Tax, Lies and Real Estate

According to the Washington Daily News The NC Association of Realtors misled many county residents this week with letters and advertisements claiming that a public hearing was going to take place about the imposition of a transfer tax. No such hearing was scheduled and no such decision was on the table but many people showed up at a county commissioner's meeting Monday night anyway.

Of the seven North Carolina counties that have authority to impose a transfer tax, Washington County is the only one which has yet to exercise that authority. Commissioners did decide to hold a referendum in November to let people decide for themselves. The standing room only crowd on Monday night was clearly misinformed by the NC Realtors.

I had my own experience in Wake County. In May I wrote the following to the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors and Triangle MLS because they were circulating a false statement:

Please stop telling lies about WakeUP Wake County, an organization that supports Fair Funding for Good Growth.
To assert in an email to your members and to County Commissioners that WakeUp Wake County is an "anti-growth, anti-real estate group" is patently false.
I call on the RRAR and Triangle MLS to apologize to WakeUP Wake County and issue a public retraction.

This is part of the response I got:

When you apologize for the U-Tube video, I'll apologize for the Anti-growth statement. Deal?

You mean this video?


Now the Wake Homebuilders have come out with a TV ad claiming "thousands in additional taxes" on a home sale. Thousands?

At the currently discussed rate of 0.4%, if the voters of a county decided to impose that tax on themselves, a tax bill of $2,000 would be the tax for a property with a $500,000 sale price. This is more than twice the median sale price for existing homes in North Carolina.

If 0.4% is "wrong", how is 6.0% Realtors' commission "right". How is paying a Realtor $30,000 for selling that $500,000 house going to "make sure our children can afford the American dream"?

Affordability is more than the numbers on a closing statement. The true cost of home ownership is greater and includes liability for public services like schools, sewer, water and emergency services. Maybe they're "selling" the "$500,000" house in the ad to move to a county that doesn't have trailers for classrooms.