>-their house- then we tax its assessed value every year.
It depends on how the property tax is implemented. Is California's property tax with Proposition 13 a true "wealth tax" that people mentally think of in this thread?
Here's an example of a property in Silicon Valley being assessed at $146k but the real market value was $3+ million. The assessed value wasn't readjusted to the higher market value until it was sold in 2016: https://imgur.com/a/0OvqADN
The surveys I saw say majority of Californians (~64%) favor Proposition 13 and it's politically unpopular to repeal.