From: lars@beagle-ears.com   
      
   > On 2026-01-20 22:22, Lars Poulsen wrote:   
   >> But it suffers the curse of Paradise: Those who can afford to live   
   >> ANYWHERE they like, like to buy a home here; that has driven the   
   >> prices up to where a mobile home in a rent controlled senior park   
   >> now routinely sells for $750,000. On my cul-de-sac an 1100 sqft   
   >> home sold for $1.8M; the buyer tore it down to build a 2400 sqft   
   >> house while retaining the old garage that had been turned into an ADU.   
   >> City council talks nicely about wanting to build affordable housing,   
   >> but the truth is that a reasonable 2-bedroom apartment rents for   
   >> $3000/month (on a 12-month lease, with no pets) and it goes up from   
   >> there pretty fast. And those modest home owners who have discovered   
   >> that the inflated home prices have made them millionaires do   
   >> not want that problem fixed.   
      
   On 2026-01-20, Carlos E.R.  wrote:   
   > Ah, you maybe do not have a tax on the property.   
      
   California taxes on real estate are kind of crazy.   
      
   During the heavy inflation in the 1970s (interest rates went to 18%   
   on a regular household savings account), house prices were going up   
   fast, and with them the property taxes, squeezing many retired people in   
   fixed incomes who had not planned for this extra expense. A taxpayer   
   revolt ensued, resuling in a voter initiated law ("Proposition 13")   
   being passed into law in 1980, stating that even when property values   
   rose, the tax appraisal would be frozen until the house was sold   
   again, and the tax rate could not exceed 2% of that (frozen) value.   
      
   Unfortunately, they created an immense loophole: Commercial properties   
   were included, and owners of commercial properties transferred their   
   properties to holding companies (one per property), so when the   
   property was transferred to a new owner, the building was still   
   owned by the same company, even as that COMPANY changed owners.   
      
   So if like me, you bought your house in 1985 for USD 140K, your   
   property tax is still 2% of your purchase price, even though its market   
   value is now well over 10 times that. But if I were to sell it   
   and buy another one for the same price, I would now pay more than   
   10 times as much property tax on the same house.   
      
   So people do not move nearly as much as they used to.   
   --   
   Lars Poulsen - an old geek in Santa Barbara, California   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)