Where property values are rising, so are reassessed county taxes

Understanding the Proposition 13 amendment.  

Silicon Valley Mercury News/Tracy Seipel, 7/22/12.  "Homeowner headache:  Understanding (the other) Proposition 8."

Home ownership has surprises

That conflicted look you're seeing on your neighbors' faces? That's the gaze of 51,485 Santa Clara County property owners caught in a quandary: They're watching their property values finally going up, which is a good thing, and their property taxes surging as well, which doesn't feel so good. 

....".... But isn't it illegal under Proposition 13 for property taxes to go up more than 2 percent? Nope.

... but expensive

Karen Kreshel's home is worth far less than what she and her husband paid for it in 2007, but over the past two years, the value of their Willow Glen Craftsman-style bungalow has slowly started rising -- to the point where the couple's property tax bill this year is expected to go up 9.4 percent.

....  Didn't Proposition 13 -- passed by voters in 1978 -- limit the growth of a property's assessed value to no more than 2 percent a year?  Well, yes, said Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone -- except that many forget about an addendum: If the assessed value of a property falls below the property's most recent purchase price, then when values start to go back up, there is no limit of 2 percent, at least not until the value has returned to its original value, plus annual increases allowed under Proposition 13."  Read Article. 

Related - Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Proposition 13 background,. Wikipedia/CA Proposition 13.  And,  Public Policy Institute of CA/Jeffrey I. Chapman, Occassional Papers (no date)."Some Unintended Consequences.". 

Posted by Kathy Meeh