[CIB-173RDABN]

Because of Proposition 13, it is common for new buyers to pay ten times the property tax that their neighbors pay. Tax rates are set at the time of purchase, which means those who bought long ago pay nearly nothing, and the new buyers pay all property tax for everyone else. Upgrading houses makes you a newcomer all over again.

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This only seems unfair if you assume everyones income has kept going up. We purchased our home in 1985 and it is true that we pay less property tax then someone who purchased the same model home across the street in 2006.

The point is, I could not afford to buy my home at today's cost.

I am close to retirement, my home is paid for, my property taxes is a managable $1,200 a year (it does go up a small bit each year). This is one thing that makes retirement possible.

So while it may seem unfair to base property taxes on what someone pays for their homes, it is really the only fair way. Otherwise we would go back to those days, when older retired people would lose their homes of 40 to 50 years because they can no longer pay the property tax, then where are they to live?

[wtc911]

So while it may seem unfair to base property taxes on what someone pays for their homes, it is really the only fair way.

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The problem there is that the cost of the services paid for by the taxes keeps rising. I agree that retirees should see a freeze but I disagree that tax rates should freeze forever based on the purchase price.

I bought my first home in my twenties. Within ten years my earnings had doubled and ten years later doubled again. That is the case with most of us. Had my RE tax remained the same throughout then my newer neighbors would have been subsidizing me.