Homeowners who are 55 or over, severely disabled, or whose homes were destroyed by wildfire or natural disaster, may transfer the taxable value of their primary residence to a replacement primary residence:

• Anywhere in the state
  
• Regardless of the location
  
• Regardless of the value of the replacement primary residence --even if it’s greater in value (with an upward adjustment in the tax basis if the replacement property is greater in value)
  
• Within two years of the sale of the original primary residence§Up to three times (although there’s no limit for those whose houses were destroyed by wildfire or natural disaster)These rules are in effect on and after April 1, 2021.
  

If you are interested in selling your home but are concerned regarding your property tax liability increasing, then give me a call and we can discuss this concern.

“Everything that should be up is up and everything that should be down is down,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in January when lifting California’s regional stay-at-home order.

Today, that statement holds true for many aspects of California’s pandemic response — vaccinations are up, infections are down, hospitalizations are down — but rings hollow when it comes to the state unemployment department, where numbers are trending in the wrong direction. According to figures released Thursday, the Employment Development Department’s backlog of unresolved claims had ballooned to 1.08 million as of May 1, up from 1.05 million the week before and 1.03 million the week before that. The logjam has contained more than 1 million claims for 13 straight weeks.

Around 450,000 of those claims are pending EDD action, while the remainder are awaiting certification from jobless Californians, according to agency documents. But residents have long said jammed phone lines and tech glitches have hampered them from certifying claims, and data shows EDD’s call center is also going in the wrong direction. The agency answered less than 6% of the 4.8 million calls it received from April 24 to May 1, with each person calling about 12 times in an attempt to get through. That’s significantly worse than in late March, when EDD answered 10.5% of calls and each person called about eight times.

• Assemblymember David Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat: “My office has been receiving countless calls from desperate constituents, many of whom are in tears, some of whom are on the brink of homelessness and even some of who have threatened suicide.”
  

Lawmakers this week recommended rejecting Newsom’s budget proposal to create a new Department of Better Jobs and Higher Wages within the state labor agency, noting that “a new bureaucracy” wouldn’t help reduce the claim backlog. EDD, apparently cognizant of the Legislature’s mounting frustration, published this week a list of new tools and resources to improve customer service.

Newsom also appears aware that EDD is a liability. The same day Secretary of State Shirley Weber said enough signatures had been gathered to force a recall election, the governor’s unemployment fraud task force announced it had arrested 68 people and opened another 1,641 cases.

The work-from-home trend is prompting city dwellers to pack up, shop, and move to the suburbs, where the homes are both bigger and less expensive. Take smaller market Chula Vista as an example: The city with a population of approximately 270,000 saw unusually strong buyer demand push active listings down 54 percent year-over-year in August as home prices jumped 11.4 percent.

Instead of living in a large building with shared ventilation and little space, people now want a larger home, a yard, and a pool. Urban flight has been gradually occurring over the past five years, but the pandemic has accelerated that trend. Overall, 43 percent of potential home buyers say the pandemic has made them more likely to look in rural towns and city suburbs instead of dense city centers.

With the above said, there will always be people who, given the option, will want to live in a denser environment.