Proposition 19 also mandates that only parents’ “primary residence” can be inherited without reassessment, he added.

 
“And then, for you to take advantage of the tax benefit it must become your primary residence,” according to Prang. “You have one year to make it your primary residence and to file a homeowner’s exemption.”

The details grow even more complex, he said.

“The inherited property tax bases also have some limits. To make it simple, if the home is worth a million dollars or less, you can inherit both the home and the property tax base and you won’t be reassessed,” Prang said. “Once you hit that million-dollar mark, you will now have a blended new tax rate. It’ll be the tax rate based on the first million dollars that your parents left you and then anything over a million dollars will be assessed at market rate. So the more expensive the home is, the bigger your property tax bill will be.”