Comment by eitally

I think you're missing my specific point that this is a Prop 13 issue.

My land is valued at X and my neighbor's identical rectangular plot is valued at Y, why should that be the case if the land's objective value is identical (which it is, and neither X nor Y are close to current market value Z because Prop 13 caps appreciation at 2%/yr).

No land value or improvements are revalued at market rate until they're sold, obviously, but two things are also true: 1) tax assessors almost never lower assessment values (anywhere), and 2) assessed values are completely detached from reality of the majority of properties in the state of California because of Prop 13.

To answer your question, if I wanted to argue that the assessment of my land is too high, I'd likely not have a case because the assessor could just look at any comps that trades hands in the last few years and those would show assessments far higher than mine. But I absolutely could show that the assessment of others' properties are "too low" relative to my own (or mine to current) just by similarly looking back in time at homes that haven't traded hands in decades, if ever.