Senior Downsizing

Senior Downsizing Real Estate Agent in Irvine, CA

Paula Aragone represents Irvine owners aged 55 and over who are leaving a house they have held for decades, and who want the assessed value to travel with them instead of staying behind in a village they are done with.

The short answer

Downsizing after 55 in Irvine turns on two numbers pulling opposite ways. Proposition 19 lets a claimant aged 55 or over carry the factored base year value of the Irvine house to a replacement anywhere in California, up to three times, provided the replacement is bought or newly built within two years of the sale. Against that sits IRC section 121, which stops at 250,000 dollars single and 500,000 dollars joint. On a house held forty years, the second number usually decides the move.

  • Who qualifiesAge 55 or over at the sale of the original residence
  • How many transfersUp to three, Revenue and Taxation Code 69.6
  • Where the replacement can beAnywhere in California, county to county
  • The windowTwo years, before or after the sale
  • The claimForm BOE-19-B, within three years of the purchase
  • Irvine specificMaster dues, sub association dues and a CFD special tax
23+
Years in Orange County
900+
Transactions
$900M+
Sold
CPRES
Certified
SRES
Certified
The Irvine arithmetic

A Smaller Newer House in Irvine Can Cost More Every Month Than the Big Old One


Moving from a 1970s village into a post 2004 village changes three lines on the tax bill, and Proposition 19 protects only one of them.

Most Irvine parcels sit under a master association, and a large number sit under a sub association as well. The city describes the two tier model plainly: the master typically maintains landscaped medians and the private parks serving the wider subdivision, the sub handles smaller landscape areas and the exteriors of attached buildings. Both are governed under the Davis Stirling Common Interest Development Act, and both produce a resale packet that has to be ordered rather than assumed.

On top of that, in the villages built after 1988, comes a Community Facilities District special tax. The pre 1988 core, University Park from 1966, Turtle Rock from 1967, El Camino Real, Northwood and most of Woodbridge, generally carries little or none. Portola Springs, Orchard Hills, Stonegate, portions of Woodbury, Cypress Village, Laguna Altura and the Great Park neighbourhoods do carry it. Those are leads, not answers, and the city expressly puts the burden on the owner to establish what a parcel is subject to.

So an owner leaving a Northwood house with no special tax for a compact home in a newer village is protecting the assessed value and picking up two association assessments and a special tax in the same transaction. Proposition 19 moves the base year value. It moves none of the rest, and a monthly figure built on the property tax line alone will be wrong by the time the first statement arrives.

The Great Park charge is the one most often described wrongly. The City of Irvine states that the CFD No. 2013-3 charge can rise by up to two percent a year, and that once the original bonds are repaid, typically about forty years, the charge drops by roughly 65 to 82 percent, with the remainder continuing for maintenance. It falls a long way and then stays. For a buyer in their sixties, forty years is not a planning horizon, so the current figure is the figure.

The one genuinely local answer to the age restricted question is Rancho San Joaquin, opened in 1972, the only active adult village in Irvine, with an eighteen hole golf course and a tennis academy beside Mason Regional Park. Any community holding itself out as 55 and over is relying on the federal Housing for Older Persons rules, so the documents to ask for are the ones that show the community actually runs its own verification.

The village system is also why a downsizer can change nearly everything about the house without leaving the city. The stock runs from 1966 greenbelt product carrying the full period defect list to 2016 construction with modern systems and tight architectural control, and the two ends of that range are a short drive apart. What changes with the move is the assessment structure, the lot size and the amount of control an association has over the front elevation.

The sequence

How a Downsizing Move Out of an Irvine House Actually Runs


Downsizing is two transactions, one tax claim and a house full of contents, and the order they happen in changes the money. These are the steps in the order that keeps a two year window and a three year filing deadline from colliding.

01

Count the transfers you have left

Proposition 19 allows a claimant aged 55 or over, or severely and permanently disabled, up to three base year value transfers, against one under the old Propositions 60 and 90. Ask the Orange County Assessor how many have already been used, and whether a married couple counts as one claimant, because the Board of Equalization guidance does not address that.

02

Put a number on the section 121 exposure

The exclusion is 250,000 dollars for a single filer and 500,000 dollars on a joint return, and it has not moved since 1997. On an Irvine house bought in the 1970s the gain routinely clears it. Reconstruct the adjusted basis first, because that figure, not the sale price, decides what the move actually costs.

