Senior & 55+ Real Estate in Ventura County

This page covers the questions that come up for Ventura County homeowners planning a move after many years in their home, and for family members helping a parent with one: selling a longtime home, downsizing, buying in a 55+ community or settling a parent’s estate. Some rules, like Prop 19 and reverse mortgages, have age thresholds, and I explain those with links to the official sources.

I was born and raised in Oxnard. I’m a REALTOR® with Century 21 Masters and a licensed mortgage loan officer with 21st Century Lending, so I know both sides of a move: the house and the loan. I handle your sale or purchase and refer your financing to my lending team, so the timing of the sale, the purchase and the loan can be planned together.

Hablo español. If Spanish is easier for you, read my guide to selling a home in Spanish or tell me when you reach out.

Start with the guide that fits your move:

• Downsizing in Ventura County: the order of the move, bridge financing and choosing the next home.
• Selling a parent’s house or an inherited home: stepped-up basis, probate and working with other heirs.
• Capital gains when you sell your home: how the gain and the federal exclusion work.

Selling a longtime home and downsizing

After decades in a home, the first step is a realistic number. A free home valuation compares recent sales of similar homes, and my guide to the cost of selling in Ventura County walks through what comes out of the price before you see your proceeds.

The harder part of downsizing is usually the timing. Sell first and you know your proceeds, but you may feel rushed to find the next home. Buy first and you move once, but you may carry two properties for a while. A negotiated rent-back after closing, or bridge financing from a lender, can help with the gap, and both depend on the market and on your numbers. My downsizing guide covers each path, and my page on selling and buying at the same time goes deeper into the mechanics.

Selling a parent’s home or an inherited home

If you are handling a parent’s home after they have passed, the tax picture is different from selling a home you bought yourself. An inherited home’s basis for federal tax is generally its fair market value on the date of death, so the gain is usually measured from that value, not from what your parent paid decades ago.

If a child wants to keep a parent’s home, Proposition 19 has separate rules for parent-to-child transfers. The home keeps its taxable value only if it becomes the child’s primary residence and the child files for the homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ exemption within one year, and value above a set limit is added. Other heirs, such as the owner’s brothers or sisters, do not qualify. My guide to selling a parent’s house or an inherited home covers the steps, the exceptions and what to document.

Taxes in plain words

Three tax rules come up in most of these moves. Prop 19 is about your yearly property tax, while the home sale exclusion and stepped-up basis are about income tax on a sale.

Prop 19: moving your property tax base

Per the California State Board of Equalization, Proposition 19 lets a qualifying homeowner transfer the taxable value of a primary residence to a replacement primary residence anywhere in California. Three groups qualify: owners who are 55 or older on the date the original home sells, owners who are severely and permanently disabled, and owners whose home was substantially damaged or destroyed by a wildfire or a Governor-declared disaster. Owners qualifying by age or disability can transfer up to three times.

• Timing. The replacement must be bought or newly built within two years of the sale, before or after it.
• Value test. The replacement counts as equal or lesser value at up to 100 percent of the original home’s market value if you buy before you sell, 105 percent if you buy in the first year after the sale, and 110 percent in the second year. If it costs more, the transfer still works, and the amount above that limit is added to the taxable value.
• Both homes must be your primary residence and qualify for the homeowners’ (or disabled veterans’) exemption, and the sale and the purchase must both be for value, so a gift or an inheritance does not count.
• It is not automatic. Owners qualifying by age file Form BOE-19-B with the assessor of the county where the replacement home is, within three years of buying it. In Ventura County, that is the Ventura County Assessor.

Here is a hypothetical example of the first-year rule. You sell a home with a market value of $600,000 and a taxable value of $100,000, and six months later you buy a replacement for $700,000. The limit is 105 percent of $600,000, or $630,000. The $70,000 above that is added to your $100,000 taxable value, so the replacement’s taxable value starts at $170,000. The BOE’s Prop 19 fact sheet has more examples.

The federal home sale exclusion

Per IRS Topic 701, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of your main home, or up to $500,000 on a joint return. To qualify, you generally must have owned the home and lived in it as your main home for at least two of the five years before the sale, and not have excluded gain on another home in the two years before. For the $500,000 amount, either spouse can meet the ownership test, but both must meet the use test.

The exclusion applies to your gain, not your sale price. Gain is roughly the sale price, minus selling costs, minus your adjusted basis, which is what you paid plus the cost of permanent improvements. IRS Publication 523 also has a rule that matters here: if you become unable to care for yourself and lived in the home for at least one of the five years, time spent in a state-licensed care facility can count toward the use test. My capital gains guide walks through the math.

Stepped-up basis on an inherited home

When you inherit a home, your basis is generally its fair market value on the date of death, or on an alternate valuation date if the estate elects it (IRS Publication 551). In California, when a spouse dies, a home held as community property can generally step up in full, not only the half that belonged to the spouse who died, depending on how title was held. There are exceptions, and a gifted home follows different rules, so read my inherited home guide and talk with a tax professional.

