Alert! Arlington VA Closing Costs Going Up...Again!#@!#!! HB 3202 
General Real Estate News/Trends
House Bill 3202 to Increase Arlington VA Grantor's Tax
Just received notice of a serious hike in real estate closing costs around the corner depending on when Arlington County decides to enforce the recent passage of House Bill 3202. This bill permits NVTA (northern virginia transportational authority) to impose a "regional congestion relief fee" of .40 per $100 of sales price to the grantor's tax that is paid by sellers at the closing table. This essentially increases the grantor's tax about 500%. That's not cool at all
Real Estate Closing Costs for Arlington VA
Currently a seller would pay a $500 grantor's tax when selling a $500,000 home. Well thanks to the Virginia General Assembly that will soon cost Sally Homebuyer $2500. That's an extra $2000 smackaroos to shell out when selling a home. To me that is anti-American. Politicians should not go out of there way to make it harder to own, buy or sell real estate. The positive sociological outcomes of large percentages of the population owning private property make it worthwhile as a policy issue to always encourage home ownership...not to penalize it or make it harder to procure....
It is not known, at least by me, when Arlington County will begin collecting this tax. And perhaps Arlington County will decide not to collect this tax. It should be noted, however that selling a home a few months from now could cost more than it does presently....
Real Estate Taxes in Arlington Virginia--Will They Go Higher?
If any of you are in the know, please contact me so I can get this info out to the right people.
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Date: Tuesday, June, 5th 2007 @ 02:36:08 PMViews: 3908
This blog entry currently has 2 comments posted.
Radwan
The gist of the situation is that the elected officials in VA did not have the guts to raise taxes for the area's transportation needs. So they decided that for the two areas most in need of help, Northern VA and the Hamptons, it would be oOK to devise their own tax revenue mechanisms. Our esteemed leaders in Northern VA resorted to a trick hardly ever used, they abdicated their responsibility and "empowered" the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) to come up with a scheme, and a scheme it was. A group of non-elected officials setting tax rules. Where is the outcry Virginia?? There is a total of seven provisions ranging from increased fees on vehicle registrations (there will be the regular fee and a Northern VA fee), car maintenance, increased taxes on car rental, hotel rooms, aligning the diesel tax with the gasoline tax, another hike, and the ill-famed grantor's tax. 40 cents per 0. That is purely sick, do the math on a 0,000 house!
million
simple fix: roll the tax increase into the selling price. it's not like prices are too high or anything. that, coupled w/ increasing interest rates, will have zero impact on sales.