03

Choose which transaction goes first

The replacement must be bought or newly built within two years of the sale, before or after it. Buying first drops the value factor from 105 percent to 100 percent, and the replacement is taxed at full fair market value from the purchase until the original sells, with no refund for that period.

04

Empty forty years of house

No statute covers this and it takes longer than escrow does. Start before the listing, room by room, and sort what moves, what goes to family, what is sold and what is disposed of. A garage still full on the morning of the first showing costs more than anything on the repair list.

05

Repair what an inspector will find, not what looks tired

Publication 523 is blunt: painting inside or out, fixing leaks and filling holes or cracks are repairs and add nothing to basis, while room additions, a new roof and HVAC systems do. In the 1966 to 1979 villages the items that actually move a buyer are the panel, the supply lines and the original aluminium sliders.

06

Build the disclosure from the village record

Order the master and any sub association resale documents in the first week of the listing. Where the parcel sits in a Community Facilities District, Civil Code 1102.6b requires the notice from the City of Irvine as the levying agency, not the line on the tax bill. Add the current fire hazard severity zone position.

07

Market it inside the village

Irvine was planned as villages separated by six lane arterials, each with its own schools, retail and assessment profile. A number drawn across the city is not a number. Exposure matters twice over here, because the sale price becomes the full cash value the Proposition 19 formula is computed from.

08

Close, and watch the withholding line

Escrow withholds 3 1/3 percent of the sale price for the Franchise Tax Board by default, with an exemption for a principal residence qualifying under IRC section 121, claimed on Form 593. Orange County documentary transfer tax runs at 0.55 dollars per 500 dollars of net consideration over 100 dollars, or 1.10 dollars per 1,000 dollars.

09

File the BOE-19-B with the assessor of the replacement county

The claim is filed with the assessor of the county where the replacement property sits, within three years of the purchase or of completion of new construction. File later than that and relief begins with the calendar year in which you file. Every year of delay past three is a year of full market value tax nobody refunds.

Where we work

The Village You Leave and the Village You Land In


Each village carries its own build era, assessment structure and inspection profile, and a downsizing move usually crosses from one end of that range to the other.

Rancho San Joaquin

1972, the only active adult village in the city, with an eighteen hole golf course and a tennis academy beside Mason Regional Park. The one Irvine address where the age restricted question has a local answer rather than a search elsewhere.

University Park

The first village, 1966. Greenbelts, low density and a walk to UCI, generally free of special tax. Old enough that a long held house here is being sold with original panels, original supply lines and original glazing.

Turtle Rock

First hillside village, 1967, laid out to hold the ridgelines. Generally no special tax, and now inside the 2025 fire hazard zone expansion, so a forty year owner carries a disclosure that did not exist when they moved in.

El Camino Real

1970, Heritage Park with the duck pond and the Irvine Fine Arts Center. Older stock, generally no special tax, and a high share of original purchasers, which is precisely the profile that produces a section 121 problem.

Northwood

1970, defined by the century old eucalyptus windrows, with the Hicks Canyon and Venta Spur trails. Most of it free of special tax. The classic long held Irvine family home and the most common downsizing listing in the city.

Woodbridge

1975, four quadrants around two lakes with a large village association. The deepest buyer pool in Irvine, which is what makes a firm closing date realistic when a replacement purchase is waiting on the proceeds.

Westpark

1987, the first Mediterranean themed village, coral stucco and terra cotta tile. It sits at the front of the polybutylene window, so the supply piping question reaches a seller before the pricing question does.

West Irvine

1997, holding twenty four historic buildings from the 1897 Irvine Ranch. Served by Tustin Unified with Myford Elementary and Beckman High, which the family buying the house will check and the seller should state.

Oak Creek

1998, historic oaks beside the Spectrum medical corridor. Late 1990s districts apply here, so the Notice of Special Tax has to be obtained from the levying agency rather than read off the annual bill.

Northpark and Northpark Square

1999 and 2001, gated, on a pathway network with Tuscan and Provencal styling. Tustin Unified serves both, with Hicks Canyon Elementary, and a buyer who assumed Irvine Unified cancels late.

