A record share of California homes passed down through inheritance last year more than double the national average

The American Dream promises the possibility of riches no matter who your are or where you come from — but to achieve the Californian Dream, family connections count for a lot.Nearly 18% of all California property transfers last year — a record sum — were made through inheritance, according to an analysis by the real estate data firm Cotality.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.Inheritors enjoy huge financial and tax benefits, but leave many others on the housing market sidelines, faced with fewer options and higher prices.The rate of family home hand-offs in California was roughly double the national share last year, at 8.8%.

Inherited homes in California totaled nearly 60,000 in 2025, according to the report, marking a high-point in Cotality’s data starting in 1995.It was also twice the number of new homes sold — a first in the Golden State.Inheritance rates are rising nationwide, according to Cotality, but today’s seniors are holding onto the homes longer than ever.

The firm’s analysis attributed California’s particular uptick to favorable tax policies that reward beneficiaries and rising home prices that discourage moving house.Jeff Fishman, a Los Angeles financial adviser, told the Journal that homeownership in California has become “a ’til-death-do-us-part scenario.”California’s property tax rules, in particular, incentivize homeowners to hold onto their properties until their death.

The typical Californian homeowner stayed in their homes 17 years in 2024, according to Redfin data.That’s five years longer than the national median.A constitutional amendment passed by the state in 1978, Proposition 13, drastically limited property taxes and reigned in annual hikes to a maximum of 2%.

That low tax bill goes out the window once a home is sold, the Journal reported, meaning that a new buyer may pay 10 times more than their next-door neighbor who bought in the 1970s.Rules on whether these low tax rates can be inheri...