Prop 37 Would Cover 17% of a Buyer’s Purchase Price. It Could Not Be Used to Buy Your Existing Home.

Polls close Tuesday, November 3. Two statewide measures on this ballot are about housing, and they work in opposite directions: Proposition 37 would lend money to home buyers, and Proposition 1 would borrow money to build rental housing (CalMatters 2026 voter guide). Every active registered California voter was mailed a ballot (California Secretary of State).

Realonomie takes no position on either measure and endorses no candidate. What follows is what the official analyses say, and the one clause in Proposition 37 that decides whether it touches your sale at all.

What Proposition 37 would do

• ·The California Housing Finance Agency could issue up to $25 billion in revenue bonds to fund fixed-rate second mortgages for home buyers (Legislative Analyst’s analysis, Official Voter Information Guide)
• ·The buyer puts down at least 3% of the purchase price; the state second mortgage covers up to 17%, bringing the combined down payment to 20% (CalMatters, October 2026; SPUR voter guide)
• ·Assistance is limited to newly constructed homes, and to newly created units converted from non-residential buildings, where the buyer is the first purchaser (California Budget & Policy Center)
• ·The buyer must have lived in California for at least a year, earn no more than 200% of the area median income for the county or metropolitan area where the home sits, and occupy it as a primary residence within 60 days of closing (CalMatters, October 2026)
• ·There is no first-time or first-generation buyer requirement, unlike existing state down payment programs (California Budget & Policy Center)
• ·The sales price of a qualifying home could not exceed 125% of the Federal Housing Finance Agency conforming loan limit for that county (SPUR voter guide)
• ·The Legislative Analyst concludes the program would not create direct state or local costs, because bond investors are repaid from the home buyers’ own loan payments, while flagging unknowns including investor appetite for the bonds and whether more homes actually get built (Legislative Analyst’s analysis)

Why the new-construction clause is the whole story for a seller

If you are selling a home somebody has already lived in, a buyer cannot bring Proposition 37 money to your table. The assistance follows the first purchaser of a newly built unit. That holds in Redding, Fresno, Riverside and Sacramento exactly as it holds on the coast.

The price cap narrows it further, and the Bay Area is the clearest place to see the arithmetic. The FHFA set the 2026 conforming loan limit for one-unit homes at $832,750 in most of the country, with a high-cost ceiling of $1,249,125 that applies in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties (FHFA, November 25, 2025). At 125% of that ceiling, the highest qualifying price in those three counties would be about $1,561,400. The National Association of Realtors put the third-quarter 2026 median for an existing single-family home in the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metro at $1,920,000 (NAR, October 29, 2026). The cap sits below the typical price there before the new-construction rule is even applied.

None of this is a reason to time a listing around Tuesday. The measure is not law unless voters approve it, and no part of it is in effect today. California YIMBY, which supports down payment help on the merits, declined to recommend a vote either way, arguing the benefit depends on supply that may not materialize (California YIMBY). We do not predict outcomes, prices or rates. This is general information about a public measure, not legal, tax or investment advice.

Proposition 1, briefly

Proposition 1 is an $11.25 billion housing bond the Legislature placed on the ballot through Senate Bill 417: roughly $10 billion in general obligation bonds for housing programs plus a $1.25 billion revenue bond for the Veterans’ Farm and Home Building Fund of 1943. The Legislative Analyst estimates repayment of the general housing portion would cost the state in the range of $500 million to $600 million a year for about 25 years, and that the bond would help support up to 40,000 rental units when combined with other funding sources (CalMatters 2026 voter guide).

That is construction and rental finance, not a check a buyer can write toward an existing home.

The number on your side of the table

You do not control Tuesday’s result, the conforming loan limit, or whether a buyer qualifies for anything. You control your list price and what the sale costs you to execute.

A percentage commission is charged against the price of the home, not against the work of selling it. On a $1,000,000 California home, a traditional listing-side commission of about 3% runs roughly $30,000. Realonomie lists your home on the same MLS every agent uses, with a licensed California broker, for $999 at MLS launch — non-refundable, covering photography, signage, the dedicated property page and marketing — plus $5,000 paid out of escrow only if the home actually closes. On that $1,000,000 home that is $5,999 in total against roughly $30,000: $24K+ you keep. Above the first million the closing fee adds $2,500 for each additional million, so a sale at the $1,920,000 San Jose metro median would be $999 up front plus $7,500 at close. The full fee schedule shows every tier.

Ballot measures change the rules around a sale. They do not price your street. For that, start with current comparable sales — and the transfer tax measures on the same ballot are worth a read too.