55+ communities in Ventura County

A 55+ community is a neighborhood of owned homes, usually with a homeowners association, that operates as housing for older persons under federal and California law. It is different from assisted living or independent living, which are rentals built around care or services. These are the age-restricted 55+ communities with owned homes that I could verify in Ventura County:

Community	City	Homes	Built	Home type	Gated
Leisure Village	Camarillo	About 2,100	1973 to 1984	Single-story, attached and detached	Yes, staffed gates
The Grove	Camarillo	224	2020 to 2022	Single-family and attached	Yes
The Springs	Camarillo	259	1985 to 1987	Single-family	Yes
Pacific Pointe	Oxnard	60	2004	Attached	Yes
Hueneme Bay	Port Hueneme	773	1963 to 1971	Attached	No
Casa Flores	Simi Valley	102	2000 to 2002	Single-family and attached	Yes
Oaknoll Villas	Thousand Oaks	419	1974 to 1982	Condos	No

Sources: community listings on 55places.com and the Leisure Village Association. The Grove is built out, so its homes are now resales. Confirm every detail, including the age rules, with each community’s HOA before you make an offer.

How the age rules work

Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a community can operate as housing for older persons when at least 80 percent of its occupied homes have at least one resident who is 55 or older, it publishes and follows policies showing that intent, and it verifies ages (24 CFR 100.305 to 100.307). California has its own rule for senior housing developments in Civil Code 51.3, which also allows certain other household members, such as a spouse or a qualifying caregiver. Each community’s CC&Rs set its exact rules, so read them rather than relying on a summary.

What to check before you buy in a 55+ community

• The CC&Rs and rules, including the age rule, who else may live in the home and how ages are verified.
• The HOA budget, reserve study and dues, and what the dues cover, since exterior upkeep and amenities vary from one community to the next.
• Resale: the community’s age rule limits who may live in the home, which can narrow the pool of future buyers.
• Financing: many homes in these communities are attached or condos, and on those the lender may review the HOA project as well as you, so bring the loan officer in early.

55+ manufactured-home communities

Ventura County also has 55+ manufactured-home (mobile home) communities, including in Moorpark, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Ventura. In most of them you own the home and rent the space it sits on. Space rent and park rules fall under California’s Mobilehome Residency Law, and financing a home on rented land usually works differently from a standard mortgage. Check each park’s age rules, then browse mobile homes for sale in Ventura County or read my guide to mobile home financing.

To see current listings in communities marked as senior communities in the MLS, search 55+ homes in Camarillo, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks or Ventura. Some searches may show no homes on a given day.

Getting a mortgage on retirement income

A mortgage in retirement works like any other: the lender looks at income, credit, assets and the property. Under the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a lender may not discount or exclude income because it comes from a pension, an annuity or another retirement benefit, and may not count your age against you, though it can consider how much income there is and whether it is likely to continue (Regulation B, 12 CFR 1002.6).

• Social Security, pensions and annuities are usually documented with an award letter or benefit statement, plus bank statements or tax returns showing you receive them.
• Retirement account distributions can count when they are documented and expected to continue, and common loan guidelines look for them to continue for at least three years.
• Retirement savings you are not drawing yet. Some programs can count part of an employment-related retirement account, such as a 401(k) or an IRA, as income using a formula the program sets. Other savings and investment accounts are treated differently from program to program.
• Nontaxable income, such as some Social Security benefits, can often be counted at a higher value once verified.

These rules are summarized from Fannie Mae and FHA guidelines and can change. Every loan is subject to credit approval. If you are buying, a pre-approval from my lending team, or any lender you choose, shows what fits before you make an offer. You can learn more about my loan officer services.

Reverse mortgages: what to know first

The most common reverse mortgage is the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), which is insured by the Federal Housing Administration and is only for homeowners who are 62 or older. It lets you borrow against your home’s equity. Per the CFPB, interest and fees are added to the loan balance each month, so the balance grows over time.

• Your obligations. A HECM does not require monthly mortgage payments while you live in the home, but you must keep paying property taxes and homeowners insurance, keep the home in good repair and live in it as your main home, and falling behind on any of these can make the loan due.
• When it is repaid. The loan becomes due when the last borrower sells, dies or moves out, including living in a health care facility for more than 12 months in a row. It is usually repaid from the sale of the home. A spouse who is not a borrower may be able to stay in the home under HUD’s eligible non-borrowing spouse rules, so ask your counselor how this applies to you.
• How much you can borrow depends on the age of the youngest borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse, current interest rates and the home’s value, up to a limit HUD sets each year.
• Heirs. When the last borrower dies, heirs can sell the home or pay off the loan to keep it, and HUD has rules for when the balance is more than the home is worth. The CFPB explains what happens when a borrower dies.

