Senior Advantage - Propositions 60 and 90

Ann Brody is a certified SRES specialist. You can trust her with the next sale or purchase of your home.

What Are Propositions 60 & 90?

They are constitutional initiatives passed by California voters. They provide property tax relief by preventing reassessment when a senior citizen sells his/her existing residence and purchases or constructs a replacement residence worth the same or less than the original.

Why were they inacted?

They encourage a person, age 55 or older to "move down" to a smaller residence. When a senior citizen acquires a replacement worth less than the original, he/she will continue to pay approximately the same amount of annual property taxes as before.

How Do These Propositions work?

When the senior citizen purchases or constructs a new residence, it is not reassessed, if he/she qualifies. The Assessor transfers the factored base value of the original residence to the replacement residence.

Proposition 60 originally required that the replacement and the original be located in the same county. Later, Proposition 90 enabled this to be modified by local ordinance. L.A. County enacted an ordinance to provide that when the replacement is located in L.A. County, the original may be located in any other California county.

Who Qualifies?

The Seller of the original residence, or spouse who resides with the Seller, must be at least 55 years of age at the time of the sale.

If Original Property Was Damaged/Destroyed by Disaster

1. The damaged property must be substantially damaged or destroyed. "Substantial" means value equal to more than 50% of its full cash value. If "restricted access" is claimed, the condition must be permanent in nature.

2. The property must sustain a loss of value from a disaster in an area so designated by the Governor as a disaster area.

3. The damaged and replacement property must be in the same county.

4. The replacement property must be acquired or newly constructed within three years of the disaster.

5. Upon approval, the new assessment base year trended value will be the lower of the fair market value of the replacement property or the adjusted base year trended value of the property from which the applicant was displaced by reason of a disaster-, provided the replacement property and the destroyed or damaged property are comparable. If not comparable, appropriate adjustments will be made for differences in comparability.