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Prop 13 actually fixes commercial property taxes as well so long-lived corporations end up paying very low tax. In addition, one can also pass the lower property assessment value on to ones children (principle residence and up to $1,000,000 other property)[1]. California has been slowly building up a landed aristocracy.

[1]http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_13A

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True that. In fact, every set of buildings have their own legal entity. So, when these buildings are sold, prop 13 does not impact them. That's because the legal entity remains the same even though the controlling interests are changed. Maybe, it is time to buy a home through a legal entity and sell that entity, so that the future buyer doesn't need to pay the tax on the increased price.

I thought that loophole was closed? Doesn't a change in controlling interest cause the revaluation?

What might stand up to a legal challenge is creating an entity that owns say ~1000 houses and when you want to buy a house you buy a very small fraction of the company with what your house would cost to purchase. Then the company would buy the house and let you live there until you want to sell. Maybe these already exist as a weird residential coop REIT.

Isn't that a condominium corporation? I believe there are special regulations that apply there.

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