In 1978, courageous Californians circulated and passed a forward-thinking ballot initiative known as Proposition 13. Under Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1% of its assessed value.
In the years that followed, real estate became something of a tax shelter even as the vampire-like California legislature raised and gorged itself on taxes of every other kind.
Today, California is collapsing under the weight of overregulation, socialistic government, and high taxes across nearly every dimension (other than property taxes). In many California communities, the largest houses belong to mid-level government employees who live like royalty among starving serfs.
And because real estate is seen as a tax haven, property values have steadily increased. Now 60 % of Californians say they are ready to leave. See here.
