Article on housing - appreciation & capital gains tax avoidance means less homes for sale

[bigboibob]

Property tax predictability is a non issue compared to the compounding negative effects of property tax caps.

Going forward, there will be continued local and city budget issues and lackluster performance of government-run services.

[Ultrarunner]

I would NEVER want to go back to the old system where property is assessed based upon OPINION of value...

Ever open the tax bill and have a double digit property tax increase... it was common in the mid 1970's and at a time of gas lines and economic uncertainty...

Was not old enough to vote at the time Prop 13 became law... I am very grateful those that came before me had the courage to do so and to the US Supreme Court for not striking it down.

I know what happens without Prop 13 protection... it happened to me in Washington... 80% increase over what I paid for the place 18 months prior...

Someone with a get rich scheme bought some undeveloped land nearby... that single sale sent a ripple through the entire area... no matter the developer lost it all when the real estate bubble crashed... the damage was done.

To all those that say we don't pay enough in property tax... I have the smallest home in my neighborhood and pay the most... over 10k and I am OK with that because in 30 to 40 years I am counting on paying the least.

Remember that California has Property Tax, Income Tax and Sales Tax plus hundreds of more taxes...

Nevada and Washington have no Income Tax and Oregon has no Sales Tax...

Californians pay up the nose in taxes... 12 of my friends retired from OPD... one has a 180k pension and lifetime medical at age 51... none have pensions under a 100k...

This is what is breaking the back of government and what city managers are afraid of...

[bigboibob]

These are confounding variables.

Keep in mind a large contributor of the increases in property taxes in the 1970s was due to double digit inflation which was increasing home values.

Nixon instituted price and wage controls among other things in early 1970s. Unsurprisingly, inflation followed.

One price cap for another price cap?

Warren Buffett was on the right side of the issue as per usual.


Buffett's Prop. 13 comments cause stir - SFGate

[Ultrarunner]

It's not a price cap in that it is continually reset upon transfer in addition to the annual inflation adjustment.

Also, voters are free to approve additional assessments... only 55% voter approval needed to build a new school or repair and existing one.

What is does is replace volumes of tax code with a few simple paragraphs anyone can understand.

The beauty is in it's lack of complexity... and it forever leveled how real property is taxed because the voters are now directly the deciders...

Prop 13 only sets the Statewide rate at 1%... I pay about 1.7% because the voters in Oakland and Alameda County have been very generous...

As to political suicide... I believe our current governor Brown coined the phrase Prop 13 is the third rail of California politics...

[NapaCab]

Interesting that some people are going to such great lengths to avoid capital gains tax when they have made such immense profits. The man featured in the article has made almost $1.5m profit on his principal residence and yet he is complaining about paying $270,000 in tax. Yes, that's a large tax bill but he made large profits! Funny how people don't connect these two things...