I hand counted

I've searched for several years for the answer to the question 'What percent of San Francisco property owners are taxed under Proposition 13?' I could never find it online or from talking to people in City Hall.

Proposition 13 was passed by Californians in 1978 and it kept any existing (at the time of its passage) property taxes from rising by more than 2% per year.   That now means two adjacent homes worth the same on the market can be taxed at $600 for one unsold since 1978 while the other, sold more recently, pays $8000 a year in property tax.

What is the answer?  I went down to City Hall with a piece of paper, a table of random numbers and counted a sample of tax bills. Answer 25%, one out of four, property owners are still paying taxes on their assessed valuations in 1978.

If you wanted the answer, you now have it and 'you are welcome'. 

Roughly 50,000 householders benefit from this tax break and 600,000 residents don't. ( I consider families and a few tenants in the 50,000).

Comments

[Stan Ho, Berkeley]

Now, you got this wrong! The goal of Prop 13 was to keep taxation of current homeowners from explosive increases. It benefits all homeowners. How long could even new homeowners maintain their tax at the level they implicitly agreed to when they bought their homes. Even though homes may appreciate they are not income-generating assets until they are sold. And then the tax goes up.