Colorado Real Estate Transfer Tax Calculator

Colorado charges the lowest nominal real estate transfer tax rate of any state that levies one at all: a documentary fee of just $0.01 per $100 of consideration under C.R.S. 39-13-102, equal to 0.01% of the sale price, and sales under $500 are exempt entirely. On a typical $380,000 home that works out to only $38, a figure many buyers mistake for a rounding error rather than the actual statutory tax.

The statewide figure is not the complete picture in a handful of Colorado's home-rule mountain resort towns. Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Telluride, and Crested Butte have grandfathered local real estate transfer taxes running roughly 1% to 3%, authorized under older home-rule provisions that predate a later statewide ban on new local transfer taxes. Colorado law and local custom generally place responsibility for the documentary fee with whoever records the deed, most often the buyer, though this is commonly addressed by contract at closing.

Colorado's statewide charge is a flat, very small rate applied to the entire sale price:

$$\text{Transfer Tax} = \text{Sale Price} \times 0.0001$$

The calculator's engine runs this through the calculateStateRealEstateTransferTax primitive using Colorado's statutory documentary fee rate of 0.0001 (0.01%). This is the statewide charge under C.R.S. 39-13-102 and does not include any of the separate, much higher local transfer taxes that a small number of home-rule resort towns are permitted to charge under grandfathered authority.

Using the calculator's baseline $380,000 sale price:

• Sale Price: $380,000
• Colorado statewide documentary fee rate: 0.01% ($0.01 per $100 of consideration)
• Transfer Tax Due: $380,000 × 0.0001 = $38.00
• Net Proceeds After Tax: $380,000 − $38 = $379,962.00
• Effective Rate: 0.010%

At the higher-value scenario of $1,500,000, the statewide rate alone produces: $1,500,000 × 0.0001 = $150.00 in tax due. This is the statewide baseline only. The same $1,500,000 sale inside Aspen or Telluride town limits would face an additional local transfer tax that could run into the tens of thousands of dollars, since those towns' grandfathered rates are typically 1% to 3% and apply on top of, not instead of, the state documentary fee.

• Home-rule resort town transfer taxes. Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Telluride, and Crested Butte each levy their own grandfathered local real estate transfer tax, generally in the 1% to 3% range, which is not reflected in this calculator's statewide baseline and can dwarf the state documentary fee.
• The $500 exemption threshold. Colorado's documentary fee does not apply to transfers of consideration under $500; this calculator's minimum input of $10,000 makes this exemption largely moot in practice, but it is worth noting for very low-value transfers.
• Recording fees. Colorado county clerk and recorder offices charge separate flat recording fees to file a deed, unrelated to sale price and not included in this calculator's output.
• Title insurance and closing costs. As in any state, the documentary fee is a small part of a Colorado closing statement; title insurance, escrow fees, and attorney costs are separate line items.

• Assuming the entire state has no meaningful transfer tax. While true for the vast majority of Colorado, buyers and sellers in Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Breckenridge, or Crested Butte face a dramatically different picture; always check local town ordinances for property in these specific mountain resort communities.
• Confusing the documentary fee with a percentage-based transfer tax. At 0.01%, Colorado's statewide rate is roughly one-tenth the size of Alabama's or Georgia's already-low 0.1% rates, and buyers sometimes assume a decimal error when they see how small the number is.
• Overlooking that resort town rates stack on top of, not instead of, the state fee. A sale in Aspen owes both the tiny statewide documentary fee and Aspen's own local transfer tax; the two are not alternatives to each other.
• Assuming new Colorado home-rule municipalities can adopt similar transfer taxes today. The resort towns' authority to levy local transfer tax is grandfathered under a specific constitutional carve-out; new municipalities generally cannot enact new local real estate transfer taxes under current Colorado law.

• Colorado Revised Statutes Section 39-13-102, Documentary Fee
• Engine table: engine/tables/2026/state-real-estate-transfer-tax.json, Colorado entry, verified 2026-08-21