What a Prop 8 review is
California's Proposition 13 sets a base value for your home when you buy it, and lets it grow no more than 2% a year. That grown-up number is your Prop 13 value.
Proposition 8 adds one exception. In the Assessor's words, the County “must annually enroll either a property's Prop 13 value … or its current market value on the lien date (January 1), whichever is less.” When market value is the lower one, that number is your Prop 8 value, and the request you file is the Assessor's Request for Assessor Review (Prop 8).
Three things the Assessor says about it, in its own words:
- It's temporary. “Prop 8 reductions are temporary as mandated by state law.”
- It's reviewed every year, without refiling. Once granted, “your assessed value will be automatically reviewed by our office each year until the market improves and your Prop 13 assessed value is restored.”
- It never goes above your Prop 13 value. “The assessed value of any property will never exceed that property’s Prop 13 factored value.”
So a reduction lowers this year's bill. Next year the Assessor looks again. If the market recovers, your value can climb back toward the Prop 13 number by more than 2% a year, but never past it.
Who it helps
The question is whether your home's market value on January 1, 2026 was below the value the County has on the roll.
That is most likely to be true if:
You bought in 2022, 2023 or 2024
Your Prop 13 value started at your purchase price, near the top of the market. Homes like yours may have sold for less around January 1, 2026.
Nearby sales came in below your roll value
Similar homes near yours sold for less than the County's number, close to January 1, 2026. That is the evidence the Assessor asks for.
You own a condo or a newer build
Compare with sales in your own complex or tract, not the houses around it. The Assessor compares like with like.
Something hurts value the County can't see
Major deferred repairs, damage, or a location influence the Assessor names itself, “such as traffic or a view.”
Who it usually doesn't help: anyone who has owned since the 2010s or earlier. Your Prop 13 value has grown 2% a year from an old purchase price, and today's market value is almost certainly above it. As the Assessor puts it, a home whose assessed value is already less than its January 1 market value “is not reduced.”
Check your numbers
Two numbers decide whether you have a case.
1. The County's value
Look up your home on the Assessor's Assessed Value Look-Up or Parcel Viewer. The Assessor says both show the current year's value from July 1 and are “updated twice each year in early July and mid-September.” Your Assessor's Parcel Number (APN) is on your tax bill and in the Parcel Viewer.
2. What similar homes sold for
The Assessor's form asks for sales “for properties of similar type and location that sold recently (ideally after July 1, 2025), but no later than March 31, 2026.” It suggests a real estate agent or broker, or property sales information on the internet, as sources.
The Assessor adds one useful line: it can't use a neighbor's assessed value, “but we may be able to use the sale of their house.” If both your sales come in meaningfully below the County's value, you have something to file. If they come in around it or above, you probably don't.
Your opinion of value
The online form asks: “What is your opinion of the value of the property as of 1 January of this year?” That is the number you are asking the Assessor to use. The next box asks why: “Why do you believe the market value is less than the assessed value?” That is where your sales go.
It is your opinion, and your request. Make it the number your sales support, not a wish. The Assessor's appraiser reads it beside the sales you list and any others on file.
If Jasmine Lane prepares your Package, the figure we give you is an opinion of value built from recorded sales of nearby homes. You decide whether to adopt it as your own before you submit. We never submit it for you.
How that figure is built, and why it is the higher of two readings, is documented at jasminelane.app/methodology/california.
How to file — free, yourself
The County charges nothing to file: “There is no charge for this service.” You don't need a representative.
The County's dates, in its words. “The Assessor's informal review filing period is July 1 – December 31.” The 2026-27 form: “This form must be filed or postmarked by December 31, 2026. Forms filed after that date will not be processed.” If December 31 falls on a weekend, “mail postmarked on the next business day shall be deemed on time.”
Identify the home
Your APN, your name, and the property address. The online form needs no password or PIN.
Enter your opinion of value
The number your sales support, as of January 1, 2026.
