Prop 19 property tax transfers

Prop 19 does two things. It lets some homeowners take their low property tax base to a new home anywhere in California. It also narrowed the tax break when parents pass a home to their children.

Moving and keeping your tax base

• Who qualifies: homeowners 55 or older, severely disabled homeowners, and owners whose home was substantially damaged in a wildfire or a declared natural disaster.
• The original home and the new home must both be your primary residence.
• Buy or build the new home within two years before or after you sell the old one. It can be in any California county.
• Owners 55 or older and severely disabled owners can use the transfer up to three times. Disaster victims have no limit.
• The new home can cost more. If it does, the difference is added to your tax base. The value test is 100% of the old home's sale value if you buy first, 105% in the first year after the sale, and 110% in the second year.
• File claim form BOE-19-B with the county assessor where the new home is.

Inherited homes

• Since February 16, 2021, a child keeps a parent's tax base only on the family home, and only if the child moves in as their primary residence within one year and files for the homeowners' exemption.
• The exclusion has a cap. The tax base carries over in full when the home's market value is no more than its taxed value plus $1,044,586 (for transfers from February 16, 2025, to February 15, 2027). Above that, the excess is added.
• Rental homes and other property a child inherits are reassessed to market value.
• The same rules apply to transfers from grandparents to grandchildren when the middle generation has died.

What it means for Bay Area owners

Many longtime owners here pay tax on a fraction of today's value. Prop 19 can make a move cheaper in property tax than you expect, or an inheritance more expensive. Run the numbers with the county assessor and a tax advisor before you list or transfer a home.

Sources: California State Board of Equalization: Proposition 19, BOE news release 25-02: 2025 exclusion adjustment, San Mateo County Assessor, Santa Clara County Assessor.

General information as of October 21, 2026, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and local ordinances differ. Confirm the details for your property with the agency named above, an attorney, or a tax advisor.