Real Estate Transfer Tax by State

Transfer tax rates by state (2026)

The tax on a $500,000 home uses the state's default area: New York City for New York, the 1% local rate for Pennsylvania, and so on. Each state's page has the local options and a calculator.

“Deed to an heir” is the executor's deed handing the house to an heir with no money paid. Exempt: the law exempts it, or the tax only applies to a price. Usually none: no rule names estates, but no price is paid. Check first: the state can tax transfers with no price, so ask the recorder.

Who pays: buyer or seller?

• The seller pays in most states, including New York (apart from the buyer's mansion tax), New Jersey, California, Florida (by custom), Michigan, Washington and Connecticut.
• The buyer pays in Tennessee and Vermont.
• Both sides pay in Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Some split one tax in half (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maine, Arkansas and, by custom, Maryland); in others each side pays its own tax (New Hampshire, Virginia and DC).
• The contract decides in Alabama, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon, where the law makes both sides liable or doesn't say.

The purchase contract can always shift the tax to the other side. In a hot market buyers sometimes take it on; in a slow one sellers often do.

Transfer tax on an inherited house

Three situations cover almost every inherited house:

1. The executor deeds the house to the heirs. Most states exempt this deed of distribution, either by name (New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and others) or because the tax only applies when a price is paid. You still file the state's form, claiming the exemption.
2. The house passes outside probate, to a surviving joint owner or under a transfer-on-death deed. No new deed from the estate, no transfer tax.
3. The executor sells the house. The tax is due as on any sale, and the estate pays the seller's share from the proceeds at closing. The seller's transfer tax counts as a selling expense, which lowers the gain; with the stepped-up basis, that gain is often small. See what the heirs end up with in the inherited house net proceeds calculator, which adds the commission, closing costs and capital gains tax. In New York, the executor signs Form TP-584 as the seller.

One trap: when the heirs inherit together and one buys the others out, some places tax the shares bought. Philadelphia does. And in states with an inheritance tax, the house can't close until that tax is cleared: New Jersey needs a tax waiver, and Pennsylvania's inheritance tax is a lien on the house until it's paid.

Mansion taxes

Several places charge a higher rate on expensive homes. New York's buyer pays 1% from $1 million, and up to 3.9% in New York City. New Jersey's seller pays 1% to 3.5% of the whole price above $1 million. Los Angeles adds 4% above $5.4 million and 5.5% from $10.9 million. Compare them with one price in the mansion tax calculator.

Related guides

• Mansion tax calculator: NYC, NJ, Los Angeles and more
• Capital gains tax on an inherited house
• Transfer-on-death deeds by state
• Inheritance tax by state
• New Jersey tax waivers for a house in an estate
• Executor checklist