In the midst of the pandemic, an important piece of legislation was passed and put into effect: Proposition 19.

The California Association of REALTORS summarizes the benefits of Prop 19 below:

“With the passage of Proposition 19, homeowners who are 55+, severely disabled or victims of wildfire or natural disaster may transfer their property tax base of their existing home to a new home anywhere in California without price restriction.

Prop 19 new tax benefits for homeowners 55+, severely disabled, or victims of wildfire or natural disaster, as of April 1, 2021 include:

• Moving anywhere in California: Prop 19 removes location restrictions on property tax transfers allowing the transfer of the property tax base of an existing home to a new home anywhere in California.
• Moving to any home regardless of price: Prop 19 removes price restrictions on property tax transfers allowing the transfer of the property tax base of an existing home to a new home regardless of price (with an adjustment upward to their tax basis if the replacement property is of greater value).
• Transferring the low property tax base of your original home to a new home up to THREE times (or more for victims of wildfire or natural hazard).”

The question now in March 2022 is whether homeowners have taken advantage of Proposition 19. Part of what needs to happen for Proposition 19 to be utilized is the education side. Not all homeowners are aware of Prop 19 — and many might confuse it with previous policies like Prop 60/90.

“Although official statistics from the State Board of Equalization and from individual county assessors is not expected to be available for some time, there are some preliminary indications that some homeowners are taking advantage of recently enacted changes to move to a new home without losing their Proposition 13-protected property tax base on their current home.”

Approximately 1 in 3 REALTORS reported that they had worked with a seller who has or will transfer their property tax base to another home.*

What was the motivating factor for those sales? What prompted those sellers to put their homes on the market? “For nearly 1 out of 4 of those, the ability to transfer their property tax base was the motivating factor in the sale, which suggests that property tax portability could help to unlock some additional inventory in 2022.” (Market Minute)

Does the idea of transferring your tax base to another home in California sound attractive to you?

Are you curious about whether you could buy a home and then sell the home?

Call, text, or email me today and I can provide you with additional information.

–Melissa

951.741.8441

Melissa(at)kaleorealestate(dotted)com

Source: **CAR.org
*https://www.car.org/marketdata/marketminute