California specifics
Proposition 13 property tax
Proposition 13 fixes the base rate at 1% of assessed value and caps growth in assessed value at 2% a year while ownership does not change. That single rule explains why two identical houses on the same street can carry tax bills that differ by thousands.
Your figures
At purchase, assessed value equals the purchase price. That is the reassessment event.
The 2% cap compounds for each full year ownership does not change. A transfer resets assessed value to market.
Bonds approved by voters sit on top of the 1% base. This varies by parcel, so take it from a real tax bill or a county lookup rather than guessing.
Fixed-dollar charges such as Mello-Roos, lighting or vector control. Not a percentage, and not limited by Proposition 13.
Annual tax in year 10
$11,215
Effective rate 1.15% of assessed value. The 1% base is constitutional. Everything above it is local and parcel-specific.
From the 2% annual cap only. Market value may have moved far more.
After 10 years the 2% annual cap has raised assessed value by $175,196 above the purchase price. Market value may have moved far more, and the cap does not care.
Complete results, no email, no account. Every calculation here is backed by a tested fixture, so the figure you see is the figure the test asserts. How we verify
How this is calculated
Assessed value starts at the purchase price, because a change in ownership is a reassessment event. From there it may rise by no more than 2% a year for as long as ownership does not change, which the calculator applies as compound growth: purchase price multiplied by 1.02 raised to the number of years.
The base tax is 1% of that assessed value, and it is constitutional. Everything above it is local. Voter-approved bond measures are expressed as a percentage and vary by parcel. Direct assessments, including Mello-Roos special taxes, lighting districts and vector control, are fixed dollar amounts rather than percentages, and they are not limited by Proposition 13 at all because they are special taxes rather than ad valorem taxes.
That is why a real California tax bill is almost always above 1% of assessed value, and why quoting 1% as the answer to what property tax costs is incomplete. New construction also triggers reassessment, but only on the value the new work adds rather than on the whole property.
For the exam, the three facts worth holding are the 1% base rate, the 2% annual cap, and the fact that a transfer resets assessed value to market. Transfer of Property is where this is tested.