Riverside County Tax Base Affects Home Buying Decisions...

So often I get asked about the real estate taxbase transfer from one county to the next and particularly into our county, and it's too bad that Riverside County has not adoped the provisions of Propositions 90 and 110.  Recently a writer from the Los Angeles Times Newspaper contacted me to discuss this very important issue.  I can honestly say that I have met several potential future homeowners who had considered the desert as a place of retirement, but couldn't afford to simply because of the tax base issue that would be presented to them should they purchase in Riverside County.  Real estate taxes are that much of a consideration in the lives of some people with fixed incomes.  

I don't know that Riverside County will ever change its ways concerning these propositions. The tax base and its payers are made up of a wide variety of income levels, and especially in some communities of Palm Springs area, it probably wouldn't stop a home buyer from pursuing the purchase of a home in the high-end resort communities.  It's too bad that those for whom the the propositions were really intended to benefit for are unable to take advantage of are already here in the desert, and/or want to come to the desert to live out their retirement years.  Just the other day, I received a call from a woman who also wanted to be closer to her grandchildren and spend her remaining years here.  She was going to be considering a home also around $200,000, just about half the price of a median priced home currently in the desert. 

The writer , Patrick Duffy, and I spent some time discussing the issue and I am providing a copy here for my site visitors today.  Pretty interesting reading which sheds light on these two issues, unfortunately, statewide, it's not implemented in what would be a fair reasonable manner by the individual state counties. 

"A Property Tax Base That Moves With You", from the Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2008. 

Posted by Carey Ann Parker, REALTOR, Citrus Life Today, 760 771-8468 Carey@CitrusLifeToday.com