Prop 19 in California: Can You Move After 55 and Keep Your Tax Base?

You bought your home decades ago, and your property tax bill stayed low under Prop 13 while the house went up in value. Now the house may be more than you need, or the grandkids may live forty minutes away, but one worry keeps you there: “If we sell, we lose our tax base.” The good news is that if you are 55 or older, Prop 19 may let you move and take your low tax base with you.

Your children may also be able to keep that tax base when they inherit the home, if strict rules are met on time. These are two separate property tax benefits, and your estate plan has its own job: making sure the home reaches the people you chose. Let’s look at the move first, then at what your children would need.

On this page

• What Prop 19 lets a California homeowner over 55 do
• Whether you can move and keep your low property tax base
• Why buying a replacement home is the time to bring your estate plan current
• How a Prop 19 parent-to-child transfer works when your children inherit the home
• What happens when one child keeps the house and the others need their share
• Whether you should deed the house to your children now
• What to review before moving or leaving the home to a child

What does Prop 19 let a California homeowner over 55 do?

Prop 19 can help your family in two ways. If you qualify, you can transfer your home’s taxable value when you move. And your children may also qualify to keep some or all of that taxable value if they inherit the home.

Prop 19 changed two California property tax rules that matter here. One lets you transfer your home’s taxable value to a replacement principal residence. The other governs the transfer of a family home’s taxable value from parent to child. County assessors apply those rules, following guidance from the State Board of Equalization. Here is what each rule asks of you.

Can you move and keep your low property tax base after 55?

Generally, yes. If you are 55 or older when you sell your principal residence, you can transfer its taxable value to a replacement home that becomes your principal residence, as long as the other requirements are met. For your family, that opens more choices than the old rules did:

• Anywhere in California. The old limits generally kept you in the same county or one of a handful of participating counties. Those limits are gone.
• Up to three times. You can use this transfer up to three times, so a move now does not use your only chance.
• Even to a somewhat more expensive home. Within a limit, your taxable value transfers as is.

The limit depends on when you buy the replacement home. It is 100 percent of your original home’s market value if you buy before selling, 105 percent in the first year after selling, and 110 percent in the second year. If the new home is worth more than that limit, generally only the amount above the limit is added to your taxable value. For example, if your home sells for $1,000,000 and you buy a $1,200,000 home within a year after the sale, the limit is about $1,050,000, so about $150,000 is added to the taxable value you carry over.

The replacement home generally must be purchased or built within two years of the sale. A claim is then filed with the assessor in the county where the replacement home is located, generally within three years of buying or completing it.

Can you buy the new home before you sell? Generally yes, as long as you sell your original home within two years of that purchase. Until it sells, the replacement home is generally taxed on its full market value, and that period is not refunded.

So the house that no longer fits your life does not have to keep you there. If you qualify, you may be able to move closer to your grandchildren and take your tax base with you.

Why is buying a replacement home the time to bring your estate plan current?

Because buying a new home changes what you own, how your home is titled, and what your estate plan needs to cover.

The Prop 19 claim and your estate plan are two separate jobs. The county claim handles the taxable-value transfer, and Prop 19 does not require a trust. A properly funded living trust can pass your home to the people you named, privately and generally without probate. It can also name someone to manage the home if you become incapacitated.

A trust generally controls only what it holds. When you buy a replacement home, its deed should be reviewed so ownership matches your estate plan. If the new home stays in your individual name with no other way to transfer it, your children may need a court process to receive it after your death.

A sale or a move is also one of the life events that calls for a full review of your plan, with questions like these:

• Are the people you named still the right people?
• Do your beneficiary designations still match the plan?
• Should your children’s inheritance pass outright, or stay in trust for them?
• How should the new home and the sale proceeds be titled?

If your trust was drafted in the 1990s or 2000s, our guide to updating an older trust covers what tends to need attention.

A move is a chance to bring your family’s plan current and include your new home.

Thinking about a move? Schedule an Initial Planning Session to talk through your family’s goals and the choices your move raises.

How does a Prop 19 parent-to-child transfer work when your children inherit the home?

