Your property tax is tied to the property value at purchase rather than reassessed over time. This, coupled with the enormous growth of CA property prices over the last 70 years, results in existing land owners paying way less taxes than their neighbors. Like 10x less tax is not uncommon.

This creates a ton of really perverse incentives - but an overwhelming one to buy and hold rather than sell or move. So it limits California housing stock.

Prop. 13 is not unique. Michigan, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York (ex. NYC) all have very similar limits on the rates of change of property taxes.