SLO County home values just passed a major milestone. See where they’ve grown the most
San Luis Obispo County home prices continued to rise in 2024, nearly doubling in home value over the past decade.
According to the San Luis Obispo County Assessor’s 2024 Annual Report, this year the median home price in the county reached $901,111 — the first time the median has ever cracked $900,000 — showing some acceleration in value compared to previous years.
As recently as 2014, median prices sat at $477,308 but saw a period of rapid acceleration from 2020 through 2022, when the median jumped more than $200,000 in two years. During that span, it went from $659,208 to $765,473 and then up to $875,308 in 2022.
Since then, the rate of increases has slowed substantially.
From 2022 to 2023, median prices only rose by around $6,000. They then gained around $19,000 from 2023’s $881,950 to the current median — more in keeping with the county’s pre-COVID-19 price increases.
“For the 2023-24 period, our county experienced a moderate increase in values,” county assessor Tom J. Bordonaro, Jr. said in the report. “Residential properties remain in short supply, and high interest rates slowed the pace of home sales. Given these conditions, there were fewer re-appraisable changes in ownership than in prior years.”
Bordonaro added that new construction slowed down “substantially” in the past year, meaning less new construction value was added to the assessment roll.
Total value of county assets continues to rise
In the most recent assessment year, San Luis Obispo County assets’ total gross assessed value reached just under $74.8 billion, increasing by around $3.6 billion — or 5.03% — in the 2024-25 year.
Much of that value was propelled by single-family residential valuations, with the county’s 112,697 single-family residences making up around $32.3 billion in value.
2024 proved to be a particularly valuable year in the city of San Luis Obispo, where the total gross assessed value grew by 6.72% from last year, reaching $13.5 billion.
Paso Robles saw a similarly high 6.4% increase in total gross assessed value, reaching a valuation of $7.2 billion this year. Nearby, Atascadero’s total gross assessed value rose 5.3%, reaching $5.5 billion.
Pismo Beach kept pace with all South County cities in total gross assessed value, rising by just under 5% from last year to $4.7 billion, while Arroyo Grande saw an increase of 4.4% to $4.3 billion and Grover Beach’s total gross assessed value grew by 5.4% to $2.4 billion.
Morro Bay’s total gross assessed value rose 5% in 2024, reaching $3.5 billion.
All unincorporated areas of the county were valued at $35.3 billion — a 4.3% increase of more than $1.5 billion over the past year.
How did Propositions 8, 13 and 19 impact value in 2024?
Proposition 8, passed in 1978, allows for a temporary value reduction when the market value of a property has fallen below its factored base year as of Jan. 1 each year.
Under Proposition 8, the base year value of property is factored at a maximum of 2% each year, which sets a maximum assessed value.
In 2024, a total of 17,660 properties saw their values reduced in San Luis Obispo County as a result of that law, the report said. Of those properties, 12,016 properties had their value permanently reduced by Proposition 8, while 3,187 properties had their value reduced by the annual assessment.
Both perpetual and temporary Proposition 8 assessment reductions have declined continuously over the past decade; in 2014, more than 45,000 homes saw assessment reductions, but since then annual assessment reductions have made up most of the decline.
Proposition 13, also passed in 1978, limits property tax assessment increases to no more than 2% per year as long as the property does not have a change of ownership or new construction, and limits property taxes to 1% of the property’s assessed value. That 2% property tax assessment increase cap ensured lower assessments than the 3.2% increase derived from the California Consumer Price Index for many San Luis Obispo County homeowners, according to the report.
Proposition 19, which went into effect in 2021, also contributed to around $74.7 million in net value loss in 2024.
The proposition allows a child or children to keep the lower property tax base of their parent only if the property is the principal residence of the parent, and allows homeowners who are over 55 years of age, disabled, or victims of a wildfire or natural disaster, to transfer a lower assessed property value of their primary home to a newly purchased or newly constructed replacement principal residence up to three times.
In 2024, 332 base year transfers were transferred — 122 within San Luis Obispo County and 210 coming from other counties — for a total value of $106.3 million lost. The county also gained $31.6 million from a total of 61 property owners transferring their base value to another county.
Due to the passage of Proposition 19, our county continues to see an influx of owners transferring their base values to San Luis Obispo County,” Bordonaro said in the report. “All of this contributed to moderate property value increases recorded by my office.”
Where are your tax dollars going?
In the 2024-25 year, San Luis Obispo County brought home just under $757 million, with school districts and the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund taking home 61.4% of that sum.
The county’s general fund received 24.3% of the revenue, while incorporated cities received 7.2% of the revenue.
Special districts received 3.85% and redevelopment agencies received the remaining 3.2% of the property tax revenue.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
