Vikki Goodwin’s Austin Real Estate Weblog

Nothing is certain except death and taxes.  I don’t remember who originally stated this, but here we go again with another new tax.  Oddly enough, at a time when the economy is reeling, we have Senator Wentworth writing a bill that would allow for the establishment of a tax on home sales.  The housing market in Texas is better off than many states, but a great deal of that is due to low interest rates and the first time home buyer tax credit.  This transfer tax would have the opposite effect, and could deter people from buying or selling a home.  It’s already expensive to move – and yes, the fees come from title companies and their attorneys, lenders and their attorneys and from real estate agents.  But real estate agents do have an important role to play, and we do quite a lot to earn the commissions we make.  Now, in addition to selling homes, many of us are getting ready to head to the Capitol to talk to legislators about our positions on many bills relating to the real estate industry.  There are bills on Appraisal Reform, eminent domain, home owners associations, mortgage fraud, mandatory sales-price disclosure, real estate transfer tax, and more.  The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M concludes that a transfer tax on real estate could create more problems than it solves and it would likely result in lost economic activity and lost jobs.  What’s more, the income from the tax would be used to fund transportation projects.  While I agree we need money for transportation projects, I don’t agree that it should come from a real estate transfer tax.  How about taxing gasoline?  There’s a tax that has a direct impact on transportation… we saw last year how higher gas prices led to higher usage of public transportation and less driving altogether.   

If you’re the type to get involved, call your legislator and let him/her know you oppose Senate Bill 942, specifically the section regarding the real estate transfer tax.  You can read the bill here, and you can find out who your legislator is here.  There are two other Senate Bills introducing real estate transfer fees: SB 950 and SB 934.  These two bills are different from SB942 and amount to a smaller fee of $10 per transaction to go into the Housing Trust Fund.