&gt; That area is now expensive enough that even with Prop 13 her children have to pay her property taxes for her.<p>I&#x27;m not sure I believe that.<p>As I understand it, Prop 13 <i>caps</i> property tax increases on a given property to a maximum ~2% per year. [0] Your property&#x27;s value is <i>not</i> reassessed, no matter what happens to <i>other</i> properties in the area! The <i>only</i> way for a property to be reassessed (and -thus- for its tax to dramatically increase-) is for it to change hands, or for <i>major</i> improvements to be performed to the property.<p>Even in the case of major improvements, the value of <i>just</i> the improvement is assessed and <i>added</i> to the value of the property as a whole. The <i>unimproved</i> portion of the property is <i>not</i> reassessed.<p>Am I dramatically misunderstanding something about Prop 13?<p>Or were you saying &quot;The cost of living at this mom&#x27;s place is <i>now</i> so high that she can&#x27;t even afford to pay the Prop 13-suppressed property tax on her property.&quot;?<p>[0] Inflation is generally understood to be ~3% per year, and has been for at <i>least</i> a decade... so this means that property taxes increase at a rate that is <i>lower</i> than inflation.