Many Retirees and Senior Homeowners Are Faced With a Dilemma
Their children have grown up and moved out. So, do they stay in their oversized home and enjoy the benefits of a lower Prop 13-protected tax base or relocate to a smaller and perhaps newer home that better meets their current needs and be faced with a high property tax bill based on current “hot” property values?
Relief did come in 1997 in the form of Proposition 90, enacted and adopted by many California counties to address this very issue.
How to Qualify for Proposition 90
The provisions of Proposition 90 permit qualifying California seniors who move within California into a qualifying county to take with them their former Proposition 13 tax base.
The new home must be purchased in a qualifying county within two years before or after the sale of the original residence. The transfer of property tax base is not automatic and proper forms must be filed within three years of purchasing the new home.
In order to qualify the homeowner must be at least 55 years of age at the time the residence was sold, and must have lived there within two years of its sale. The replacement residence must be of equal or lesser value than the original residence. The claimant may only receive a replacement property base year value transfer once.