Recent News

Seniors in California who want to downsize from their three- or four-bedroom home, now that their children are gone, find themselves facing a costly and daunting dilemma. If they sell, they would lose the property tax protections they’ve enjoyed under Proposition 13.

Instead of paying what experts are calling a steep “moving penalty” in the form of a sharp property tax increase, these people stay in a home that could otherwise be sold to a young family. This is part of the reason why California is facing a crushing affordable housing shortage: fewer single family homes are reaching the sales market.  

Voters can fix this problem and eliminate California’s property tax moving penalty by voting yes on Proposition 5, known as the Property Tax Fairness Initiative. The measure, qualified for the ballot by nearly 1 million registered voters, protects people 55 years and older by allowing them to take their property tax protections with them when they move, giving them the ability to move to a safer, more practical home, or one that is closer to their children and grandchildren, or health care facilities. That same protection would also be extended to the severely disabled and to victims of natural disasters. Read more