
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.