Yep, it's great if you're a long timer but most others are pretty screwed. Your neighbor could be paying triple and more. And I'd bet they're getting tired of waiting for the old timers to die off. They'll likely go after prop 13 at some point.
“Your neighbor could be paying triple and more”
That is true. The alternative is what we are facing in Idaho — annual 8% hikes forcing elders on fixed incomes to sell their life-long homes where they raised their families.
So choose your poison:
1) In CA, younger people moving in next to an older couple, paying 3X the property tax for the same house, and the resulting low mobility of older couples keeping inventory low.
2) Or states without a Prop 13 forcing fixed-income elders to sell their life-long homes and move to an apartment against their will.
When we lived in CA, we found after four or five years in our home we didn’t want to move because our property taxes would have soared due to rapid house appreciation. So people stay in the home they bought to keep that low property tax and fix the property up.
The solution for younger couples and families in CA is to stay put and not move. Just be sure you recognize that market dynamic BEFORE you buy your house because it may be the last house you ever buy in California. That’s what happened to us.
A tax revolt is brewing in Idaho with repeated 8% property tax hikes that people cannot afford. There is talk of a taxpayer initiative to create something like Prop 13.
On balance I believe #1 is a lot more fair, but there is no perfect answer.