Say why, with your sales
For each sale: address, sale date (no later than March 31, 2026), sale price, and a short description: size, year built, bedrooms and baths, how close it is to you.
Your email and phone
Your own. The Assessor's confirmation goes to the email, and the appraiser may call.
Submit, keep the confirmation
Save the confirmation email. The form's own advice: if you are not notified of the result by November 1, 2026, consider the Appeals Board (below).
After you file
“An appraiser will review your property, make a determination, and our office will notify you of the results.” The Assessor says reviews “can take months to complete,” and that you'll be “contacted by mail or by Assessor’s staff.” Then one of two things happens:
- The market value is below your Prop 13 value: “an assessment roll correction will be processed.”
- The market value is at or above it: the Assessor tells you the value will not be reduced.
Keep paying the bill. The Assessor is plain about it: “You must pay the original bill timely to avoid penalties, pending the outcome of the review or appeal.” The 2026-27 bill mails in mid-October. If your value is lowered after that, the County refunds the difference; it says changes “take up to 95 business days to be processed.”
For status, the Assessor says “the only information we can provide is that we have received it.” Questions: (916) 875-0700, weekdays 8 to 4, or assessor@saccounty.gov.
The review can't push you above your Prop 13 value.
If your home is taxed at its Prop 13 value, as most filers' are, the outcome is a lower number or no change.
If your home already carries a Prop 8 value from an earlier year, the Assessor re-checks it every year whether or not you file, and it can rise toward the Prop 13 value as the market recovers.
The Appeals Board is a separate process
The Prop 8 review is an informal request to the Assessor. A formal appeal goes to the Assessment Appeals Board. In the Assessor's words, it “reviews information submitted by the property owner and the Assessor’s office and determines the proper value.”
The County states the dates this way:
- The review form: “If you are not notified of the results of this review by November 1, 2026, or disagree with the results of this review, you should consider filing an ‘Assessment Appeal Application’ with the Assessment Appeals Board. The assessment appeal filing period is July 2, 2026 through November 30, 2026.”
- The FAQ: “If the Assessor’s review is completed after November 30 (last day to file an appeal) and you disagree with the outcome of that review, you will have no further right to appeal unless you had already filed a separate assessment appeal with the AAB by November 30.”
- The appeal has “a non-refundable $30 appeal filing fee,” and “can take up to 2 years to complete.” You can file both, and cancel the hearing if the review satisfies you.
Applications come from the Appeals Board, not the Assessor: Assessment Appeals, Clerk of the Board, 700 H Street, Room 2450, or (916) 874-8174.
Jasmine Lane does not prepare Appeals Board applications and does not appear before the Board. If you go that route, the County's own form and instructions are the guide.
While you're there — the Homeowners' Exemption
A different break, and a simpler one. If you own and live in your home as your principal residence on January 1, the Homeowners' Exemption takes $7,000 off its taxable value every year, which the Assessor puts at “approximately $70-$80 in property taxes each year.” It is free, but you have to apply.
Our Homeowners' Exemption guide covers who qualifies, the dates, and how to claim it in Sacramento County.
What Jasmine Lane prepares, and what it doesn't
Our Decline-in-Value Evidence Package is for owners who want the numbers done. In plain terms:
- We prepare, you file. The Package holds the comparable sales we relied on and an opinion of value. We open the Assessor's online form with those already filled in; you add your own name, email and phone, check it, and press Submit.
- We never contact the County. Nothing is signed, submitted, or discussed with the Assessor or the Appeals Board by us, before or after you file.
- $149, due only after your filing is confirmed. Nothing is charged, held, or invoiced before then, and nothing is owed if you decide not to file.
- Refunded if you don’t save more than $149. Savings are the Assessor’s reduction times your tax rate. In full, decided by June 30, 2027. This is a promise about our fee, not about what the Assessor will decide.
The full terms are the Service Agreement (California). Enter your address below and the site shows the County's value for your home and what nearby sales say, before anything else.