Real Estate Transfer Tax by US State: Who Pays and the Cost on a $400,000 Sale

We ran the real estate transfer tax calculator once for every state with a sale price of $400,000 and recorded the tax due. The calculator applies each state's statutory rate or bracket schedule. Where a state's local add-on is close to uniform, it includes a typical local rate too: Pennsylvania's matching local tax, Delaware's local share, and county add-ons in states like Michigan, Maryland and Washington.

It assumes an ordinary arm's-length sale of an owner-occupied home with no exemption. What it leaves out matters:

• City transfer taxes. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City all charge well above the statewide figure. California's number here is only the county documentary tax of $440.
• Resort-town and county taxes. Colorado's statewide fee is just $40.00 here, but several mountain towns levy their own transfer taxes of a percent or more.
• Exemptions and first-time buyer breaks. Some states, Delaware and Maryland among them, cut the tax for first-time buyers or exempt transfers between family members or into trusts.
• Mortgage recording taxes, recording fees and title costs, which are separate charges and often larger.

The "who pays" column is our plain reading of the statute or state guidance in our verified state profiles, linked in the sources. "Not stated in source" means the cited rule sets the rate but doesn't say which party pays, so local custom decides. Hawaii, Wisconsin have no verified profile entry on this yet.

Click a column heading to sort. Rank 1 is the most expensive state, and the states with no tax share the bottom rank.

Delaware stands alone at $16,000, an effective rate of 4.00%. Its state realty transfer tax is high on its own, and most towns and counties add a local share on top. By state guidance the cost is usually split between buyer and seller, and first-time buyers get a partial break.

Pennsylvania comes second at $8,000 because the state's tax is matched by a local tax almost everywhere. New Hampshire charges buyer and seller half each, $6,000 combined. Washington's graduated real estate excise tax, paid by the seller, comes to $5,400 at this price.

New York is lower than people expect at this price, $1,600, because its well-known mansion tax only starts at a million dollars. Our mansion tax study covers what happens above that line.

Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Wyoming don't charge a statewide tax on the deed. Some, like Texas, bar one in the state constitution. Buyers and sellers there still pay recording fees, title insurance and other closing costs, but no tax on the price itself.

There's no national rule. In our verified records:

• The seller is liable in Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington. In Georgia and Rhode Island the cited rule notes that the parties can agree otherwise, and in New York the buyer pays the separate mansion tax.
• The buyer is liable in Tennessee, Vermont.
• It's split in Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire.
• Either or both parties can be held liable in Florida, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Even where the law names one side, the purchase contract can shift the cost, and in a hot market buyers sometimes agree to cover it. Read the closing cost section of your contract before you sign.

Most states charge a flat percentage, so the tax rises in step with the price. A handful use brackets that climb as the price goes up. Averaged across all 50 states, the tax is $1,039 on a $250,000 sale, $1,693 on $400,000 and $7,439 on $1,500,000.

Enter your state and price in the real estate transfer tax calculator, then add the local tax if your city or county charges one. The closing costs calculator puts the transfer tax alongside lender and title fees, and the mortgage calculator shows the monthly side of the purchase.