My friend Richard Girgado and I were discussing property taxes in court while waiting for a hearing yesterday. Richard represents the County of Los Angeles in its tax matters and is an exceptionally good guy and very helpful to debtor lawyers like me. I was complaining that if I sell my home and downsize, my property taxes will go up because the new home will cost more than the basis in my present home. Richard told me that a person who is over 55 years old and sells his home and buys another home for less than the sales price of the original home, gets carryover basis for property tax purposes. In other words, the taxes you are paying on your present home will be the same as on the new home. He even looked up the code section for me: Rev & Tax Code 69.5. One caveat is that this may not apply if you buy a home in a different county than the county you live on now.