Mass. House axed real estate transfer fee from housing bill; Senate must reinstate it

To the Editor:

The affordable housing crisis is causing harm across our Commonwealth and our MetroWest community is not exempt. Housing and apartment rental prices strain our budgets, our young people are forced to take their talents far from home, and local workers face long daily commutes that weaken their connections to our town.

Gov. Healey included a powerful tool, the real estate transfer fee, for local communities in the Affordable Homes Act she submitted to the Legislature (H.4138). It empowers any Massachusetts municipality that so chooses to develop its own transfer fee plan that would include a 0.05% to 2% fee for real estate sales on amounts more than $1 million. Thus, for a home that sold for $1.2 million, the fee would apply to only the last $200,000.

These funds would then be applied to a local affordable housing trust to be used to create and sustain lower cost housing within that community. Recognizing the power of such a provision, more than a dozen Massachusetts communities already support this effort, as has the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) through its Housing Justice Campaign.

Unfortunately, the House stripped away this valuable tool from its version of the housing bond bill (H.4707). Now we must turn to the Senate and ask our senators to reinstate this important part of the bill. (Editor's note: The Senate's version also did not include the transfer fee, although any senator could propose to add it through an amendment.)

If we want to maintain our MetroWest community as affordable and family-oriented, I urge our senators to act quickly to reinstate the local option for a real estate transfer fee into the housing bond bill, and for MetroWest residents to reach out to their legislators to let them know of their support of this act.

Aileen Grossman

Natick

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Mass. Senate must reinstate real estate transfer fee to boost housing