Under Prop 13, don’t those property taxes adjust when the home is sold? As I understood it (and I could certainly be wrong), if I bought that home in California that had taxes of $7,000 under the previous owner, I could then be paying $31,000 as the new owner. Isn’t that the case?
We have a similar law now in NJ, where property taxes can’t increase more than 2% per year, but it can be skirted if voters pass additional projects.
“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!