>>1404796Proposition 13 locks property taxes in at the level of appraisal at purchase time. That means that anyone who bought a home even a decade ago is paying much less than they should be. On the face of it this doesn't sound so bad, just some tax relief for homeowners, but it decreases mobility. People hold on to houses that are too big for their needs, or that are on very valuable land that would grant them a huge payout if they sold to someone who wanted to build more housing there, because moving into even a much smaller house anywhere in California would still leave them with a bigger tax bill due to being appraised at the move-in, 2019 value. If you own a home and get a new job across town, it's worth it to endure a hellacious commute rather than try to relocate. Which means someone else in the opposite situation has to endure their own hellacious commute. Someone who raised a family in their house but now finds it too big to maintain can't move because of the tax cliff. They might instead take on some renters, but since the tax bill for them is still at the decades-past level it's not worth navigating California's tenancy laws and possibly enduring lawsuits, so more possible housing goes idle.
On top of all that, the reduced tax revenue from housing leads municipalities to prefer commercial development, adding jobs at a tremendously higher rate than homes, exacerbating the situation.
Proposition 13 provides disincentives to the efficient distribution of homes and incentivizes making a bad situation worse. It's never going away because little old ladies are too sympathetic politically, so California is just fucked until the next major recession, hopefully coupled with a migration of the tech sector to somewhere that wants it and can handle the growth.
