Downsizing might mean more in property tax for me

[rob in cal]

    I've been thinking about the idea of selling our 4 bedroom house down the road and getting a three bedroom house that would be worth about 80 k less, and then adding the 80 k to investments (current house has no mortgage).  The only drawback financially I can see is that our property tax basis would go up, as we bought our current house at 172k, would sell it for about 320k now, and buy a new one at about 240k, so our new property tax basis would go from 172 to 240k. Such is life in the  California property tax world.

[Another Reader]

If you are 55 or over, you can transfer your base year value to a house costing the same or less.  Your $172k base, factored forward, could be applied to your new purchase.  Inside your county, that's a Prop 60 transfer.  A few counties accept inter-county base year transfers, that's a Prop 90 transfer.

[rob in cal]

Good point, I'll hit that mark in 8 years, one more factor to consider.