Plan B Forum

-"BB"-

Speaking of same-sex marriages, two gay men, Tom & Kris, bought a house down the street from me and lived there together since 1987. Tom died a couple of months ago at age 66 from lung cancer. I was talking to Kris yesterday and he told me that the home was willed to him, which surprised me because I thought he also owned the home. They should have married each other. In order for Kris to inherit the home, its value had to be reappraised for tax purposes. Now his property tax, which was about $5200.00 per year is now over $16,000.00 per year.

The house doesn't look any different....

That's odd. Here, property is reassessed every year. The county doesn't care about the appraisals, only the average selling prices of similar nearby property. You do get a major reassessment any time modifications are done (like additions or new outbuildings), but not on sale or transfer.

When I bought my current house, it was assessed at $155,000 even though I paid $78,000 for it. The listing agent had it appraised at $225,000. The county didn't care about either the selling price or the private appraisal, only what their matrix said it was worth. Over the last 12 years the assessed value has ranged from a low of $175,000 to the $321,000 the County says it's worth now. Taxes have increased at a slower rate, were under $2000/yr and are a little over $3000/yr now.

Likewise my grandparent's house. My grandmother said that they spent less than $1500 to build the house back in the 1940s, and it was valued at under $6000 when finished in 1948. The tax bills over the last 10 years of her life exceeded $8000 a year, on an assessment of around $900,000 (it sold for 1.1Mil, but it's still assessed at $900k)

There is a case though where property taxes can double or triple on transfer- if the previous taxpayer was granted senior or disabled fixed income status, taxes are FAR less (my Grandmother, even at 97 years, was never eligible for it).

Prop 13 fixes the amount of tax when the home is bought (the original base rate was in 1974 I believe), and allows a 1% per year increase. If the house goes to a spouse or a child/grandchild, they get the historic rate. Otherwise, it gets reassessed at the current market value and that becomes the new base tax rate. This has allowed people to stay in their family home. I have a friend who has a nice place in Saratoga that they inherited which has the original base rate, and they pay a bit more than a $1,000 a year; similar homes that have been recently purchased pay a lot more (as Joe indicates).

Thank you Howard Jarvis.

"Property " taxes are set by various local government establishments. Your results are guaranteed to vary, based on location.

snailgate