Richmond charges its own real property transfer tax on top of the standard Contra Costa County rate, and the city’s tax is not a flat fee — it climbs in tiers as the sale price rises, which catches sellers off guard who assume every Bay Area city charges the same rate the county does.

Here is what the city’s tax actually adds at each price point, where it comes from, and how it stacks with the county’s charge.

The tiers matter most on higher-value and multi-unit properties, where the difference between one tier and the next can run into tens of thousands of dollars at the closing table.

Table of Contents

Measure H: Where Richmond’s Tax Comes From

Richmond’s tiered transfer tax traces back to Measure H, approved by city voters on November 6, 2018.

The measure increased the city’s documentary transfer tax on higher-value property sales specifically, with the stated purpose of creating a steady funding source for the city’s Department of Children and Youth and the related Richmond Fund for Children and Youth — the same program structure the city had set up two years earlier through Measures E and K.

Unlike a flat citywide rate increase, Measure H built graduated tiers into the ordinance, so the rate a seller actually pays depends on where the sale price falls relative to the thresholds the measure set.

The Current Rate Tiers

As published in the California Local Government Finance Almanac’s statewide transfer tax rate table, effective December 1, 2025, Richmond charges $7.00 per $1,000 of sale price on transactions under $1 million, $12.50 per $1,000 on the portion between $1 million and $3 million, $25.00 per $1,000 on the portion between $3 million and $10 million, and $30.00 per $1,000 on anything above $10 million.

These are city rates only. Because Richmond is a chartered city, these figures do not replace the standard Contra Costa County documentary transfer tax of $1.10 per $1,000 — they stack on top of it, so a sale under $1 million actually carries a combined city-plus-county rate of $8.10 per $1,000 of sale price, not $7.00.

Rate tables are periodically updated, so a seller should confirm the current figures with the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder or a title company before closing rather than relying on a number from an earlier year.

Why a Few Dollars Over a Threshold Can Cost Thousands

The detail that trips up the most sellers is how the tiers are applied.

Richmond’s 2018 ballot measure analysis describes each tier as a rate charged ‘on transfers of property sold for an amount equal to or more than’ a given threshold — language that, like Oakland’s own transfer tax ordinance, applies the tier’s rate to the entire sale price once a threshold is crossed, rather than taxing only the portion above it the way federal income tax brackets work.

Oakland’s own published guidance confirms this directly for its tax: a sale at $1,950,000 lands in Oakland’s 1.5% tier and owes $29,250, while a sale at $2,050,000 crosses into the 1.75% tier and owes $35,875 on the entire price — a $100,000 increase in sale price that adds nearly $6,625 in tax, far more than a simple marginal calculation would suggest.

Richmond’s ordinance appears to work the same way. On a $750,000 sale, safely inside the first tier, the combined city-and-county rate of 0.81% produces $6,075 in transfer tax.

A $2,000,000 sale, however, falls entirely inside the $1 million-to-$3 million tier, so the full $2,000,000 is taxed at the combined 1.36% rate, producing $27,200 — not a blended figure based on the portion above $1 million.

A sale priced at $1,990,000 instead of $2,010,000 can mean a meaningfully different tax bill even though the sale prices themselves differ by only $20,000, which is exactly the kind of threshold effect a seller pricing a higher-value Richmond property should plan around with an agent, escrow officer, or title company rather than estimating informally.

How Richmond Compares to Its Bay Area Neighbors

Richmond is far from the only Bay Area city with its own tiered transfer tax, and the comparison helps put its rates in context.

Oakland, also a chartered city, taxes transfers at $10.00 per $1,000 up to $300,000, $15.00 per $1,000 from $300,000 to $2 million, $17.50 per $1,000 from $2 million to $5 million, and $25.00 per $1,000 above $5 million, each stacking on Alameda County’s own $1.10 per $1,000 base rate.

Berkeley currently applies $15.00 per $1,000 up to $1.6 million and $25.00 per $1,000 above that threshold, though Berkeley voters approved new rates under Measure W in November 2024 that are set to take effect January 1, 2027.

San Francisco, a consolidated city and county, uses a percentage-based schedule rather than a per-$1,000 rate, starting at 0.5% on transfers over $100,000 in assessed value and rising to 6.00% on transfers over $25 million, with discounts available for certain seismic and solar improvements.

