With few votes left to count, San Diego's tax on second homes is dead

While the city of San Diego’s ballot measure to tax largely vacant second homes gained ground in the past week, it wasn’t enough to overcome voters’ strong opposition. With nearly all votes in the county now counted, the Measure A tax is now dead.

According to the latest unofficial election results released Friday by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, opposition to Measure A outpolled supporters by a margin of more than 6 percentage points. That compares to a gap of 16 percentage points when the first voting results were released on election day.

More than 53% of those voting were opposed, compared to nearly 47% who supported Measure A, with a gap of nearly 21,000 votes separating the two sides.

The June primary election results won’t be certified until July 2. Still to be processed are an estimated 5,600 ballots, representing instances where mail ballot envelopes were returned with a missing or non-matching signature. Voters are mailed a letter and given the chance to verify and provide their signature so their ballots can be counted, the Registrar of Voters said Friday.

Measure A, known as the non-primary homes tax, called for an initial annual levy of $8,000 on second homes that are deemed to be unoccupied for more than 182 days in a single year. In subsequent years, the tax would have risen to $10,000. For corporate-owned housing, there was to be an initial surcharge of $4,000 that would increase to $5,000 thereafter.

City officials estimated that there are more than 5,100 such homes across the county, from coastal neighborhoods to inland suburbs.

There were multiple factors contributing to the measure’s defeat, among them heavy spending by the Realtor-led No on A campaign that totaled more than $1.3 million, compared to the supporters’ $300,000. Also a factor working against the measure is the growing distrust of the current City Council, which has been lambasted by the public for imposing higher fees for trash pickup than what was originally promised and charging for parking in Balboa Park. Both those issues were addressed in a recent settlement of a lawsuit against the city.

The proposed second homes tax would have generated up to $24 million a year for the general fund, but with no guarantees that it would be spent on housing initiatives.

“These election results today confirm what voters made clear from the beginning: San Diegans do not want higher taxes, and they do not want government targeting homeownership,” said Shane Harris, spokesperson for the No on A campaign. “Government should not punish people simply because they own a second home, inherited a family property or made an investment after years of hard work and sacrifice.

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who championed the measure from the very beginning, said that one of the hurdles the campaign had to overcome was what he called false messaging by the opponents that frightened voters. Despite the loss, he says he will not abandon efforts to push for more access to affordable housing.

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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 5:52 PM.