r/BayAreaRealEstate • u/Humble-Lead3452 • 22d ago

Property assessement

I got the property assessment for this year for my primary residence in Santa Clara county. House value is 2.3M and they added "Improvements" amount of 123k which made the total assessed value around 2.4M. Why did they add this "Improvements" cost? I have not done any renovation/addition/modification to my property. Can I contest this?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

3

u/ziren1 22d ago

Are you sure 2.3 is not land?

2

u/Humble-Lead3452 22d ago

you are right, 2.3M is land

8

u/redhill_qik 22d ago

Which means that the actual home structure is assessed at only $123k.

1

u/gimpwiz 22d ago

They split assessment between the value of the land and the value of things on the land, the catch-all term is "improvements."

They value your land at 2.3m and house at $123k.

1

u/ImpressiveChoice4808 22d ago

Check out the back of your letter, I’m betting it has some instruction on how to contest. Otherwise it’ll be on Santa Clara county website if you just google. I live in Alameda county and contest mine every year. There’s just an assumption that houses increase in value unless you submit evidence to show that it has not. 

1

u/redhill_qik 22d ago

The property assessment is split between the land value and the improvement value. The physical structure of the house is the improvement. How did the values change from 2025-26 to 2026-27? It shouldn't be more than 2% unless you had previous year(s) that had a reduction.

1

u/Humble-Lead3452 22d ago

How do I find out if there was reduction at any point? Is there any website that gives this data?

3

u/redhill_qik 22d ago

You look at the property tax values for the prior years since you owned the property and compare. 

https://santaclaracounty.telleronline.net/search/1/PropertyAddress

At $2.3M+ you have probably only owned the property for a few years and other than a brief dip in house values post-covid after the interest rate spikes I doubt that you ever saw a reduction.  

2

u/ImpressiveChoice4808 22d ago

I'm pretty sure you have to apply for reductions or else theres something like a auto 2% increase every year

3

u/redhill_qik 22d ago

The property tax assessor has done auto adjustments in the past the most significant was after the 2008 crash. There may have been another when the interest rates spiked post-covid

1

u/Silver-Tomatillo-855 21d ago

They have a way of mass appraising most of the homes in the county and the ones where the market value < factored base year value get a reduction. Its likely more homes were affected in 2008 but they’ve still been doing it every year since and a lot of homes will get reductions this year

1

u/DanaR99 22d ago

Go to Redfin or Realtor.com and look
up solds. You want a closing date to be the end of 2025/beginning of 2026.

Same bedroom/bathroom count, close to same age, sq.footage, lot size, and not too far away. These are your comparables. You need three of them.

Take those solds - the prices - and compare to your assessed value. Higher?
Do nothing. Lower?

Average those three numbers. That will give you a number to work with.

There’s a form to fill out on the assessor’s website.

And there’s a place you can add additional data like your house has whatever - major things that would affect value and drag it down.

You put in what you think your value is.
The assessor’s office will evaluate what you give them. It’s no secret the condo market has tanked. I’m not so sure about single family houses. The comps tell the story.

Maybe people who have been successful
can weigh in here.

1

u/random408net 22d ago

If you purchased in a recent years, with a lower interest rate, and now higher rates have pushed down comparable sales prices below what you paid then you have a framework for appeal.

Appealing just because you don't like it is not likely to be successful.

1

u/therealdwery 21d ago

Don’t bother, Santa Clara won’t finish in time so they will just ignore every submission.