State Officials to Discuss Proposed Real Estate Transfer Fee Legislation

Barnstable, Dukes, Nantucket State Rep. Dylan Fernandes

HYANNIS – Elected officials and housing advocates are holding a press conference on Wednesday to discuss proposed real estate transfer fee legislation that would address the housing crisis.

If passed, the legislation will allow municipalities to levy a fee of up to two percent on large real estate transactions to fund workforce and affordable housing.

“Massachusetts is in a housing crisis and it is profound in our region of the state on the Cape and Islands,” said Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket State Representative Dylan Fernandes.

“On Nantucket, which I represent, the average home price is over $2 million, on the Vineyard it’s around a million, and if you look at the Cape it’s just under that,” the Democrat said.

Boston alone is projected to raise $78 million a year on a two percent transfer fee of home sales over $1 million.

Fernandes, state representatives Liz Malia and Mike Connolly, Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards, and Ken Beaugrand of the Nantucket Association of Real Estate Brokers are all expected to attend the conference, among others.

“This housing crisis is displacing lifelong residents, sometimes it’s folks or families that have been here for generations who cannot afford to live here, and we are also losing a ton of workers and young people because the cost of living and the cost of finding a home is too high,” Fernandes said.

“In order to get at this and in order to find a revenue stream to support affordable and workforce housing for those people working as school teachers and firefighters and the like, we have proposed an up to two percent transfer fee on high cost home sales.”

“What this means is that if someone bought a $3 million home they’d have to pay $5,000 to the town and the town would have to use that money to build affordable and workforce housing. This legislation is really all about making sure that the people who have lived in the community for generations and the people who serve our communities are able to find housing and stay here.”         

The press conference is set to take place at 11 a.m. in the Nurses Hall at the Massachusetts State House.