San Diego County Assessor Jordan Z. Marks: Tax Roll Shows San Diego County land has never been worth so much

Land in San Diego County has never been worth so much.

According to the San Diego County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk (ARCC), the gross assessed value of all taxable properties in San Diego County – including residential, commercial and industrial land -- is at a record $806 billion, the highest amount in county history.

That billion-dollar figure represents an increase of 4.95%, or $38 billion, over the previous year, following certification by Jordan Z. Marks, San Diego County ARCC.

Marks said that despite a 23% drop in home sales, the lowest volume since 2007, San Diego’s low housing inventory has helped sustain strong home prices and the steady rise in land values across San Diego County. The value of San Diego County land has climbed nearly every year for 30 years, except for three decreases during the Great Recession in the late 2000s.

“The 2025 tax roll shows that San Diego County is the gold standard in fairness, transparency and putting taxpayers first based on having received a 98.5% positive customer service rating from our customers,” said Marks.

San Diego County is the fifth largest assessment jurisdiction in the United States with 1,020,253 taxable real estate parcels, 55,478 business personal property accounts, 15,162 boats, and 1,562 aircraft.

After deducting $32.2 billion for taxpayer saving, the net assessment value from taxable properties is $773.9 billion, said Marks. That means a record $7.73 billion in property tax revenue will be available to pay for schools, libraries, parks, public safety, fire, water and other government services, an increase of $358.7 million from last year, he said.

“My extraordinary San Diego Assessor team demonstrated leadership meeting our commitment to closing the tax roll complete and on time,” said Marks. “If we don’t close the tax roll on time, then county services will be interrupted, taxpayers impacted and we will see a cascading effect that would impact revenues for public safety, schools, libraries, parks and key government services.”

According to Marks, Proposition 13, which limits annual property tax increases to 2 percent, protected more than 92% or 945,302 properties and contributed a record $14.1 billion to the 2025 assessment roll.

Marks said, “Thanks to Proposition 13, no homeowner should lose their home due to unaffordable property taxes and our local government agencies are receiving a stable and reliable record high revenue funding for the 13th straight year.”

Additionally, because of Proposition 8, there were more than 17,500 property tax reductions. Prop. 8 allows California assessors to provide tax relief due to a temporary drop in property market values.

As market values rebounded in the residential market, those temporary reductions were restored, adding another $14.1 billion to the assessed value, said Marks.

In addition, according to Marks, the 2025 assessment roll reflected an unprecedented property tax savings of more than $322 million for San Diego homeowners, disabled veterans, small businesses, affordable and homeless housing projects and charitable organizations.

“My office is number one in the State of California for serving disabled veterans with property tax relief due to our innovative and award-winning outreach programs and public-private partnership,” said Marks. “My Assessor team’s award-winning proactive outreach has delivered more housing affordability for San Diegans than ever before.”

Meanwhile, the 2025 assessment roll also revealed that the number of business properties decreased by 2.5%, or a loss of 1,361 businesses, from 2024. The total number of active business accounts in San Diego County in 2025 is 55,478.

The ARCC office said commercial parcels represented 3% of the total parcel counts and accounted for 13% of the total roll assessed value. Downtown office properties saw significant reductions due to high vacancy rates hovering around 35%, and a downturn in the value of office market space. Despite major reductions in the downtown market, the impact on the assessment roll was minimal, as this subset represents only 1.9% of the total roll value, ARCC said.