California property tax at the effective rate real bills actually land at — 0.72% of value at the ACS 2025 medians — California is modelled the Proposition 13 way: your assessed value is your purchase price grown at most 2% a year — enter what you paid and when, not just what the home is worth now. Pilot counties included: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento.
$246 a month
| Assessed value | $410,081 |
| Homestead exemption | $0 |
| Effective rate | 0.72% |
| Annual tax | $2,953 |
California's median homeowner pays $5,537 on a $770,700 home — 0.72% effective (ACS 2025). Nominal rates mislead across states (assessment ratios differ); the effective rate is the honest comparator. Your parcel's bill follows its own assessment and the overlapping local levies.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2025 1-year estimates.
Proposition 13: base levy capped at 1% of assessed value (plus voter-approved debt); assessed (factored base-year) value grows at most 2%/yr; reassessment to market value only on change of ownership or new construction - a calculator must model tenure/purchase year, not current market value alone.
Source: state source in the research file (see hub).
This family is the pilot the plan called for: all 51 state pages plus the 25 most populous counties — not thousands of county pages with rates nobody verified. County figures here are the same ACS medians at county level.
County assessors publish parcel-level figures.
Assessments lag markets, exemptions differ (senior, veteran, disability), and local levies stack differently street by street. The effective-rate model gives the typical bill for the value, not your parcel's bill.
By effective rate, Illinois (1.92%) and New Jersey (1.82%); by median dollars, high-value states like New Jersey ($9,648) and California ($5,537) — the hub table shows both lenses.
California Property Tax Calculator for 2026: at California's 0.72% effective rate (ACS 2025), a $450,000 home pays about $2,953 a year under the state’s assessment-cap model. The state median bill is $5,537.
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What property tax typically costs in California: the ACS 2025 effective rate applied to your home, with the state’s assessment cap modelled.
California’s effective rate is 0.72%; the median bill is $5,537.
On the $450,000 test home the model gives $2,953 a year.
Typically $5,537 a year at the median (0.72% effective).
No — an effective-rate estimate; assessments and exemptions move real bills.
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