The California records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: Seller of most 1-to-4 unit residential property must deliver a Transfer Disclosure Statement disclosing known material facts affecting value or desirability, and a Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement stating whether the property lies in mapped hazard zones including a FEMA special flood hazard area.
You will get both a Transfer Disclosure Statement about the home's condition and a Natural Hazard Disclosure about flood, fire, earthquake and dam-inundation zones. Read the hazard statement for insurance and lending consequences, and do not treat either form as a warranty or a substitute for inspection.
Sources: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov · legalclarity.org · ownwell.com · oag.ca.gov
Buying resets the assessed value to current market value, usually the purchase price, so your tax bill will often be much higher than a long-term seller's Proposition 13 bill. Expect a supplemental assessment for the difference in the first year, then annual increases capped at 2 percent.
Homestead: A qualifying owner-occupied principal residence may claim the Homeowners' Exemption, which reduces taxable assessed value by $7,000 (roughly $70 a year at the 1 percent general levy).
California Megan's Law Website is run by California Department of Justice. Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
Open the official California registry
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
Proposition 13 establishes a new base-year value at change of ownership, generally the purchase price; the county then issues a supplemental assessment for the gap between the old and new values for the rest of the tax year.
Civil Code section 1103.2 requires disclosure of six mapped hazards, including FEMA special flood hazard areas (Zones A or V), very high fire hazard severity zones, earthquake fault zones and dam inundation areas, which can limit development, insurance or disaster assistance.
What the California disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official California registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Sourced registry counts and FBI-reported county crime for 1,514 ZIP codes in California — the registry figure is each ZIP’s own; the crime record is its county’s, labeled as such. Every figure dated.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview