California REALTORS Face Assessment To Fund Ballot Initiative

Real Estate News

California REALTORS Face Assessment To Fund Ballot Initiative


Written By: Bob Hunt
Monday, October 30, 2017

Recently the directors of the California Association of REALTORSreg; CAR voted to place a 100 assessment on each of the associations approximately 180,000 members. This vote took place at the directors annual fall meetings, held this year in San Diego, October 11 -- 14. The purpose of the assessment is to help fund a CAR-sponsored ballot initiative to be placed on the November, 2018 California ballot.

The initiative, if passed, would allow "individuals 55 years of age and older to transfer their property tax basis to any home in the state, to purchase any price home, and to transfer their basis as many times as they wish."

To appreciate the significance of this, it is necessary to have some idea of Californias property tax system. Property tax valuations are based on purchase price. You buy a house for 700,000, the assessor will value it at 700,000. After that, increases in property tax value are seve>If you have lived in the same home for 15 -- 20 years or more, you are probably enjoying >Californians sought to solve this problem in 1986 with the passage of Proposition 60. It allowed seniors to keep their property tax base assessment when they moved within the same county. However, in 1988, Proposition 90 was passed which allowed each individual county the option of participating in this tax base transfer by seniors who move from one county to another. This had great significance, because many retirees move to a different county e.g. in the mountains, or desert than the ones in which they had lived.

Only eleven of Californias 58 counties will allow a senior from another county to transfer his or her old property tax base to a newly-acquired home in that county.

Californias housing market is currently hampered by a lack of inventory. One of the causes is said to be the "log jam" created by the situation outlined above. It is claimed that large numbers of seniors are >Could a 100-per-member assessment result in such a beneficial effect? Hardly. That money just gets things started. According to background material supplied to the CAR directors, the assessment would only provide part of the funds needed. "The cost to circulate the initiative for signature gathering is 3 million, with the cost of the subsequent campaign ranging between 30 million and perhaps upward of 50 million, if the initiative is heavily contested. Funding would come from C.A.R. political action committees, reserves, NAR funds and a C.A.R. member assessment [i.e. the one now being discussed]."

Strong opposition to the ballot is expected. It would not be surprising if a supplementary assessment became necessary. And, of course, no matter how much funding is achieved, the voters could always reject it.

Bob Hunt is a director of the California Association of Realtorsreg;. He is the author of Real Estate the Ethical Way. His email address is .

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