While Los Angeles contemplates rolling back its mansion tax, New York is toying with ramping up transfer taxes.
Last week, Democrats in the New York state Senate and Assembly released their budget proposals, which included increasing transfer taxes on residential properties with a value of $5 million or more.
These are the new rates on the table:
For deals worth…
$5 million to $10 million: 3.675 percent
$10 million to $15 million: 4.675 percent
$15 million to $20 million: 4.925 percent
$20 million to $25 million: 5.175 percent
More than $25 million: 5.325 percent
You may have seen some folks on social media post about the mansion tax applying to home sales of $500,000 or more. They do not.
When you look at the bill language, the transfer tax rates for deals less than $5 million appear under the “New York City mansion tax” heading alongside the pricier deals, but those are actually just the existing rates that are already law. (Reps from the state legislature, as well as the Fiscal Policy Institute and Citizens Budget Commission, confirmed that these rates were not new nor increased.)
As the law stands, the transfer tax for residential properties sold for $500,000 or less is 1 percent. Those that trade for more than $500,000 are taxed at 1.425 percent of the property’s sales price. Supplemental taxes, which were added in 2019, kick in for deals that are $2 million or more.
Meanwhile, two days after the budget bills were unveiled, the Los Angeles City Council approved the creation of a three-member ad hoc committee to study and recommend potential changes to the city’s Measure ULA, a tax on all property sales above $5.3 million that voters approved in 2022.
The ad hoc committee was formed after a separate effort by Council member Nithya Raman to reform Measure ULA. Raman is challenging incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who has largely sidestepped the debate over reforming the law.
In New York, the governor has shown little appetite to raise taxes, even as Mayor Zohran Mamdani threatens to raise property taxes across the board, absent other tax increases by the state.
These conversations are happening in different political contexts: For New York, as part of budget negotiations, and in Los Angeles, as the mayoral race starts to heat up. But it’s interesting to see transfer tax increases proposed as the result of the urgings of a Democratic Socialist mayor in New York, while a Democratic Socialist who wants to be mayor in Los Angeles builds pressure to roll back transfer taxes there.
What we’re thinking about: Are you at our Future City event this week? Send your favorite moments to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Mayor Zohran Mamdani urged the Working Families Party not to endorse Antonio Delgado’s run for governor, the New York Times reports. In February, the party announced that it would not endorse Delgado or Gov. Kathy Hochul ahead of the primary. Delgado dropped out of the race a few days later.
Elsewhere in New York…
— The city’s parks department on Monday announced a $37.5 million plan to revamp the Vale of Cashmere, an eight-acre area within Prospect Park, Gothamist reports. The plan includes restoring the Children’s Pool (a water feature that dates back to the mid-1800s) and a former rose garden.
— Javier Lojan, the acting commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, testified during a budget hearing on Monday that it is nearly impossible for the agency to enforce rules requiring dog owners to pick up after their pets on sidewalks and streets, the City reports. The agency has held at least two stakeouts since 2024 in neighborhoods with elevated dog poop-related 311 calls, but the actions didn’t result in many tickets.
“The chances of someone not picking up after their dog while an enforcement officer is watching is very, very slim,” Lojan said. “So slim, that we issued just two summonses for failure to remove canine waste in 2025.”
— The Mamdani administration is in talks with Richard Lee, who heads the City Council’s finance division, to become the next commissioner of the Finance Department, the New York Daily News reports.
Closing Time
Residential: The largest residential sale on Monday was $24.5 million for a condominium unit at 217 West 57th Street. The Midtown condo is 4,300 square feet. In-house Corcoran Marketing Sunshine Group’s Kane Manera and Janet Wang have the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale was $11.2 million for 226 and 400 Seventh Avenue. The two Park Slope buildings have 12 apartments with storefronts on the ground floors.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8.2 million for a cooperative unit at 930 Park Avenue. The Upper East Side co-op last sold on the market in 2006 for just over half the price at $4.7 million. Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit was for a proposed 31,312-square-foot, seven-story building at 2609 Marion Avenue in Fordham. Lester Katz of XPdite Group is listed as the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann