Many people have low assessed values because they bought homes a long time ago, and under California Proposition 13, their assessed value cannot rise more than 2% per year even if the actual value rises faster. Especially for seniors on a fixed income, it would be a big problem to buy a replacement home and be taxed on the full value. Several laws have been passed to address this problem, and the most recent version is Proposition 19, which allows seniors and disable individuals to transfer the assessed value of their current primary residence to a new primary residence. Since this is now a statewide law, the transfer can happen between any two homes in the state as long as the sale and the purchase both happen within two years of one another. That means you can buy a replacement home first and still do the tax-base transfer as long as you sell your old home within two years.
Here’s a link to the California Board of Equalization website on Proposition 19:
https://www.boe.ca.gov/prop19/#Introduction
Here’s a link to the Los Angeles County Assessor website on Proposition 19:
https://assessor.lacounty.gov/homeowners/proposition-19
If you have specific questions about your situation, we’re here to help. You can call us, e-mail us, text us, or send us a message via the contact us box here on the website.