Detailed Property Tax Component Breakdown Comparison 2015-2016

For buyers who are numbers driven, I did a detailed comparison of the property tax charges between sample houses in the 3 neighborhoods below:
1. Cupertino address with Cupertino schools
2. Santa Clara address with Cupertino schools
3. San Jose address with Berryessa schools

The overall property tax rates are very similar for all properties in Santa Clara County. The minor variations are mainly due to the differences in Special Assessments added on to the bills for different communities.



Some Special Assessments are based on mailing address CITY (not school district):

The house with Cupertino address (based on address city not school district) is charged special assessments for the following:

1a. Cupertino Sewer Services = $411.70
1b. Cupertino/Environment/Storm = $12
2. County Library CFD 2013-1 = $33.66

In comparison, the house with San Jose address pays:
1a. SJ Current Garbage Services = $384.84 (newly added to San Jose Property Tax bills)
1b. SJ Sewer/Sani/Storm = $499.44 (newly added to San Jose Property Tax bills)
2. San Jose Library Measure B of $31.34 (up from an Assessment of $27.80 back in 2011)

and the houses with San Jose + Santa Clara address (but not the house with Cupertino address) pay:
1. SCCOSA ASMT DIST 1 assessment of $12 (same as in 2011) +
2. SCCOSA Measure Q of $24.00 (newer charge that was not present in 2011).

Some Special Assessments are based on SCHOOL DISTRICT (not mailing address CITY):  

For instance, regardless of address, homes in the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) and Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) pay CUSD Measure A of $250 (up from Parcel Tax of $125 in 2011) and FUHSD Measure B of $98 (same as Parcel Tax of $98 in 2011). In comparison, homes in the Berryessa School District (BSD) only have to pay the Berryessa School District Measure K of $79 (same as Parcel Tax $79 in 2011).


The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) charges:
1. SCVWD Safe, Clean Water = $59.24 fixed for all properties
2. SCVWD FLOOD
    a) North Central = $13.18 for Cupertino and Santa Clara
    b) East = $20.92 for Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose

Mosquito-Vector charges the same for all 3 properties:
1. Mosquito Vector Asmet #2 = $8.36
2. Mosquito Vector Control Assmt = $5.08




In summary:
1. Cupertino address with Cupertino schools = Total Assessed Value*(Tax Rate 1.1792%)+ Special Assessments $891.22
2. Santa Clara address with Cupertino schools = Total Assessed Value*(Tax Rate 1.176%)+ Special Assessments $469.86 
3. San Jose address with Berryessa schools = Total Assessed Value*(Tax Rate 1.2521%)+ Special Assessments $1,124.22

The final conclusion is that the property tax rates are only slightly different between different neighborhoods within Santa Clara County. If you are evaluating a potential purchase of investment property and need a rough property tax figure to enable you to compute cash flow then use a rough number of 0.0125 * Assessed Property Value (i.e. 1.25% * purchase price for year1)