It's probably just a general comment for folks who don't understand CA property taxes. I've lived here my whole home-buying life, so it never crosses my mind to look at the Zillow property tax figure when doing my mental maths on whether I can afford something, but if you lived in an area where the figure in Zillow actually means something to the buyer, you might be in for a surprise in CA.

Here, it's just an easy 1%, so the math isn't hard. I'm not sure if other states have highly variable rates on a county-by-county basis, or if other states also tend to have consistent rates within their borders.

In Illinois, how property is valued and taxed seems pretty obscure, and may involve witchcraft.

The rate on my tax bill is 6.03%. But that's on a "net taxable value" that's about 40% of what I paid for the place 15 years ago, and maybe 25% of what I could get for the place now. So the rate is effectively 2.5% of what I paid, or 1.4% of what I could get. The total tax has also gone up 26% since 2020, increasing by more each year, but I don't know whether they've raised the rate each year or the valuation.

It's probably possible to find out how it works, but there's not much point. It is what it is, so you pay it or leave. No one lives in Illinois for the tax rates.