Let's look at some numbers. If you own a property for 10 years, during which time it doubles in value -- let's say it does that at the steady rate of 7.2% per

Let's look at some numbers. If you own a property for 10 years, during which time it doubles in value -- let's say it does that at the steady rate of 7.2% per year -- and your property tax rate is 1%, and the increase in your payments is capped at 2% per year, the amount of unpaid tax due when you sell the property is about 3% of your gain on the property. If you held it for 20 years, during which it continued to appreciate at the same rate, the unpaid tax due would be a little under 6% of your gain. If you held it for 30 years, during which it doubled in value again, the unpaid tax due would be about 8% of your gain. Consider that the standard commission paid to the listing agent when you sell a property is 6% of the sale price, and you'll see that these amounts are not significant disincentives to selling.