Governor Maura Healy filed a five year, $4.1 billion bond bill called the Affordable Homes Act. Tucked away in it is a major policy change that would allow municipalities to establish a local option “real estate transfer fee” (tax) of between .5% to 2%, limited to the portion of the sale over $1 million or the county median home sales price (whichever is greater.) They say the money would then go to support affordable housing.

You heard that right: Beacon Hill is pushing for a tax on some home sales to supply an affordable housing fund. It’s predictable that this tax would only be passed on to the buyer, driving prices up even more. Since the real estate market tends to fluctuate with economic downturns, it will also be creating an unstable source of revenue they are looking to rely on, which we can assume means they will lower the price threshold for the tax in the future.

We all want affordable housing, but putting a new tax on real estate sales won’t get us there. Please Contact your legislators to tell them not to raise taxes on some home sales!