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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m watching a lot of the news and struck by how the celebrity/mansion /multimillion dollar homes aspect of the story  is pushed. There are also lots of people who have lived there for decades and have otherwise typical middle class lives who have lost homes or are at risk.

My stepmother home is gone.   1800 sq ft 2 bdrm that she bought in 1975 for 78k. She was dropped by her insurer last year and was in the process of getting fair plan insurance and they were taking forever to underwrite. She and my dad moved to a retirement community (fortunately)but she kept her home and had been thinking about renting, selling etc.

My mom’s home (and my childhood home) is now in mandatory evacuation zone. [b] They bought a small ranch in 1972 for 68k and she stayed. [/b]It is very modest home for the neighborhood but there are many others like it. Fortunately I got my mom to leave recently and move close to me and rent it out because she could no longer live alone (dementia)…(my sibling refused to sell because of taxes, which was stupid. I wanted her to have easy access to capital so she could get the best care… I have been worried about fire since a 2019 wildfire which was a very close call and she was at that time developing dementia and I knew she would not know what to do the next time.)

The house is her only asset and the rent pays for memory care. I’m thankful she’s not there and aware of what’s happening.

My stepsister is on the edge of the evacuation zone, in a modest home with a couple animals. She is a researcher and can only afford to live there because her dad (a schoolteacher) left her the home when he died. She’s nervous like everyone else and is currently housing a friend who probably lost their home in topanga.

I’m grateful that everyone in my family is ok but I just don’t know what all these people will do. The super rich will have options but for many people those options are simply out of reach. [/quote]

Someone who purchased a home in what is now a VERY expensive neighborhood is doing extremely well. $78k?!  Let me guess, the home is at least $2 million?

Sorry but middle class people don’t live in 2 million dollar properties.

In positive news the land value is way more than the structure [/quote]

This isn’t right when the person is older and has owned the home for a long time. My parents purchased a home (my childhood home) in a different part of the country for $65,000 in 1978. My parents were middle class and self-employed, and now in their early 80s live on an extremely fixed income (it’s incredible to me how little they spend day to day, but normal to them as they are a different generation that doesn’t stop at starbucks and Wendy’s every time they feel a craving) and have medicare of course.

They still live in that house which is worth $1.5m today. They benefit from reduced property taxes because of their ages and length of time they’ve owned the house, and don’t upkeep it very well - these two factors permit them to financially stay in the house.  They aren’t poor of course because they have the house, but they would be financially devastated if they lost the house in a fire and had to move out long term. They are solidly middle class but for an asset that they don’t plan to touch until needed for elder care ($1.5m won’t go far to support 2 people in assisted living who potentially could live almost 20 more years). [/quote]

Prop 13 capped the amount the taxes could pay each year. These people are literally paying peanuts off the backs of younger hard working families who also want a place on the property ladder. It is completely unjust. And they get to pass that on one time to a child? Eff that.[/quote]

Perhaps they should cut spending for the asinine woke programs and especially cut funding for the "undocumented".[/quote]

I's been clear for decades people aren't paying their fair share. For people who keep voting for generous benefits it's galling that they personally don't want to pay for them and want new arrivals and younger people to foot the bill. It's gross.[/quote]

Not sure how you eliminate what you call "gross". We bought 8 years ago and paid many times what some of our neighbors paid for their house, pay more in property taxes. Our elderly neighbors bought as young working glass families decades ago, and now it takes being UMC to move in the area, so much we ourselves could not afford it anymore. They could not afford the taxes we pay. I don't begrudge people their good fortune, which was essentially buying at the right place at the right time as completely non-wealthy people, and not some kind of gross trick. [/quote]

Fine we don't want to kick Grandma out of her house. Why does her son John deserve her home at the SAME 1980 tax basis? [/quote]

If it’s the only way they can afford to keep the house that they inherited. [/quote]

They can sell like everyone else the. Take their $1m, because 2-3 siblings will split that $2-3m house, and they will be perfectly fine. Plenty of places to spend that $1m and get a great starter home.[/quote]

We aren’t going to let you take the assets of elderly people to fund your useless greedy homeless NGOs.[/quote]

How is anyone taking anything?[/quote]

When you evict long-term home owners by raising their taxes to levels they cannot ever possibly pay, you are taking their homes. Don’t play coy. We know in the end your goal is a wealth transfer from hard-working elderly Californians who have contributed to their communities for years into the pockets of giant hedge funds and rapacious NGOs, both of which are united in their goal of destroying any sense of community and family that remains. [/quote]

And don't those old people vote for the politicians who reward NGOs?[/quote]

Yes, in California a lot of old people believed earnestly that the NGOs were doing some good, and not grifting. I suspect that’s quickly changing, though. [/quote]

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