Counseling comes first

Before you apply for a HECM, you must meet with a HUD-approved counselor, who is independent of the lender. You can find one with HUD’s counselor search. California adds its own protections under Civil Code 1923.2: the lender must give you a list of at least 10 HUD-approved counseling agencies, it may not accept your final application or charge fees until seven days after your counseling, and it may not require you to buy an annuity. More detail is on HUD’s HECM page.

Comparing a reverse mortgage with a sale

A reverse mortgage and a sale solve different problems, and there is a middle path: a HECM for Purchase lets a buyer who is 62 or older buy a new main home with a reverse mortgage in one transaction. It still requires your own cash toward the purchase and carries the same obligations. I can lay out what a sale and a smaller home would look like, so you and your counselor can compare the options side by side.

Buying near family

If you are moving to be closer to family, you choose the area, and I help you weigh the home itself: a single-story layout, yard size, a 55+ community or not, HOA rules, and the distance to the places you go most. I can run the search from a distance and time the purchase with the sale of your current home. My relocation guide covers moving to Ventura County from somewhere else.

If you are selling a home in another state, keep in mind that Prop 19 covers California homes only. A home you buy here is assessed at its purchase price, so ask the Ventura County Assessor or a tax professional what the property tax will be before you commit.

To see single-story homes, search Camarillo, Moorpark, Port Hueneme, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks or Ventura.

How I work with homeowners planning a move

• Before you list, I prepare a pricing opinion and an estimate of your selling costs, so you know roughly what the sale could leave you with.
• I hand you and your tax professional the figures needed to check capital gains and Prop 19, rather than giving tax advice myself.
• If you are buying, I help you get a personal estimate from my lending team at 21st Century Lending, built on your real income, assets and credit. Estimates are subject to credit approval.
• I plan the order of the sale and the purchase with you, including rent-back or bridge options, and I work alongside your estate attorney, trustee or family members when they are part of the decision.

You are free to choose any lender, and if you already have one, I’m glad to work with them. Next steps: contact me with your questions or timeline, start with a free home valuation, browse Ventura County homes for sale or condos, or read more about me.

Common questions

Who qualifies for a Prop 19 base year value transfer?

Homeowners who are 55 or older on the date they sell, severely and permanently disabled homeowners, and owners whose home was substantially damaged or destroyed by a wildfire or a Governor-declared disaster can qualify. The replacement must be a primary residence in California, bought or built within two years of the sale, and you must file a claim with the county assessor. Check the Board of Equalization’s Prop 19 page and talk with a tax professional.

How much home sale gain can I exclude from federal tax?

Per the IRS, up to $250,000, or up to $500,000 on a joint return, if you owned and lived in the home as your main home for at least two of the five years before the sale and did not exclude gain on another home in the two years before. The exclusion applies to your gain, not your sale price. A tax professional can confirm your result.

Can I get a mortgage if my income is Social Security or a pension?

Often, yes. Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, a lender may not discount income because it comes from a pension, an annuity or another retirement benefit, though it can consider the amount and whether it is likely to continue. Every loan is subject to credit approval.

Do I have to make payments on a reverse mortgage?

A HECM reverse mortgage does not require monthly mortgage payments while you live in the home, but you must keep paying property taxes and homeowners insurance, keep the home in good repair and live in it as your main home, and falling behind on any of these can make the loan due. It is a loan: interest and fees are added to the balance, which grows over time and is repaid when the last borrower sells, dies or moves out. HUD has separate rules that may let an eligible spouse who is not a borrower stay in the home.

Is a reverse mortgage a government program?

Not in the sense of a government benefit. A HECM is a loan made by a private, FHA-approved lender and insured by the Federal Housing Administration under a HUD program. It is not a grant or a benefit, it accrues interest and must be repaid, and you must meet with a HUD-approved counselor before you apply. I am not affiliated with HUD, FHA or any government agency.

Do I owe capital gains tax when I sell an inherited home?

It depends on the sale price compared with your basis. An inherited home’s basis is generally its fair market value on the date of death, so the gain is usually measured from that value rather than from what the previous owner paid. Exceptions apply, so confirm your figures with a tax professional.

Disclosures

Edgar Limon, REALTOR®, CA DRE #02225743, with Century 21 Masters. Each office is independently owned and operated. Mortgage loan originator, NMLS #2256286, with 21st Century Lending, NMLS #241835, a division of Full Realty Services, Inc. Licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act and California Financing Law. Loans made or arranged pursuant to a California Financing Law license. Verify licenses at NMLS Consumer Access. Century 21 Masters and 21st Century Lending are affiliated companies. You are not required to use 21st Century Lending, or any particular lender, as a condition of working with me, and if I act as both your agent and your loan officer, I disclose both roles and how I am paid to you in writing. I am not affiliated with HUD, FHA or any government agency, and a reverse mortgage is not a government benefit. Community details should be confirmed with each HOA. This page is general information, not a commitment to lend, and not tax or legal advice. All loans are subject to credit approval, eligibility, appraisal and property requirements. Tax and property tax rules are summarized and can change, so check IRS.gov and the California State Board of Equalization, and talk with a tax professional or attorney. Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Housing Lender.