Shady Canyon

2001, roughly four hundred custom homes behind a guarded gate with a private golf club. The only true custom village, so a valuation here is built property by property and never from a village average.

Quail Hill

2003, beside the seven hundred acre Quail Hill Preserve with its own retail centre. Inside the 2025 fire zone expansion, which brings defensible space documentation into a sale that would not have needed it.

Turtle Ridge

2003, on the San Joaquin Hills with a coastal microclimate and ocean to mountain views. Modern systems and meaningful assessments, and a common landing place for owners leaving a larger house in an older village.

Woodbury and Portola Springs

2004 and 2006. Woodbury is built around a thirty acre Commons, Portola Springs around five enclaves framed by native habitat. Both carry special tax and both sit inside the expanded fire map.

Stonegate, Cypress Village and Eastwood

2011 to 2016. Compact lots, layered assessments, modern systems, and architectural control tight enough that anything a previous owner changed without a submittal surfaces in the resale documents.

Orchard Hills

2014, the highest point in the city among roughly nine hundred acres of working avocado orchards, with a gated Groves enclave. Special tax, ocean views, and inside the 2025 fire zone expansion.

Great Park Neighborhoods

Pavilion Park, Beacon Park, Parasol Park, Cadence Park, Novel Park, Rise, Solis Park and Luna Park, on the former MCAS El Toro. Financed through CFD No. 2013-3, which falls when the bonds are repaid but never fully sunsets.

University Hills

Not conventional ownership. The University of California owns the land, homeowners hold a leasehold through the Irvine Campus Housing Authority, buyers must be University employees, and ICHA calculates a Maximum Resale Price.

What goes wrong

Six Ways an Irvine Downsizing Move Costs More Than It Saves

Irvine, California

None of these are market problems. Each one is a deadline, a form or a line on a tax bill that was noticed after it had already been priced in.

Nobody counted the transfers

Proposition 19 allows up to three base year value transfers as a claimant aged 55 or over or severely and permanently disabled, where Propositions 60 and 90 allowed exactly one. Under the old rule a couple who had used the benefit once could never use it again, even on the death of a spouse or a divorce, and a great many owners still believe that is the law.

The count is not the only open item. Whether a married couple is treated as one claimant for the count of three is not addressed in the Board of Equalization guidance, so it has to be confirmed with the Orange County Assessor before a two move plan is built on it. Ask before the second move, not after it has closed.

The replacement was bought first and the factor dropped

The two year window runs in both directions, so buying before selling qualifies. What it costs is the cushion. The adjusted full cash value of the original is taken at 100 percent where the replacement is bought or newly built first, at 105 percent where it comes within the first year after the sale, and at 110 percent within the second year.

There is a second cost the Board states in plain terms: property tax on the replacement is charged at its full fair market value for the period between the purchase and the sale of the original, and there is no refund for that period. In a newer Irvine village that interim bill arrives alongside two association assessments and a special tax.

The saving was calculated on the base year value alone

An owner leaving a pre 1988 village with no special tax for a post 2004 village takes on a master association assessment, frequently a sub association assessment as well, and a Community Facilities District special tax. Proposition 19 moves the assessed value and nothing else, so the monthly figure people carry in their heads is usually the wrong figure.

Model the whole of it before an offer is written. The City of Irvine expressly places the burden on the owner to determine whether a property is subject to CC and Rs, and the resale packet with the budget, the reserve study and the minutes is the document that answers it. Order it on the buy side too, not only on the sell side.

Forty years of improvements were never receipted

Adjusted basis is original cost plus purchase costs plus capital improvements, less depreciation and certain credits. Publication 523 counts room additions, a new roof and HVAC systems, and expressly refuses painting inside or out, fixing leaks and filling holes or cracks. An improvement later removed or replaced has to have its remaining basis backed out again.

On a house held since the 1970s, a documented accumulation of improvements is often the difference between gain inside the section 121 exclusion and gain well outside it, and almost nobody kept the paper. Start the reconstruction with the permit jacket, the approved plans and the inspection log from Irvine Building and Safety at 1 Civic Center Plaza and work outward from there.

The age restriction was treated as a house rule

A community that holds itself out as 55 and over is operating under the federal Housing for Older Persons Act. 24 CFR 100.305 requires at least 80 percent of the occupied units to be occupied by at least one person aged 55 or over, and 24 CFR 100.307 requires the community to update its age verification at least every two years.

