Tax relief for those over 55?

YES! It is true!  A fear I hear all the time are the folks who bought their home years ago, have a small property tax bill by today's standards and they want to move.  Since Proposition 13 passed, your property taxes can not be reassessed or largely increased except upon transfer of ownership (with some exceptions). 

So what happens when you sell your family home?  Perhaps you bought the home for $200,000 in the 1970's and are paying little more than $3,000 a year in taxes.   That same home could easily be worth in some communities here over 1 million dollars.  So what if you want to downsize? To a $800,000 golf course home? The new property taxes on that new home could be over $9,500 a year!  Who wants to think of doubling, tripling or quadrulpling their property taxes in their retirement? Especially when all that equity you built up could potentially buy you that retirement home outright?  Well there is a solution.

Proposition 60 exists to allow persons over 55 to buy a home of equal or lesser value and KEEP their existing property tax base. Only one spouse/owner must be over 55. The replacement property must be purchased or construction completed within 2 years of selling your original property.  There are two exceptions to buying a home of lesser value, which allow you to purchase a home of higher value:

"In general, "equal or lesser" than market value of a replacement dwelling has been defined as: 100% of market value of original property as of its date of sale if a replacement dwelling is purchased before an original property is sold; 105% of market value of original property as of its date of sale if a replacement dwelling is purchased within one year after the sale of an original property; 110% of market value of original property as of its date of sale if a replacement dwelling is purchased within two years after the sale of an original property."

So, if you buy a new home first, it must be equal or lesser. If you sell your home first, then buy... you may go up to 105% of the original property's value if the new property is purchased within 1 year and 110% of the market value, if the replacement property is purchased within 2 years.

Proposition 90 allows you to move to another county who participates in Prop 90 and allows prop 13 tax base transfers. Only 7 counties participate in Prop 90 at this point.  Those counties include Los Angeles, Ventura, Alameda, Santa Clara, Orange, San Mateo and San Diego. It does not matter what county you come from for Prop 90.  Contra Costa, Marin and Monterey are three Bay Area Counties who do NOT participate in Prop 90.

There  are rules and direction you MUST follow to be assured of this benefit, so call the county tax assessor office and visit their website for more information:  Contra Costa County Property Tax Assessor - Prop 60