Comment by remote_phone | Hacker News Reader

Comment by remote_phone | Hacker News Reader

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The idea that California property taxes are too low is completely wrong, they are too high.

In Vancouver, my family’s house was paying around $6000/yr in property taxes and the house was worth 1.4M only because the housing market in Vancouver has been crazy for decades.

My friend in Toronto pays $3800 on her $700k single family home.

My house in the Bay Area I bought for $1M and my taxes were $12,000 and in the last few years it has gone up to $15,000.

The idea that Prop 13 is somehow damaging CA is false. Imagine if you were a retiree in the Bay Area and your property taxes were indexed you the house price? It would drive out too many senior citizens and low income families because house prices have double in the last 7 years.

Also before you say that Prop 13 has a negative effect if you look at the actual house purchases, in my area at least half of the houses have turned over in the last 10 years meaning that the taxes being paid were reset drastically. Prop 13 protects homeowners by keeping consistency but doesn’t stop them from selling.

So that's your anecdote - and now mine: the building I live in is worth well over $5 million, and the property tax is currently $3500 a year.

Edit: just to add - I don't know where people get the idea that we need to evict people from their homes over property taxes. Just put a lien on the property for the tax bill. This isn't rocket science.

That's a great idea, especially if they don't evict people, but just take a chunk of the house that is the state's now if they don't pay taxes.

If house prices go up, the state profits when the house changes hands, or the state owns all of the house and then needs to evict people.

Again, no need to evict people. The state will get its money someday. For shorter term expense needs, they can issue bonds referencing that lien as the collateral. Everyone dies eventually.

In non California states, this is pretty easy, your hypothetical retiree takes out a home equity loan or reverse mortgage.

In places like New York, you don’t see mass displacement of old people.

The issue is, someone who owns a house they bought for 260,000, 30 years ago, isn't paying tax on the current valuation of 1.4m, they're paying a much much lower rate because of Prop 13.

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