“Under Prop 13, don’t those property taxes adjust when the home is sold?”
Yes, they adjust to 1% of the current assessed valuation at the time of sale, plus any voter-approved bond debt (local only).
Seems as though NJ law is very similar to CA We’ve lived in our home since we built it in 1984 so our taxes reflect that long-term ownership. The home across the road from us sold two years ago for a price that closely approximates the value of our place. Their taxes are at least triple what ours are because of the 1% value “reset” that is part of Proposition 13.
Californians passed Prop 13 because we were seeing the State withdrawing it’s financial flooring for schools in formerly rural areas that were becoming suburbanized. The result was schools resorting to raising property tax rates one year then reassessing properties the next. Our first home had property taxes of about $600 per year when we bought it. In three years time, they were in excess of $2,000. That kind of taxation escalation was what caused Prop 13. In our public meetings with our school officials at the time, we also found out that about 80% of our school’s budgets were “mandated costs” from the Federal and State Governments. These entities essentially “controlled” school budgets at the time, and I will bet you it’s the same or worse today.
“Local Control” is complete BS!
A friend who lived in California described how Prop 13 was killing established areas because nobody wanted to be the newcomer in the neighborhood, paying 3X the taxes of everyone else; because CA has so much land, new developments would just sprout up further out, so new homeowners could buy brand-new houses with lower taxes - and the older areas started to crumble.
The situation now in NJ, as Americans (especially younger ones) flee to more affordable areas with better opportunities, has ageing American homeowners paying high property tax bills to fund schools (75% of our property taxes) filled with imported foreign students. The American homeowners had children in the schools decades ago, and their grandchildren (if they have any) are often no longer living in NJ.
I suspect CA has a similar problem to NJ in that it is dominated by public employee unions; they want the open borders to ensure a steady stream of “clients”, and couldn’t care less when we are taxed to death to pay for them. They enjoy benefits packages and above-market salaries paid for courtesy of the people they “serve”, and younger people have realized they have their hooks in you when you buy a home - so few young Americans want them. So, we import a middle class from Asia (taking American jobs - not just in tech - for which there are no shortages of skilled Americans) to buy homes and put some kids in the schools, and import a lower class from Latin America to replace the rest of the missing American student bodies (that aren’t being born, or are born in other states).