{"id":336525,"date":"2026-05-28T21:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336525\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T21:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T21:44:11","slug":"bitter-ballot-fight-brewing-over-vacant-homes-in-major-california-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/336525\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitter ballot fight brewing over vacant homes in major California city"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of California\u2019s<\/a> largest cities will decide next week on whether to tax property owners annually for homes left vacant more than half the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego<\/a> residents will vote on Measure A next week, a controversial tax that would charge homeowners if their properties are vacant for more than 182 days a year. If passed, it would go into effect in 2027 and charge up to $8,000 the first year and $10,000 the next, with additional fees for commercial property owners. All the revenue would go into the city\u2019s general fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It could amount to 5,140 homes<\/a> that qualify for the tax, the measure says, resulting in about $24 million generated each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego has been hit hard by a housing shortage in the past decade, while home prices nearly doubled. Backers say the measure would help return some of these vacant homes to the market.<\/p>\n

Opponents, meanwhile, argue that the law would be an invasion of privacy and that there\u2019s no guarantee the tax would help address the city\u2019s housing shortage.<\/p>\n

The measure has spawned a fierce battle among voters, with coalitions throwing tens of thousands of dollars in support of and against the measure. Supporters have spent just over $280,000, mainly from labor unions, while the opposition has funneled more than $1.3 million in efforts to defeat it, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported<\/a>. The bulk of that opposition money comes from real estate groups, including both the California and the national associations of Realtors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should it pass, these opposition groups have also pledged to legislate against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several other California cities have passed legislation taxing vacant homes in the past decade to varying levels of success. Oaklanders<\/a> approved a vacant property tax in 2018 \u2014 defined as in use less than 50 days in a calendar year \u2014 of up to $6,000 for a residential property. Berkeley implemented an \u201cempty homes tax\u201d in 2024, taxing property owners up to $12,000 for units that are vacant for more than 182 days, though some landlords have skipped out<\/a> on paying millions in taxes in hopes that the law is struck down in court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Diego officials have said its proposed tax is most closely modeled after Berkeley\u2019s.<\/p>\n

San Francisco passed<\/a> its own empty homes tax<\/a> in 2022, which would have netted the city up to $20 million per year for vacant units, but the legislation has been ensnared in legal battles and is effectively halted after a San Francisco Superior Court Judge ruled the tax unconstitutional. The city is appealing the ruling. It would have raised funds for affordable housing initiatives.<\/p>\n

Other cities have swiftly voted down similar proposals. In November 2024, more than 74% of South Lake Tahoe voters said \u201cno\u201d<\/a> to a proposal that would have taxed homeowners who use their homes less than 182 days of the year up to $6,000 annually. A city report at the time said nearly 48% of the city\u2019s total housing stock sat empty for at least half the year. Voters in Santa Cruz rejected a similar tax in 2022, with 54% voting against it<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of California\u2019s largest cities will decide next week on whether to tax property owners annually for homes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3099,3100],"class_list":["post-336525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-sfgcalifornia","tag-sfgpolitics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}