[VirusNewbie]

Prop 13 is just a huge handout to real estate investors. There’s also the fact that mortgages are no recourse, so people have even more reason to engage in RE speculation. I’m not exaggerating when I say many of my close friends own a handful of properties as their main investment choice. How can you have anything close to a free market when speculation is rewarded so much?

I’m not saying prop 13 shouldn’t apply to primary residence, but it’s insane investors can just sit on land and use that as leverage.

[mistrial9]

a retired attorney in California said this recently.. (he is close to 80 so he recalls a lot of the context of Prop 13)

"Prop 13 is the worst thing to happen to California in a long time. It has lasting effects today. At the time, the press was full of 'tax fighter' stories about saving the poor old retirees from having their homes taken away sourced from Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association among others. This is not the real story. The real story is that big corporations in California own land and do not sell it in practice. Prop 13 froze the property tax that Corporations pay at the same time as the homeowners."