Santa Clara County Property Tax Rate Increases Slightly

Santa Clara County, the richest in the state of California, has set another record for net assessed value of residential and business property.

The South Bay county’s total property values rose to $725.7 billion in the property tax assessment roll for the fiscal year ending June 30, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. That amount is up $28.9 billion from the $696.8 billion the county saw last year.

At the same time, while it might seem like a significant jump, it’s actually one of the lowest increases in assessed property tax value in Santa Clara in more than a decade. The growth rate of less than 4.2 percent is the lowest the county has seen since 2012, lower than the 4.6 percent growth rate during the pandemic breakout year of 2020.

“The stagnation was largely due to ongoing challenges in the commercial real estate market” and a slowdown in the housing market, the property tax assessment report from the city states, according to The Mercury News. The slow growth rate could also be attributed to the lack of new construction in the region, per The Mercury News. New construction made for $3.8 billion last year, down 34 percent from $5.9 billion the year prior.

In recent months, several buildings in Santa Clara County have traded hands for steep discounts.

In Sunnyvale, for example, Spear Street Capital picked up the former headquarters of genomics company 23andMe for nearly $88 million, down from the $183 million Stockbridge Capital Group paid for it in 2019; the space is now being leased by Snapchat parent company Snap.

Elsewhere in the county, in San Jose, a new office building near the airport sold to Los Angeles-based BH Properties for $19 million, a drop from the roughly $24 million Embarcadero Capital Partners paid for it in 2018. Government agencies have also taken note of the cheaper buildings on the market; last month, the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority bought a 17-story office building in downtown San Jose for its new headquarters for $63.7 million, a massive decrease from the $153.7 million that a Blackstone affiliate paid for it in 2021. — Chris Malone Méndez