How Apple pumped up Silicon Valley property values

Santa Clara County’s assessment roll is $483.2 billion, up 7.34 percent over 2017.

From Silicon Valley Business Journal:

The total assessed value of all real and business property in Santa Clara County was just short of a half-trillion dollars at the start of 2018, the County Assessor’s office said in an annual report on Thursday, reflecting the sixth consecutive year of 6 percent or higher growth…

One single property — Apple Inc.’s new multibillion-dollar Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino — accounted for $1.52 billion of the $33 billion increase in assessed value with 51 percent of that attributable to the equipment inside. Google went on a property-buying spree in 2017 adding $1.55 billion in value to the roll, 62 percent of that attributable to the value of land and buildings.

This is what caught my eye:

In 2017, more than two-thirds of all homes sold in the [county] went for more than their asking price and 22 percent were sold for cash, the assessor reported. According to Zillow, San Jose metro area home prices are up 26.2 percent over the last year and the median price is $1.26 million.