Sparky Those "ouch" statements are a major reason I left NY. We were near Rochester, NY, hundreds of miles from NYC, the effective tax rate for property/school taxes (both were charged to the homeowner in NY, not sure about CA) was at 3.3% for my first home, 3.9% on a house I flipped, and 3.65% on the last house I sold there. So if you have a decent sized house, you got HAMMERED. My flip house was a complete joke, total taxes after special assessments were $4,200 on a $77k assessment. Couldn’t wait to sell that thing. My last house was assessed at $274k when we bought it and seemed "reasonable", at $8,400, until the special assessments hit for over another $1k. That house we bought specifically because it was one of the 3 better school districts, but a comparable house in the other 2 saw taxes between $11-12k a year.
After the massive renovation I did on that house, I resold it a year later for $401k, they had just re-assessed it for $324k, which I fought and won to take it back to $297k based on the actual purchase price, combined with photos of the "before" shots of the house and some good comparable homes. The poor bastards that bought it just got hit with a hike to $430k. I hope they fight it too, but the case is harder after you were willing to spend $401k on it.
Meanwhile, my new house in NC just got upped to $421k and I can’t fight it, the comps don’t help. That said, my total taxes are $4300, so I really don’t care all that much. Oh and I’m in the area where people are bitching about the tax rates being "high", perspective is a funny thing.