That cuts both ways. A buyer needs to see that the community genuinely runs the verification, because the exemption rests on it. And the position of a younger spouse, an adult child or a family member who may need to move in later is governed by the community documents inside that 80 percent, so read them rather than the summary a sales office gives you.

University Hills was treated as an ordinary sale

The University of California owns the land in University Hills and homeowners hold a leasehold through the Irvine Campus Housing Authority. Purchase eligibility is restricted to full time University employees in a defined priority order, and ICHA calculates a Maximum Resale Price for a current owner.

For a retiring faculty owner planning a downsizing move that is not an open market sale, and the proceeds are not an open market number. Establish the ICHA position before anything else is decided, including before a replacement is identified, because both the timing and the amount come out of that mechanism rather than out of the market.

The sequence question

Sell the Irvine House First, or Buy the Replacement First


Both routes qualify under Proposition 19. They cost different amounts, and the difference is set by a percentage factor and by an interim tax bill that nobody gets back.

Sell first, then buy

Selling first is the cheaper route on paper, and the reason is arithmetic. The adjusted full cash value of the original is computed at 105 percent where the replacement is bought or newly built within the first year after the sale, and at 110 percent within the second year. Buying first gets 100 percent. That cushion is what absorbs a more expensive replacement before anything is added to the transferred value.

The formula matters more than the label. Where the replacement costs no more than the adjusted amount, the factored base year value transfers intact. Where it costs more, the excess is added. The Board of Equalization example takes an original at 400,000 dollars of full cash value with a 100,000 dollar factored base year value, applies 105 percent to reach 420,000 dollars, and adds the 180,000 dollar difference on a 600,000 dollar replacement, producing a taxable value of 280,000 dollars.

Selling first also removes the qualifying problem, because you are not asking a lender to carry two Orange County properties at once, and the proceeds are in hand before the replacement is committed to. Where a Medi-Cal beneficiary is involved the calculus is different and tighter, since proceeds from the sale of an exempt home are exempt for only six months from receipt and only where they are applied to another principal residence.

The honest downside is that you have sold a house you still live in. A rent back after closing buys weeks, not months, and the two year window then runs from the closing date whether or not anything suitable has come to market in the village you wanted. In a thin inventory village that pressure is real, and it is the most common reason a downsizer pays over the odds for the replacement.

Buy first, then sell

Buying first is expressly allowed. The Board of Equalization states that as long as one transaction occurs on or after 1 April 2021 and the original home is sold within two years of the purchase of the replacement, the base year value of the original can be transferred. Nothing about the claim is weaker for having been done in this order, and the two year window is unchanged.

What it costs is stated just as plainly. Property tax on the replacement is assessed at full fair market value for the period between the purchase and the sale of the original, and there is no refund for that period. The corrected base year value applies going forward from the date the original sells, not backward to the date of purchase, so every month of marketing time is paid for at the full rate.

The value factor is the second cost. Buying first fixes the adjusted full cash value of the original at 100 percent instead of 105 or 110 percent, so where the replacement costs more, more of the difference is added to the transferred value and stays there for as long as you own the house. Worked through: an original at 1,200,000 dollars of full cash value with a 180,000 dollar factored base year value, and a replacement bought first at 1,400,000 dollars, lands at a taxable value of 380,000 dollars.

Against all of that, buying first is the only version of this that lets you move once. There is no rent back, no storage unit, and no replacement accepted because a clock was running. Whether the interim tax and the lost factor are worth that is a household decision rather than a tax decision, and it is worth pricing before it is made rather than defending afterwards.

Why this office

Advising Someone Who Has Owned Property Longer Than Most Agents Have Been Licensed


Paula Aragone has worked Orange County transactions for 23 years, across 900+ transactions and $900M+ sold, and she came to real estate after four years of law school. She holds the CPRES and SRES designations. SRES is the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation, and in practice it means the transaction is built around the client's timeline, the client's records and the client's household, rather than around a listing calendar that suits the office.

