The other comments are all correct, but they didn't address your last point. Yes, you will indeed pay taxes on the $1M value, and yeah, high property taxes is d

The other comments are all correct, but they didn't address your last point. Yes, you will indeed pay taxes on the $1M value, and yeah, high property taxes is definitely something to plan for when buying property in California. The kicker is, as others mentioned, when your home's value is $2M in five years, you're still paying taxes on essentialy a $1M property.