Bay Area Property Tax Roll Jumps to $1.8 Trillion

Local county assessors this past week in California released their 2019-2020 fiscal tax year rolls and the value is up 6.6% from last year. There were varying growth rates in the region with San Francisco values rising 8.1% and 4% in Sonoma County. There has been a surge in new construction in San Francisco which many are attributing the large Bay Area property tax jump.

Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco County all saw their rolls rise due to many Silicon Valley companies buying land and creating new buildings. Because of Proposition 13 in the state, California local assessors are limited to how much they can raise a property from year to year. That growth is capped at 2% unless a property changes ownership. In this case, a new base year value is established (more about the program here). The largest driver in property tax growth in California counties comes from new construction. However, the entire state is looking at removing the Prop 13 program during the next legislative session.

Among the largest additions to the tax roll in the region was a project by Gilead Sciences which added $449 million to the tax roll, Genentech added $446 million and Facebook adding $271 million to the tax rolls. Genetech despite historically protesting their property values in the state continued to grow their real estate footprint.