The data freaks at PropertyShark have put together an exhaustive map of the city's property taxes, with $1-$2 per square foot at the low end (dark blue) on up to $10 per square foot and beyond (dark red). Zoomed out, the usual suspects stand out—Pac Heights has a ruddy hue, the Tenderloin a decidedly bluish cast—but up close, any sense of neighborhood pattern totally falls apart. Block by block, the map dissolves into complicated grids of color, the bureaucratic equivalent of a genetic alphabet laying out San Francisco's financial picture.
The full map, which lives here, is fun to play with, and it's detailed enough to show you your house. But, who are we kidding, what it really reveals is how your place stacks up taxwise with your neighbors'—who, thanks to Prop 13, might have a vastly lower tax bill, depending on how long ago they bought. Of course, anyone with a serious voyeuristic (or perhaps just masochistic) streak can shell out for a PropertyShark account and find the exact tax bill of any address. But there's something about the abstract, data-porny visual interface that makes this sort of spying seem so much more civilized. Here now, a color-coded tour of San Francisco's tax bills, organized (roughly) from most ritzy to least.
· Tax per Square Foot, San Francisco County [PropertyShark]
· As Zuck Disrupts Dolores Heights, NIMBYs Make Nary a Peep [Curbed SF]
· How to Calculate California Property Taxes on a Newly Purchased Home [SFGate]
· Mapping 18 Bay Area Homes with the Highest Property Taxes [Curbed SF]
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