Yes, your property tax is high ($17k) because of prop 13 - you are effectively subsidizing others who have sat on their residential and commercial property for 20-30+ years who are paying 25-50% of what you pay for any similar property in the same calendar year!

Your property tax goes up by 2% of your , guessing (relatively recent?) purchase price, and theirs goes up 2% of a much smaller base due to prop 13.

They have no incentive to move, downgrade. And they often use trusts to pass this tax base down to their kids. It’s feels like icky European feudalism.

Again i’m emphasizing that this goes for both residential and commercial buildings.

> Do you own your home? Here in Ca?

Yes and yes.

And I pay 10K less a year than my neighbor for the same value house. And I pay 10K more a year than my other neighbor.

I get a huge advantage from Prop 13, but I still think it needs to get replaced with a much fairer system.

That is close to the average rate of inflation, though. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

They go up much more than 2% in literally every other state, California is the cheapest place to own property for >10 years.

You can argue against property taxes entirely, but Prop 13 definitely means that families, businesses, and all property owners work very hard to never sell, never reassess, and never change their tax rate.

While I think the goal of Prop 13 is laudable, a few reforms would cut some of the biggest downsides: it should be be for primary residences, where the named owner is the primary resident.

This would eliminate the tax break for commercial property, prevent it from being abused for second homes, and avoid the property trust shenanigans that have allowed some properties to change hands without a reset in the taxes paid.