Santa Monica's assessed property value climbed to nearly $55 billion this year, making it the third-highest valued city in Los Angeles County behind only Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the 2026 Assessment Roll released by the Los Angeles County Assessor's Office.
The city's total assessed valuation reached $54.96 billion in 2026, up from $52.93 billion the previous year — a 3.8% increase, or about $2.03 billion, according to figures released by Assessor Jeff Prang's office. Santa Monica trailed only Los Angeles, which posted $926.1 billion in assessed value, and Long Beach, at $84.5 billion.
Santa Monica's growth came in below the countywide average, as the 2026 Assessment Roll for all of Los Angeles County reached a record $2.272 trillion in total net taxable value, a 4.42% increase, or $96 billion, over the prior year. The increase marks the 16th consecutive year of growth for the county's property tax base.
By comparison, Malibu — another Westside coastal city grappling with recovery from the January 2025 wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas — saw its assessed value grow 3.5% to $25.63 billion, an increase of about $871 million over 2025.
"Despite one of the most challenging years in recent memory, marked by the ongoing response to the devastating wildfires that swept through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities and a cooling real estate market," the Assessor's office said, the countywide roll still posted its 16th straight year of expansion.
"When I presented the forecast to the Board of Supervisors in May, I emphasized 2025-2026 was a challenging year, and the impact of January's devastating wildfires will be felt for years to come," Prang said in a statement. "Even so, Los Angeles County's economy continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience. Not only did we maintain value growth, we exceeded our May forecast of 3.9%, finishing the year at 4.42%."
The countywide increase is projected to generate more than $27 billion in property tax revenue to fund public education, public safety, healthcare, libraries, parks and other local government services across the county, according to the Assessor's office.
Property transfers — meaning sales and other changes in ownership — were the single largest driver of growth, adding $49.1 billion to the roll, or 2.17 percentage points of the overall increase, according to figures included with the release. The median home sales price countywide climbed to $982,000, a modest increase from the prior year, even as the broader real estate market cooled and single-family sales volume remained flat compared with 2024.
The annual inflation adjustment mandated under Proposition 13 also played a major role. Because the California Consumer Price Index exceeded the constitutional limit this year, the Assessor's office applied the maximum allowable 2% inflation factor, adding roughly $42.7 billion in assessed value countywide.
New construction added another $12.1 billion to the roll, while personal property and fixtures — bolstered in part by new software the Assessor's office acquired to identify previously unassessed taxable aircraft — contributed $11.6 billion. Officials said the software helped uncover more than 1,000 aircraft that had escaped assessment in past years. Special property use types, including oil refineries, mining and water rights, and mobile homes, added just over $1.2 billion.
Those gains were partially offset by significant declines in the downtown Los Angeles office market, where officials said many properties lost more than half their value upon sale, and by continued relief granted to victims of the 2025 wildfires. Combined, declines in value and other adjustments removed nearly $9.8 billion from the roll.
After exemptions, the assessment roll's net local increase totaled $96.175 billion, or 4.42%, according to a breakdown provided by the Assessor's office.
Countywide, the roll includes nearly $95 billion in total property tax exemptions, translating to more than $948 million in tax savings for property owners. Those exemptions include roughly 891,000 homeowners' exemptions totaling more than $6.3 billion, more than 9,100 disabled veterans' exemptions totaling $1.6 billion, and about 15,000 institutional exemptions — covering religious institutions and nonprofits — totaling $87 billion.
Despite the countywide growth, officials emphasized that most property owners will not see a corresponding jump in their tax bills. Under Proposition 13, most assessed values are limited to a maximum annual inflation adjustment of 2%, meaning the majority of the roughly 2.25 million parcels in the county will see only that modest increase.
The fastest-growing cities in the county by percentage were Irwindale, up 15%; Vernon, up 13.3%; and Hidden Hills, up 11.7%.
The 2026 Assessment Roll reflects the value of all taxable property in the county as of Jan. 1, 2026, as required under the California Constitution, and includes 2,399,978 taxable real property parcels, 157,195 business property assessments, 31,938 boats and 3,566 aircraft. To compile the roll, the Assessor's office said staff processed 220,000 deeds, assessed 105,000 property transfers, enrolled more than 32,000 new construction events, reviewed about 9,000 decline-in-value parcels and prepared more than 15,000 Assessment Appeals Board cases.
Property owners who disagree with their new assessed value may file an appeal before the Nov. 30, 2026, deadline. Applications can be filed online at lacaab.lacounty.gov.
The full 2026 Assessment Roll is available at assessor.lacounty.gov.