What a San Diego assessment actually is

Anchored to the last sale, capped at about two per cent a year, and published as one roll rather than a run of years. Why a seller's bill says nothing about a buyer's.

What the number is

Under Proposition 13 a parcel's assessed value is set at its price the last time it changed hands and then rises by at most about two per cent a year. It is not what the building is worth; it is a staircase from the last sale.

One roll, not a run of years

Oakland's county publishes a separate table per fiscal year, so a report there can draw the staircase and show the step where a building sold. San Diego County publishes one roll. So this report shows the assessed land, the assessed improvement and their total, beside the date of the last recorded document — the same fact, stated once rather than drawn.

Why a seller's bill says nothing about a buyer's

A building held twenty years carries a tax bill from a twenty-year-old price. The day you buy it the county resets the base to what you paid, and the bill is yours from there.

The county records a document type as a number and publishes no key for it, so nothing in this report separates a sale from a correction, a transfer between family or a deed into a trust. The section says “changed hands” and means “a document recorded”.

Counts run 5 September 2026.