Your children may qualify to keep some or all of your home’s taxable value, but only if the Prop 19 requirements are met. Here is what your child would need to do, and the rules to plan around:

• The home must be your principal residence and become your child’s principal residence. Your child generally must make it their principal residence within one year of the transfer. The old rule that let children keep a parent’s tax base on a rental or vacation home is gone. If no child makes the home their principal residence within one year, the home is generally reassessed.
• An eligible child has to keep living there. Under current Board of Equalization guidance, at least one eligible child generally must continue to use the home as a principal residence. If that stops, the exclusion is generally removed.
• There is a value cap. For transfers from February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027, the cap is the home’s taxable value plus $1,044,586. The Board of Equalization adjusts that amount every other year. If the home’s market value is higher than the cap, the excess is added to the new assessment.
• There are two filings. Your child generally must file for the homeowners’ exemption within one year of the transfer. The exclusion claim generally must be filed within three years, or before the home transfers to a third party, whichever comes first. A late exclusion claim may still be granted, but generally only going forward.

For a home that passes at your death, the transfer date is generally the date of death.

Here is where your plan does its part. A home held in trust can still qualify for the parent-child exclusion when the rules above are met. A properly funded living trust can generally carry the home to your child without probate. Your trust can also say which child receives the home and how your other children receive their shares. Your successor trustee should know to check the county’s property tax filing deadlines in the first weeks after your death.

What happens when one child keeps the house and the others need their share?

If one child buys out the others after you are gone, your family can lose much of the tax base. You can plan around it now.

Picture your own children. Suppose your trust leaves them equal shares, and one wants to keep the family home. That child may think buying out the others is the simplest way to do it.

That step can be costly. Current Board of Equalization guidance treats two situations differently. If your trust allows it, your trustee may give one child the home and the others different assets of equal value, so each child receives an equal share without everyone owning part of the house. The exclusion may still apply, generally when the home’s market value does not exceed that child’s share of the estate and the other Prop 19 requirements are met. A later transfer between siblings is different. It is generally not a parent-to-child transfer, and the interest that changes hands can be reassessed.

You can give your successor trustee more options now, before your children have to decide how to divide the family home. Your trust can give your trustee the flexibility to distribute the home to one child. If your trust holds enough other assets, your trustee may be able to use them to balance your children’s shares. Whether those assets are available depends on how your accounts and life insurance are owned and who their beneficiaries are. Clear instructions give your children fewer decisions to negotiate with each other later.

Your successor trustee will need clear steps too. Our trust administration guide covers what a trustee should do before anyone signs anything or moves any money.

Should you deed the house to your children now?

Usually not, and it is worth understanding why.

To keep your tax base, a lifetime gift has to meet the same Prop 19 requirements, including your child making the home their principal residence. A gift can also change the income tax result. Property you give during life generally keeps your original cost basis. Property your children inherit at your death generally receives a new basis at its date-of-death value. When a home has appreciated for decades, that difference can matter a great deal when your children sell.

If you hold the home in your revocable living trust, you generally keep the right to sell it, move, or change your mind while you are living. If your trust leaves the home to your children, it can generally pass to them without probate, and the parent-child exclusion may be available if its rules are met. Before giving your home away, it helps to understand how that choice affects both property taxes and income taxes for your children.

What should you review before moving or leaving the home to a child?

Look at the home and your estate plan together: where you would like to live next, what you want for your children, and how the home will reach them. Our estate planning process helps you decide how the home should be owned, who should receive it, and how your trust and other documents reflect those choices.

When the plan is done right, your children know whether one of them can keep the house they grew up in, and how the others receive their shares, with less room for disagreement between them.

Whether you are planning a move or thinking about leaving the family home to a child, we would be glad to talk it through with you. Schedule an Initial Planning Session or call (949) 718-0420. You will leave knowing where your family stands, what we would recommend, and the next step for your estate plan. You stay in charge of every decision.

Joshua D. Meier, Esq., Co-Owner, Meier Law Firm · Newport Beach, California · Last reviewed October 2026

The law behind this guide: California Revenue and Taxation Code sections 62, 63.2 and 69.6; State Board of Equalization Letters to Assessors 2024/044, 2025/009 and 2026/026; Internal Revenue Code sections 1014 and 1015.

This post explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice for your situation. It reflects California State Board of Equalization guidance reviewed in October 2026.