchools | Feeder middle school |
| Newsome High | 8/10 GreatSchools | The headline school zone |
| HOA prevalence | Community-wide | Two main HOAs + sub-associations |
| Build era | Late 1990s–2010s | Newland Communities, since ~1999 |
Lithia is the postal name and the rural backdrop — old farmland and phosphate country east of Brandon. FishHawk is the modern community dropped onto it. The whole area is dominated by family-sized single-family homes, and renters make up only about 18% of occupied housing here, per NeighborhoodScout. That scarcity is part of why rents hold up. Compare it to Brandon's more affordable suburban rental market a few miles northwest, where you buy 25% cheaper but rent for less.
What do renters want in FishHawk Ranch?
Renters in FishHawk Ranch are buying a school zone they can't afford to own in yet. The typical tenant is a relocating family or a dual-income household that wants Newsome High and Bevis Elementary without a $520,000 purchase. They'll pay $2,500-plus for a 4-bedroom in the right village.
This is school-driven demand, and it behaves differently from the rest of Tampa. Families sign in spring and summer so kids start the fall term in zone, then they stay put for years because moving means changing schools. Median household income in 33547 runs around $121,000 (NeighborhoodScout), so these are stable, well-qualified applicants — the kind who treat a rental like the home they plan to buy next.
What they look for: a fenced yard, an attached two-car garage, access to the GreatSchools-rated Bevis Elementary and Newsome High zones, and the community amenities — the Aquatic Club, the trails, the parks. If your address is zoned for the A-rated schools, say so in the listing. It's the first thing these renters filter for.
What's the FishHawk Ranch rental investment math?
Formula: Cap Rate = (Net Operating Income / Purchase Price) × 100
Example: You buy a 4BR/2.5BA home in FishHawk Ranch for $517,000 and rent it at $2,529/month — $30,348 a year in gross rent. Then the expenses, and this is where FishHawk differs from the rest of east Hillsborough:
- Property taxes (~1.0% effective): ~$5,170
- Insurance: ~$3,800
- CDD assessment (debt service + O&M): ~$1,800 — varies by village
- HOA dues: ~$600
- Maintenance reserve (5%): ~$1,517
- Vacancy allowance (4%): ~$1,214
- Property management (10%): ~$3,035
Total expenses: roughly $16,136. NOI: about $14,212.
Cap rate: ($14,212 / $517,000) × 100 = 2.7%
What's Good or Bad? Run the same property without the CDD line and you'd report a cap rate closer to 3.1%. That's the whole point — the CDD assessment quietly costs you about four-tenths of a point of yield, and it's a number you won't see on the rent comps. FishHawk isn't a cash-flow play; you're buying durable, high-income tenant demand and appreciation in a top school zone, and accepting a thin in-pocket return for it. Verify the exact assessment on any address through the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser before you sign — never trust the listing's "taxes" figure to include it.
What should landlords know about managing rentals in FishHawk Ranch?
Managing a FishHawk rental comes down to two things the rest of east Hillsborough doesn't force on you: a stacked carrying cost and a calendar that runs on the school year. Get both right and this is one of the lowest-drama tenant pools in the metro.
- Underwrite the CDD and HOA as separate lines. Your tax bill carries an ad-valorem property tax and a non-ad-valorem CDD assessment, collected together by the county. Add the HOA on top. Three line items, not one. Bake all three into the rent you set.
- Lease to the school calendar. Aim for lease starts in June, July, or early August. A FishHawk home that comes vacant in October sits longer because the families who want this zone have already moved for the school year.
- Confirm which village, which CDD, which HOA. FishHawk Ranch CDD and FishHawk IV CDD cover different sections, and there are two main HOAs plus smaller sub-associations. Assessments and dues differ by village. Pull the specifics for your exact parcel.
- Market the school zone explicitly. Name the schools and confirm the zoning. It's the search filter your tenants use first.
- Expect long tenancies. School-zoned families renew rather than re-shop. Price for retention, not for squeezing a one-year peak — turnover is your biggest cost here, and these renters don't want it either.
What should investors watch out for in FishHawk Ranch?
The risks in FishHawk Ranch are mostly about cost and context, not crime or vacancy. Three things to check before you buy.
The CDD doesn't disappear. These are bond assessments under Chapter 190 of the Florida Statutes — the debt-service portion runs until the bonds are paid off, and the operations-and-maintenance portion is permanent. A motivated listing agent may gloss over it. The county tax bill won't.
Insurance and the home value drift. Zillow has the median value down 3.4% over the year, and Florida insurance still runs roughly triple the national average. FishHawk is inland — most of it is Zone X, lower flood risk than coastal South Tampa — but you still budget $3,500–$4,000 a year for a typical single-family policy, and you still verify the parcel's flood zone with the Hillsborough County flood-zone finder.
The industrial neighbor. Lithia is the headquarters of The Mosaic Company's phosphate division, and there's active mining and a phosphogypsum stack out in the broader Lithia–Riverview area. It doesn't sit in your backyard, but it's part of east Hillsborough's heritage and worth understanding before you tell an out-of-state buyer the area is purely suburban.
If you're buying from New York or Chicago, draw the line between what you can verify from a laptop and what needs boots on the ground. The CDD assessment, the parcel's flood zone, and the school zoning are all confirmable remotely — pull the tax bill from the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser, check the flood map, and read the school-attendance boundary before you wire anything. But which village, the condition of the home, and whether the amenities actually match the listing are things you can't see from a thousand miles away. That's the half a local manager covers for you — the part the spreadsheet can't.
How does FishHawk Ranch compare to nearby areas?
FishHawk Ranch is the premium school play in east Hillsborough — higher rent, higher entry price, thinner yield. Two nearby neighborhoods make the trade-offs clear.
Brandon is the value alternative: lower home prices, lower rents around $1,800, stronger headline cap rates, and broad employer demand from USAA, HCA, and Amazon rather than a single school draw. You give up the A-rated zone and the master-planned amenities.
Valrico sits between the two — established suburban housing, solid schools, no community-wide CDD on most of its older subdivisions. If the CDD math kills your FishHawk deal, a comparable Valrico home may pencil better even at a similar rent. For the full picture, start with our east Hillsborough submarket guide and the broader Tampa rental market overview.
FishHawk Ranch guides and resources
FishHawk Ranch rewards investors who do the carrying-cost homework and punishes the ones who underwrite off the rent comp alone. The schools are real, the demand is durable, and the tenants are some of the best-qualified in the metro — but the CDD is the line that decides whether your deal works.
If you're weighing a FishHawk Ranch purchase and want the real numbers — verified CDD and HOA assessments, rent comps, flood-zone confirmation, and an honest pro forma — start with a free rental analysis. We'll tell you what the spreadsheet won't.
