Santa Clara County’s Property Tax Roll Hits Record $483 Billion

The value of Santa Clara County’s taxable property hit an all-time high of $483.2 billion, according to the latest assessment unveiled this past week. That’s a $33 billion bump from the year prior and marks the sixth straight year of growth exceeding 6 percent.

The growth in assessment roll this year comes mostly from new construction and growth in business property, according to county Assessor Larry Stone. Apple Computer alone accounted for a $1.5 billion increase in assessed value, primarily from building its massive spaceship-style campus in Cupertino.

Source: Santa Clara County Assessor

Companies like Google, Apple, Samsung, LinkedIn and Nvidia increasingly prefer ownership to long-term leases, which stabilizes the office market against future recessions, Stone explained in a press release.

The Dot-Com boom of the early aughts, by contrast, involved largely speculative development and leasing to startups with few to no earnings. As a result, office vacancies following the 2009 economic collapse reached 25 percent, according to the assessor.

“Rebounding from the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, Silicon Valley economy has surged back to record levels,” Stone said. “Santa Clara County is well into the eighth year of recovery since the bottom of the recession in 2010. The turnaround is truly remarkable.”

California’s public schools are the main beneficiaries from the property tax increase. More than half of local property taxes fund public education from kindergarten to community college. For more information about the assessment, including how to submit an appeal, visit the county website here.

15 Comments

  1. > California’s public schools are the main beneficiaries from the property tax increase. More than half of local property taxes fund public education from kindergarten to community college.

    GRRRRRRRR!

    The criminal educrat class just hit us with a parcel tax to fund SJUSD.

    The greedy scoundrels are rolling in money and yet they raise taxes and raise taxes.

    It’s what they do.

    Anteaters eat ants. Progressives raise taxes.

    • And we are not getting too much for our money either. Check out the academic performance of SJUSD at http://sipbigpicture.com on the Data Visualization page. You can also find some insights on my Blog.

      I even offered to provide the high priestess and her minions with a FREE opportunity to visualize growth in English Learner acquisition of English as well s academic achievement growth. I sent them all of the variables that I would need sent to me but they rejected it. They told me to go to the state to get the information.

      Hey! Why do the gods and goddesses of SJUSD need to be held accountable for dismal system-wide academic performance when a few special cases will do just fine. And forget about accountability for professional practices. Our raconteur approach to teaching and learning will do just fine, thank you! Oh and by the way, please do not bother us while we collect taxpayer money with no accountability as we are the entitled ones and you are our serfs! It is so easy to bamboozle the School Board with special cases.

      And it is good riddance to Susan Ellenberg who will be leaving her post and lackluster performance as School Board president to new lows as a a County Commissioner. She has done her duty glad handing as the Board president and ready to move on to her next cash cow position with the thin veneer of caring for the community.

      Truly pathetic. But it is not just progressives who have proclivities toward abuse of power as Republicans too can and do play the game as experts in political chicanery!

      Time to rise up folks!

  2. Silicon Valley Newsroom, wondering what the City of San Jose’s share of total property tax revenue is. I imagine it must be significant yet San Jose politicians are always crying poor mouth.

  3. More money for the government employees retirement funds now! Schools has suffered and will continue to suffer under these inefficient staffers.

  4. Keep putting articles on how San Jose is Upgrading there city so the citizens step it up Too and wake up stop living average person lifestyle.
    When I see photos of new construction I think of all the new great people that are going to make the city more peaceful and chill then these homeless people and wannabe ghetto walking around the good is going to take over. Keep getting the word out of police and new construction it might brain wash the people into a good light . You guys might be able to change the world with these articles

  5. How about returning some money to the property owners who have seen services decline and rates and fees rise annually? The quality of life gets worse everyday.
    Those of us toiling in the private sector are paying the exorbitant wages of the government bureaucrats. They get paid whether they do anything productive.

  6. $483 BILLION Dollars!!!!! Holy cow! Why aren’t we we building special colleges for our super educated kids? Why aren’t we building gold plated streets? Where the hell is the money going?
    Instead I get the same old sob story from schools who want to raise my property taxes to pay for their poor pitiful employees salaries and schools that are beyond repair., streets that potfilled hazards, etc….Where are the infrastructure repairs we are being taxed on? Where the hell is the $483 BILLION going?

    • Ummm, it ain’t going nowhere, it’s property sitting there planted in Santa Clara County, taxed at 1%/year according to Prop 13, which equals $4.83 billion/year for the county, local cities and school and special districts.

      • Ummm….yeah, you’re right it “ain’t going nowhere” but your math is a bit off. If it wasn’t for Prop 13 property taxes , local and state jurisdictions would charge even more at their convenience. Even with your math, where the hell is the money going?

  7. So what in the hell are you going to do with all that money….Spend Spend Spend.

    Raise Taxes…Keep spending….give the money away….protect the illegals…..have a hay day

  8. They aren’t doing anything with the money . It’s called population control and they want us to go on a wild goose chase . If they spent the money the world would be more advanced better place . I really hope they start making better laws having more governent officials stand up for the people . America is based on the old mob rules . And curroption definitely Mexico we have to fix Mexico to fix us at least Donald trump is doing a little bit I like what the atf is doing

  9. If only the readers of this article were as observant and inquisitive as the reporters. Too many people are just ranting about their preconceived ideas about government. Too many of us are ignorant about our local governments – what they do, who are the elected representatives, etc.

  10. Maybe it’s because they are fraudulently inflating assessed property values. My property was assessed 8% higher then last year even though there was no new construction or sale. Since I didn’t catch this fact in June, I am now faced with over a $1000/yr increase in my property taxes. Pure thievery.

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