Is Proposition 13 & 58 in demand despite critics… Without hesitation, the answer is yes. On June 6, 1978, 42 years ago, California voters passed Proposition 13 with 65% of the total vote. And to this day, interestingly enough, 65% of “likely voters” in California still support this tax relief initiative.

This popular and unique property tax break immediately froze California home owners’ real estate tax rate at 1% of the assessed value of their property – i.e., the assessed value on the day they bought the property.

So if you were a California resident at that time, you clearly saw that taxes on your home and land were no longer reassessed at current market value – and no longer went up more than 2% in total. And home owners in California are fortunate enough to be benefiting from the same formula 42 years later.

Moreover, the ability local governments had to raise money for city and town running budgets, including school funding – by arbitrarily raising real estate taxes whenever they felt it was needed – was all of a sudden severely restricted. And restrictions remain popular with consumers to this day.

The only parties perhaps not so thrilled with these restrictions and everything else associated with Prop 13 are political parties motivated to destroy Proposition 13 regardless how many critical protections for commercial and industrial properties are  guaranteed by Proposition 13, not to mention raising their commercial property taxes by billions… Plus certain individuals involved within the political arm of the educational system in California… as well as conventional executives, realtors, brokers, and other functionaries involved in the real estate market.

Click Here: For More Discussion on Critics of Proposition 13, at the Taxpayers Association… and on the stability home owners, renters & businesses have from Proposition 13, being able to avoid property tax reassessment; plus the positive affect Prop 13 has on local CA government – bearing in mind robust tax revenues pouring into local government coffers since Proposition 13 was passed.

Unfortunately, these folks in the California real estate business will simply have to continue riding the merry-go-round affecting the real estate market, with up-and-down sales cycles.  Let’s face it, they have had their mega profitable bull years, and now they’ll just have to learn how to cope with a bear market for a few years.

And pinning the blame on Proposition 13 and Prop 58, as well as blaming  “elderly home owners who don’t wish to put their house on the market”, simply isn’t going to fly. The shrinking numbers of homes becoming available to buy and sell is a natural business cycle.  And that’s just the way it goes.

Proposition 13 & 58 in demand despite critics?  It certainly is…

With so many property owners inheriting property taxes – yet urgently needing to transfer parents’ property taxes so they can keep parents property taxes the way they are, and not fall prey to egregious tax increases. Hence, that 65% to 70% approval for Proposition 13 in California will only go up, and up, as the  reality of the real job market and the real job-based economy in general becomes clearer and hits home, in stark direct contrast to the sunny unrealistic TV news stories people are subjected to every night on CNN and MSNBC and network news,  citing the “strongest economy is 50 years!” while ignoring the millions of under-employed people with PHD’s waiting on tables and bar-tending…

Or, we’re forced to listen to uninformed politicians  breathlessly decrying the “lowest unemployment numbers in decades”, based solely on how many people are signing up for unemployment checks, while completely ignoring the millions of workers no longer receiving unemployment checks, who have fallen into the cracks and disappeared off the grid.

Perceiving all this realistically, and personally experiencing the ups and downs of real estate in one of the key property states in the union, middle class Californians realize the importance of saving every dollar they can – and this is where Proposition 13 and Prop 58 and 193 step in and provide such critical, often life-saving, support in this regard.

Please feel free to provide your thoughts below.  We are always interested in your comments and ideas, and will continue to publish your interesting feedback: