What happens to property tax when you buy in Santa Clara County, California?
Why your bill can jump at purchase
California uses an acquisition-value basis (California Proposition 13 (BOE)): your assessed value is set at purchase and grows under an annual cap of 2%.
Current owners here pay a typical bill of about $10,000/yr (on the $1,490,600 county-median home).
Estimated bill by your purchase price
| Purchase price | Estimated annual tax | vs typical bill |
|---|---|---|
| $1,490,600 | $10,000/yr | +$0/yr |
| $1,863,250 | $12,501/yr | +$2,501/yr |
| $2,235,900 | $15,001/yr | +$5,001/yr |
Effective rate: 0.67% · Tier 1 · Confidence: Medium. Reassessment toward the sale price modeled from the jurisdiction's assessment basis.
How Santa Clara County compares before reassessment
Santa Clara County ranks 42 of 58 published California counties by effective property-tax rate.
The county's 0.67% effective rate is 0.03 percentage points below the California published-county average of 0.7%.
The $1,490,600 median home value ranks 3 of 58 and is $1,009,500 above the California county median of $481,100.
Similar-rate counties
- Merced County: 0.67% effective rate; $391,800 median home value
- San Diego County: 0.68% effective rate; $854,700 median home value
- Ventura County: 0.68% effective rate; $822,700 median home value
Source, method & confidence
Data as of 2024-12-31 (data version 2024.1).
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year, table B25103; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year, table B25077; California State Board of Equalization, Proposition 13.
How we model reassessment (methodology) · California reassessment guide · Santa Clara County property tax overview