The work in a downsizing file starts before a price is discussed. How many Proposition 19 transfers remain, and confirmed with the Assessor rather than assumed. What the adjusted basis actually is once forty years of improvements have been reconstructed from permits and receipts. Which transaction goes first, and what the interim tax on the replacement will cost if it is the purchase. What the contents plan is, because that is the item that most often moves a closing date. And the homeowners' exemption on the replacement, claimed on form BOE-266 with the county assessor by 15 February for the full amount, which is a precondition of the Proposition 19 transfer rather than a formality worth 70 dollars a year.

The Irvine specific work is retrieval. The master and sub association resale documents, ordered in the first week rather than after acceptance. The Notice of Special Tax from the City of Irvine as the levying agency, because the line item on the Orange County tax bill is not that notice. The parcel record by APN from the Orange County Treasurer Tax Collector. The permit jacket, approved plans and inspection log from Irvine Building and Safety at 1 Civic Center Plaza. The current fire hazard severity zone position for the address.

This office does not give tax advice or legal advice and does not pretend otherwise. The base year value questions belong with the Orange County Assessor, the gain calculation with the client's own accountant, and anything touching Medi-Cal eligibility or trust planning with a California elder law attorney. What the office produces is the record those people need, in the order they need it, and a sale that does not force a decision before the household is ready to make it.

Questions

Downsizing in Irvine at 55 and Over, Answered


The questions long time owners and their adult children actually ask, answered for California law and for Irvine specifically.

How many times can I move my Irvine property tax base?

Up to three times as a claimant who is at least 55 at the time of sale of the original primary residence, or who is severely and permanently disabled. Propositions 60 and 90 allowed one transfer for life, and that older rule is what most people remember. Proposition 19 replaced it for sales on or after 1 April 2021. A claimant who is severely and permanently disabled qualifies at any age and files BOE-19-D. Wildfire and disaster victims file BOE-19-V and are not subject to the three transfer cap.

Does the replacement have to be in Orange County?

No. Under Proposition 19 the transfer works to a replacement primary residence anywhere in California, between any two counties. The old county ordinance and reciprocity lists that governed Proposition 90 are irrelevant now. What still applies is that both properties have to be primary residences: the original eligible for the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption at the time of sale or within two years of the purchase, and the replacement eligible when the claim is filed.

Only one of us is over 55. Does that work?

Yes, if the title is right. Board of Equalization guidance is direct on the point: as long as the spouse who is at least 55 is on title to both the original primary residence on its date of sale and the replacement primary residence on its date of purchase, that spouse qualifies to transfer the base year value. The trap is a replacement bought in the younger spouse's name alone, which is a title decision made months before anyone reads the form.

What happens if the replacement costs more than the Irvine house sold for?

You still get relief, which is the change most people miss. Under Propositions 60 and 90 exceeding the value limit disqualified the claim entirely. Under Proposition 19 the excess is simply added. Take the original's full cash value, multiply by 100 percent if you bought first, 105 percent within the first year after the sale, or 110 percent within the second, and add anything the replacement costs above that figure to the factored base year value.

Can you work through the Proposition 19 formula with actual numbers?

The Board of Equalization publishes this example. The original home's adjusted full cash value is 400,000 dollars multiplied by 105 percent, which is 420,000 dollars. The replacement's full cash value is 600,000 dollars. The 180,000 dollar difference is added to the 100,000 dollar factored base year value, so the replacement is taxable at 280,000 dollars rather than 600,000 dollars. Confirm your own figures with the Orange County Assessor before relying on them.

Will the 250,000 dollar exclusion cover the gain on a house we bought in 1978?

Frequently not, and this is the number that decides most Irvine downsizing moves. IRC section 121 excludes 250,000 dollars single and 500,000 dollars on a joint return, unindexed since 1997, and requires 24 months of ownership and 24 months of use as your main home within the five years before the sale, with no other 121 exclusion claimed in the previous two years. On a house held since the 1970s the gain often runs well past those figures. The excess is taxable federally, taxable in California at ordinary rates because California has no preferential capital gains rate, and potentially subject to the 3.8 percent net investment income tax.

What actually counts toward basis after forty years in the house?

Adjusted basis is original cost plus purchase costs plus capital improvements, less depreciation and certain credits. Publication 523 puts legal fees including title search and preparing the contract and deed, and transfer or stamp taxes, on the purchase side. Room additions, a new roof and HVAC systems are improvements. Painting inside or out, fixing leaks and filling holes or cracks are not, and never add basis. Selling costs reduce the amount realized, which has the same effect.

