The Confusing Yet Urgent Challenges of Prop 19

My first episode of 2021! 

This episode tackles the murky but pressing topic of California's Proposition 19. As of this episode's recording, the enormous changes to reassessment rules and parent-to-child property transfers in California are set to take effect in mere weeks, on February 16, 2021. 

At this time, there are more unanswerable questions than there are answerable ones. Even the (unmistakably competent) Assessor for LA County - in a recent webinar - admitted that most California counties don't know how Prop 19 will be handled. This proposition passed on last year's ballot with approximately 51% of the vote but hardly anyone understood it fully. It was sold as a relief measure for wildfire victims and responders but the messaging behind it obscured the whole truth.  

Adult children in California have long enjoyed the ability to pay the same property tax rates as their parents did following an inheritance or gift of real estate. Under Prop 19, this will be considerably less true. Real property will be reassessed at its full market value under all but the narrowest of circumstances.