Home and Money
Prop 13 and California property tax basics
A simple starting point for base-year value, the 1 percent tax limit, reassessment, and why your county assessor matters.
Think of Prop 13 like the starting line for many California property-tax bills. In most cases, your assessed value starts when the property changes ownership or new construction is finished.
After that, the assessed value usually cannot rise more than 2 percent per year under Prop 13. The tax rate is generally limited to 1 percent plus voter-approved debt and local charges.
The important warning: your bill is still local. Your county assessor handles assessed value, and your county tax collector handles the bill.
First moves
- 1
Find your county assessor before trusting any estimate.
- 2
Look for the property's assessed value, not only the market value.
- 3
If you just bought, inherited, added, rebuilt, or transferred property, check whether reassessment rules apply.
Watch for
- 1
A sale is not the only thing that can count as a change in ownership.
- 2
A temporary decline-in-value assessment can later rise by more than 2 percent until it reaches the factored base-year value.
- 3
Special assessments, bonds, and direct charges can make the bill higher than the basic 1 percent idea.