My husband died last year. Does that change the exclusion?

It can, in two separate ways, and both are worth raising with your accountant now rather than later. A surviving spouse may use the 500,000 dollar limit if the sale happens not later than two years after the date of death, the requirements were met immediately before that date, and the survivor has not remarried by the date of sale. Separately, where the Irvine home was community property, IRC 1014(b)(6) steps up both halves at the first death, which often matters more than the exclusion does.

Is there an age restricted community in Irvine?

One. Rancho San Joaquin, opened in 1972, is the city's only active adult village, with an eighteen hole golf course and a tennis academy next to Mason Regional Park. Any community operating as 55 and over relies on the federal Housing for Older Persons Act: 24 CFR 100.305 requires at least 80 percent of occupied units to house at least one person aged 55 or over, and 24 CFR 100.307 requires age verification to be updated at least every two years. Ask to see those records.

If I move from Northwood to the Great Park, does Proposition 19 protect me from the special tax?

No. Proposition 19 moves the base year value and only the base year value. A Community Facilities District special tax, a master association assessment and any sub association assessment all attach to the new property and are unaffected by the claim. A seller who leaves a pre 1988 village carrying none of the three and buys into a post 2004 village carrying all three can lower the assessed value and raise the monthly cost at the same time.

Does the Great Park special tax ever come off the bill?

It falls, but it does not disappear. The City of Irvine states that the CFD No. 2013-3 charge can rise by up to two percent a year, and that once the original bonds are repaid, typically about forty years, the charge drops by roughly 65 to 82 percent, with the remainder continuing for maintenance. Use the city's own figures rather than a neighbour's version, and for a buyer in their sixties treat the current charge as the permanent one.

My Irvine house is in Turtle Rock and now sits in a fire hazard severity zone. What does that add to the sale?

Irvine adopted the updated CAL FIRE maps by ordinance in June 2025, effective 23 July 2025, replacing the 2012 map, and the update expanded zones into eight areas: Orchard Hills, Woodbury, Portola Springs, Quail Hill, Turtle Rock, Laguna Altura, Los Olivos and Irvine Spectrum. A High or Very High designation brings defensible space documentation under Civil Code 1102.19 and the fire hardening disclosure at transfer, and the buyer's insurer will raise it before the buyer does.

Our house is in University Hills. Does any of this apply to us?

The tax rules apply to people, not to addresses, but the sale itself is not an ordinary sale. The University of California owns the land, homeowners hold a leasehold through the Irvine Campus Housing Authority, purchase eligibility is restricted to full time University employees in a defined priority order, and ICHA calculates a Maximum Resale Price. Establish the ICHA position before you identify a replacement, because the proceeds and the timing both come out of that mechanism.

Can I put off the property tax instead of moving?

Possibly. The State Controller runs a Property Tax Postponement programme for homeowners who are at least 62, or blind, or disabled, who own and occupy the home as their principal residence, with household income of 55,181 dollars or less, at least 40 percent equity and no reverse mortgage. Interest runs at 5 percent, a lien is recorded, only current year taxes are eligible, and applications run 1 October to 10 February. Confirm the current income figure with the State Controller at (800) 952-5661.

I am on Medi-Cal. Does selling the house put that at risk?

It can, and this is a question for a California elder law attorney rather than an agent. The asset limit was reinstated on 1 January 2026 under Assembly Bill 116, at 130,000 dollars for one person and 195,000 dollars for two, applied at the first renewal in 2026. One home is exempt while lived in, but cash is not, so escrow converts an exempt asset into a countable one. Proceeds are exempt for six months from receipt only if applied to another principal residence.

When exactly do I file the claim, and what happens if I am late?

Form BOE-19-B is filed with the assessor of the county in which the replacement property is located, not with the Board of Equalization and not with the county the original was in. The deadline is three years from the date the replacement is purchased or new construction is completed. File after that and relief is granted beginning with the calendar year in which you file, so every year of delay past three is a year of full market value property tax that is never refunded.

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If you are 55 or over and thinking about leaving an Irvine house you have owned for decades, the first conversation is about the count of transfers, the basis and the order of the two sales. Call or text, or have an adult child call on your behalf.

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