Assembly Votes To Advance Transfer Fee Petition

BARNSTABLE – A petition will go before the state legislature seeking authorization allowing Cape towns to opt into a new high-end real estate transfer fee.

The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates on Feb. 19 voted 10-5 in favor of sending a petition to the legislature in support of the fee, the majority of the proceeds from which would go to help Cape communities fund efforts to combat the ongoing housing crisis. 

The assembly officially declared a housing crisis in April 2025, and in recent months has been discussing and taking public input on the proposed transfer fee.

“Lack of housing pushes out the nurses, firefighters, and teachers. It’s no surprise that the maternity ward I was born in in Falmouth closed six years ago,” delegate Daniel Gessen of Falmouth, one of the authors and sponsors of the proposed petition, said in a press release following last week’s vote. “And now, eight years later, we’re going to be closing down the middle school where those kids would have been going to school.”

If the petition is approved on Beacon Hill, Cape towns would be allowed to opt into the transfer fee program through an affirmative town meeting vote. Participating towns would be able to set a fee of between .5 and 4 percent on transfers of property valued at $1,000,001 and above. 

Ninety percent of the revenue collected through the fee would go to the towns in which the transfers occur. That funding can be used for “purchasing deed restrictions, land acquisition for year-round housing, financial assistance for first-time or income-qualified homebuyers, and other housing tools authorized under the Seasonal Communities legislation,” according to the press release. Participating towns also can craft their own exemptions to the transfer fee, including “for first-time homebuyers, year-round residents, and retired individuals on fixed incomes.”

The remaining 10 percent of fee revenue would go into a trust operated by the county to cover the cost of administering the transfer fee program and “invest in housing initiatives of regional importance,” the release said. 

Some Cape officials voiced opposition to the transfer fee and the proposed petition during a public meeting held by the assembly in January. Shareen Davis of the Chatham select board spoke against the effort, saying that Chatham is working on creating its own local fee.

But Michael Herman of the Orleans select board last week voiced support for the fee and the petition, citing the local control it gives towns to help combat the region’s housing woes.

“In a nutshell, I’m supportive,” he said. “I think anything that gives the town the right to govern themselves and decide through town meeting how they would like to structure it for their town, I’m supportive of.”

Herman also noted that the county petition is in line with action Orleans has already taken in service of creating more housing locally. Voters at the annual town meeting in 2024 supported a similar real estate transfer fee that is laid out as part of the state’s Affordable Homes Act.

The fee has also garnered the support of members of the Cape delegation. State Senator Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown, and State Representatives Hadley Luddy, D-Orleans, and Kip Diggs, D-Barnstable, penned a joint letter in support of the petition seeking the fee’s adoption.

“For too many families, the dream of living in the community where they grew up or where they work is slipping away,” the letter reads. “This petition gives us one possible way to get this across the finish line. Barnstable County needs this tool. Our towns are asking for it. Our residents are demanding action. We urge you to move this petition forward so that we can confront this housing emergency with the seriousness it requires.