SAN JOSE — Office property values in the South Bay plunged by $108 million in 2024 due to changes in ownership, according to the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office Annual Report.
The annual report for fiscal 2025-2026 arrives a few months after the Assessor’s Office stated that property values in Santa Clara County rose by 4.15% in 2024, the slowest rate of growth since 2012.
All other major real estate categories — agricultural, industrial, manufacturing, apartments, retail and single-family homes — showed increases in value after property purchases that resulted in changes in ownership, the report found.
Here is how other real estate categories fared during 2024. In all instances, the reported shifts in assessed value reflected a change in ownership.
— Single-family home values rose by $13.93 billion.
— Industrial and manufacturing assessed values rose by $989.4 million.
— Apartment property values increased by $576.9 million.
— Agricultural real estate values rose by $481.1 million.
— Retail building values increased by $247.1 million.
For all property categories in Santa Clara County, assessed values due to ownership changes rose $16.11 billion in 2024.
With a decline of $183.9 million, Mountain View experienced the biggest drop in office building values.
One of the major factors was a deed in lieu of foreclosure that spawned a plunge of $52.7 million in the value of an office campus at 350 and 380 Ellis St.
The tech industry provided a major propellant for assessed values due to at least one transaction.
In January 2024, Fortinet’s $192 million purchase of a large tech campus at 3833 Kifer Rd. in Santa Clara brought about an increase of $132.3 million in that property’s assessed value.
Nvidia’s shopping spree for sites next to and near its Silicon Valley headquarters included one or more transactions that triggered a rise of $108.1 million in assessed values in Santa Clara.
Another big increase in property values resulted from the development of an apartment complex at 1410 South Bascom Ave. in San Jose. That new construction produced a jump of $125.9 million in assessed value.
While the annual assessment roll for Santa Clara County did reach an all-time high of $725.7 billion, the lofty figure masked the slow growth in assessed values in 2024.
“The stagnation was largely due to ongoing challenges in the commercial real estate market,” the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office stated in July.
