Very misleading. In the areas where there are jobs, which are the coastal cities, property tax receipts are very high. The reason the rates appear low is because the cost of housing is so high. Only 8 states collect more in property taxes on average than CA. (VT, NJ, MA, NH, IL, CT, RI, NY). When you throw in CA's high income and sales taxes, it's understandable why people are leaving.
“California has the 16th lowest property taxes in the country.”
Bulls***! - The municipalities long ago got around the Prop 13 limitation by calling all manner of real estate taxes by another name.
To illustrate, just for fun, I pulled up a home in my part of CA (near Sacramento). Home is 1900 square feet, market worth about $480K.
2019 taxes are as follows:
Property tax: $5368
“Special Assessments” - FOURTEEEN of them - add up to an additional: $1028
See how it works? And i
If they blow the Prop 13 cap, it will save them time from having to “invent” new special assessments - they’ll just jack the regular tax as far up as they want to.
Prop 13 pegged jumps in property taxes to time of sale. Therefore, people who have stayed put for decades keep the averages down.
I know CA people who bought homes for $30K back in the 70s and their tax assessments are still based on that. But those $30K homes now sell for $2-3 million. The new buyer gets socked going forward.
Another tax-relief loophole that’s gone down the memory hole is the assumable loan. I know people in CA who bought cheap rental properties, then later on deeded over the assumable mortgages — and super-low property taxes— to the next buyer, with the down payment in cash under the table. Can’t do dat no mo.
Conversely, I now live in a state where real estate is more affordable, but our rural economy is depressed & homes typically sit unsold for over a year. Property taxes are rather whimsically assessed, often at a higher *rate* and based on what the assessor sees similar homes selling for in larger cities where jobs & wages are more abundant.
Thus, if you buy a 4 BR brick, bank-owned foreclosure for $30K, you might find yourself paying property taxes equal or higher than an owner of a similar home assessed at $200K in a nearby major city.