Arn Cenedella

Transfer Taxes upon sale of real estate

Transfer taxes on the sale of real property are collected by San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco Counties.

These transfer taxes are paid in escrow and are part of buyer and seller closing costs.

Typically, the County transfer tax is $1.10 per $1,000 of value and are generally paid by the seller.
So upon sale of a $500,000 house, the seller will pay a transfer tax of $1.10 x 500 or $550 to the County.

Some cities also have City transfer taxes.
On the San Francisco Peninsula; San Francisco, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mt. View and San Jose have City transfer taxes.
Generally, city transfer taxes are spilt 50/50 between buyer and seller.

The City transfer tax in Palo Alto, Mt. View, and San Jose is $3.30 per $1000 of value.
So on a $500,000 sale in these cities, the City transfer tax is $3.30 x 500 = $1650.
Buyer pay $825. Seller pays $825.

The City transfer tax in San Mateo is $5.00 per $1,000 of value.
So on a $500,000 sale in San Mateo, the City transfer tax is $5 x 500 = $2500.
Buyer pays $1250. Seller pays $1250.

So if you are buying or selling in those cities, be sure to take into account these City transfer taxes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 5:04 pm and is filed under East Palo Alto real estate, Menlo Park Real Estate, Mountain View real estate, Palo Alto Real Estate, Portola Valley Real Estate, Redwood City Real Estate, San Carlos Real Estate, Sunnyvale Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

Website