Working to create and
support affordable housing with a
Real Estate Transfer Fee

An Act enabling a local option for a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing (H3056/S1937) would provide communities with the opportunity to impose a small fee on high-end real estate purchases to build and preserve affordable homes if this tool is important to preserving their community.

First responders can’t afford to live in the towns they protect. Hospitals can’t find nurses and schools can’t hire teachers. Stores, restaurants and nonprofits are understaffed. Thousands of young families are fleeing Massachusetts to states where they can afford a home.

It's clear. The affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts is destroying our communities, but there is a solution: 
A local-option transfer fee on real estate that protects seniors and first-time buyers and only applies to high-dollar home sales. 

What does this mean?

This legislation would allow Massachusetts cities and towns to enact a small fee on high-value real estate sales, in order to create and support affordable housing. Across our state, cities and towns are grappling with the adverse effects of escalating home prices on their communities’ economy, workforce, quality of life, and social identity. In many communities, longtime residents are being displaced as housing prices soar out of reach.

How does it work?

Transfer fees are proven to be an effective, efficient, and equitable tool for raising revenue to create and support affordable housing. Studies show that a small real estate transfer fee would generate millions of dollars each year for local affordable housing programs, without hurting the real estate market. Every community faces its own specific housing challenges, and the real estate transfer fee local option legislation allows for flexibility.

  • “We need to expand the pie of housing resources well beyond what is available now. A transfer fee on high-end real estate can be an important part of helping us to create homes that are affordable to families with modest income.”

    - Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance

  • “MACDC supports legislative efforts that will allow municipalities to pass local real estate transfer fees. This additional tool to raise revenue empowers communities to meet local needs for affordable housing.”

    - Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations

  • "Massachusetts needs to take steps to address the housing crisis, and to give towns and city the authority to have more tools to provide homes for all and make housing a human right. Housing affordability affects all of us and we all have the responsibility to ensure everyone have safe, healthy and affordable home.”

    - Chinese Progressive Association

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