What happens to property tax when you buy in Santa Cruz 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 $6,538/yr (on the $1,027,500 county-median home).
Estimated bill by your purchase price
| Purchase price | Estimated annual tax | vs typical bill |
|---|---|---|
| $1,027,500 | $6,538/yr | +$0/yr |
| $1,284,375 | $8,172/yr | +$1,634/yr |
| $1,541,250 | $9,807/yr | +$3,269/yr |
Effective rate: 0.64% · Tier 1 · Confidence: Medium. Reassessment toward the sale price modeled from the jurisdiction's assessment basis.
How Santa Cruz County compares before reassessment
Santa Cruz County ranks 51 of 58 published California counties by effective property-tax rate.
The county's 0.64% effective rate is 0.06 percentage points below the California published-county average of 0.7%.
The $1,027,500 median home value ranks 6 of 58 and is $546,400 above the California county median of $481,100.
Similar-rate counties
- Siskiyou County: 0.64% effective rate; $309,500 median home value
- Humboldt County: 0.64% effective rate; $446,900 median home value
- Glenn County: 0.64% effective rate; $352,400 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 Cruz County property tax overview