Prop 19: move without losing your low property taxes

What Prop 19 actually lets you do

Under Prop 13, your property taxes are based on what you paid for your home, not what it’s worth today. After years of ownership, that assessed value can be a fraction of market value — and the tax bill with it. The catch has always been that moving meant a full reassessment at the new home’s price, often doubling or tripling the tax.

Prop 19 changes that for qualifying homeowners. If you’re 55 or older (or severely disabled, or a disaster victim), you can take your low Prop 13 tax base with you to a new home — anywhere in California, not just your county — up to three times in your lifetime.

How the tax base transfers

• Buying the same price or less: you keep your existing tax base, essentially unchanged. Downsize to a smaller home and your taxes come with you.
• Buying up: you still transfer your base — you’re only reassessed on the difference. Your new base becomes your old base plus the amount the new home costs above your old home’s sale price. You never get reassessed on the whole new house.

That “buying up” rule is the part that surprises people: you can move into a more expensive home and still pay dramatically less tax than a new buyer next door.

Who qualifies

• Age 55 or older — the most common path, good for up to three moves.
• Severely and permanently disabled homeowners.
• Victims of a wildfire or natural disaster whose home was substantially damaged.

In every case the home you sell has to be your principal residence, and the new one has to become your principal residence too. The transfer isn’t automatic — you file a claim with the county assessor — so it’s worth confirming the details before you list.