These Tax Laws Are Holding Back California’s Housing Market

A summary of how all these crazy ass citizen propositions are hurting California.

Even when they die, their houses may never hit the market. In the same 1986 election in which voters passed Prop 60, encouraging older owners to move, they passed a different measure with the opposite effect. Known as Prop 58, it created a new class of landed aristocrats: the descendants of people who bought their homes at low prices.

The law lets homes (and up to $1 million in other property) pass from parents to children without a step-up in assessed value. Another initiative, Prop 193, does the same for grandchildren when their parents are deceased. Together these exclusions all but guarantee that a significant portion of California homes will never go on sale. They can, however, be rented out at market prices.

Forget about these. The most obvious one is the grandfathered property tax rate. Once you remove that, people will be selling their homes like no tomorrow.

Prop 13 + 58 + 193 means we have created a perpetual landed class who don’t pay their share of property tax.

China learns from this, no freehold property, all 60 years leasehold :tired_face: Singapore wants to move all to 99 years leasehold, tried 60 years unsuccessfully :shushing_face: imho, shouldn’t have freehold property as this favor the earlier buyers and encourage hoarding and rent seeking :alien:

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Direct democracy California style is stupid. Because most voters are, frankly, stupid. If we had a problem of seniors being pushed out we could have solved the problem with a mean tested property tax relief for old people. Just show us proofs you can’t afford your property tax bill and we will cut it or something. Simple. Problem solved.

Instead voters passed a wholesale freeze on property tax that includes not just residential but rental and commercial as well.

Allowing the passing of tax basis to kids and grandkids is just wrong and absurd.

The tax revolt was about spending. It forced the state to spend less. It is a never ending battle with Democrats spending like the Roman Senate to curry the favor of the rabble.

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Omg, finally someone that’s against prop 13!

Who me? Of course, I’m for it.

Oh, you like prop13. damn.

You will too. Eventually.

I will like the benefits, but will not like the idea.
It’s the irony of distorting markets for personal wealth, when at the same time we scream free market!

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Prop 13 is rent control for landowners.

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Yup, it certainly is.

Better than that. My SFH doesn’t have rent control.

Prop 13 and 58 are fantastic (not at all biased). Hoard as many houses as you can and never sell. With the low tax basis a house is worth more to you than a future owner. Your children will thank you.

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Anyone who has owned a house more than a year is for Prop 13. Why should government benefit from the housing shortage they created?

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Learn from Oregon. All new buyers inherit the same property tax base as the current owner.

Yet property tax revenue is increasing at 5%+ a year which is more than inflation. Since 1978, property tax revenue has grown more than income tax revenue. California has nearly doubled the number of residents, but the same number pay income tax. Yeah, let’s blame all of this on prop 13.

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This is the strategy of devide and conquer. Make one segment of the population envious or mad about another segment. Let them fight with each other about who pays more tax. The end result would be everyone pays more tax and make the government flush with cash to waste. Haha, the government men will laugh all the way to waste.

The best strategy is to repeal property tax so that no owner or renter would argue about this and save people’s time.

Second best strategy is to make every house reassessed to 1978 valuation plus an exponentially increasing value at 2% per year. This will guarantee an exponential explosion of government spending with a limit on increase.

I don’t know why California likes to make laws making people unequal. Oregon is fair and square in their property tax bill.