No. California property taxes are based on the assessed value set by your county assessor under Proposition 13, not on a private appraisal. A date of death appraisal is prepared for federal tax basis, estate administration, and probate purposes, and the assessor does not use it to set your tax bill. What can change your property taxes is the death itself. A death that transfers ownership is generally a change in ownership under California law, which triggers reassessment to current market value unless an exclusion applies. Transfers between spouses are excluded. Under Proposition 19, transfers from parent to child are only partially protected, and only if the child makes the home their primary residence, with a value limit of roughly one million dollars above the existing assessed value, adjusted periodically. The county assessor performs its own valuation for reassessment. Your date of death appraisal and your assessed value are separate numbers serving separate purposes.
