04/02/2019
I was up last night and woke this morning to MANY emails, texts and calls about the new congestion pricing and “tiered” mansion and transfer tax. For those who haven’t read, for residential sales closing after July 1, 2019 (unless you were in contract before April 1), the transfer tax (normally a sell-side tax except in new development) is up .25% for sales above $3M, and the mansion tax (a buy-side tax) will range from 1% up to 3.9% of the purchase price for sales above $25M (the math on that is $975,000).
Will this affect negatively the already down-sliding market? Likely yes in the long term as buyers will want the sell numbers to be lower, but it also should ideally add to the coffers of the city and if spent correctly (a big if!) make it a more desirable and clean place to live. In the short term, lowered interest rates, a large amount of inventory choice, and negotiable sellers, with the added in pressure to close before July 1, will hopefully result in an uptick in sales activity throughout the classically strong spring market.
Also for those with tunnel vision, let’s not forget the other global prime real estate cities’ closing duties, including London, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand all remains much, much higher...
Let’s see, Albany...!