Richmond’s top tier of $30.00 per $1,000 (3%) on sales above $10 million sits below San Francisco’s top rate but above Oakland’s.

Why Richmond Voters Approved a Tiered Tax Instead of a Flat Increase

Richmond’s path to Measure H ran through two earlier measures. In June 2018, voters approved Measures E and K, which together created the city’s Department of Children and Youth and a dedicated Richmond Fund for Children and Youth, setting aside general fund revenue for youth programs.

Measure H, approved five months later in November 2018, was designed to give that new department and fund a more predictable, ongoing revenue source by raising the transfer tax specifically on higher-value transactions rather than across the board.

Structuring the increase as a tiered tax aimed at larger transactions, rather than a flat increase on every sale, let the city raise revenue concentrated on commercial property, larger apartment buildings, and higher-value residential sales, while leaving the rate on a typical, lower-value owner-occupied home sale unchanged from what it had been before the measure passed.

Who Actually Pays the Tax

California’s Revenue and Taxation Code does not assign the documentary transfer tax to either the buyer or the seller by default — it is a matter of local custom and whatever the purchase contract specifies.

In the Bay Area, local custom in a standard listed sale typically has the seller pay the transfer tax, and Richmond’s city tax is no exception to that general practice.

The tax is paid to the county recorder at the time the deed is recorded, calculated on the full value of consideration paid for the property, and it becomes a lien-like obligation that the recorder will not process a transfer without collecting, regardless of which party ultimately bears the cost under the purchase agreement.

How the Tax Actually Gets Collected

The transfer tax is not something a seller mails in separately or pays at a city office.

Escrow calculates it as part of closing, and the county recorder will not record the deed transferring title until the tax has been paid, which makes it a practical precondition to completing the sale rather than an optional line item.

The amount owed is based on the declared value of consideration in the transaction, which escrow discloses on the deed itself, and both Richmond’s portion and Contra Costa County’s portion are collected together at the same time, through the same recording process, even though they are set by two different governing bodies and governed by two different ordinances.

What Happens If It Isn’t Paid

Because the recorder’s office will not accept a deed for recording without the transfer tax paid, there is no realistic scenario where a sale closes and the tax simply goes unpaid — escrow builds it into the closing statement and collects it from sale proceeds before disbursing the balance to the seller.

Where disputes arise is usually over who should bear the cost, not whether it gets paid at all: a purchase agreement that is silent on the point defaults to local custom, and a seller who assumed the buyer would cover it, without that term written into the contract, can be surprised to see it deducted from their proceeds at the closing table instead.

A Second Worked Comparison

To see how much the choice of city alone can matter, compare the same $4 million multi-unit building sale in Richmond and Oakland, the two cities where the cliff-style calculation method is best documented.

In Richmond, a $4,000,000 sale falls entirely inside the $3 million-to-$10 million tier, so the full price is taxed at the combined 2.61% rate (2.5% city plus 1.10 Contra Costa County), for roughly $104,400 in total transfer tax.

The identical sale in Oakland falls inside that city’s $2 million-to-$5 million tier, taxed at a combined 1.86% rate (1.75% city plus Alameda County’s own $1.10 per $1,000), for roughly $74,400.

Berkeley currently taxes everything above $1.6 million at a combined rate similar to Richmond’s upper tiers, though Berkeley voters approved new rates under Measure W in November 2024 that take effect January 1, 2027, so a seller comparing Berkeley should check the rate in effect on the actual closing date rather than today’s figure.

The gap between Richmond and Oakland on this one example is roughly $30,000 — entirely a function of which city’s tier the $4 million sale happens to fall into, not anything about the property itself, its condition, or how it was marketed.

What Transfers Are Exempt

Not every transfer of title triggers the tax.

California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911 and related provisions exempt transfers that do not involve a change in beneficial ownership for value — a deed transferring property into a revocable living trust for estate planning, a transfer between spouses incident to divorce, or a deed in lieu of foreclosure where no additional consideration changes hands are common examples that generally fall outside the tax.

A transfer to or from a trustee in bankruptcy, and certain transfers securing a debt, are also typically exempt.

Because the exemption categories are specific and the recorder requires a proper exemption declaration on the deed itself, a seller relying on an exemption should confirm it applies with a title company or attorney rather than assuming informally that a given transfer qualifies.

An exemption claimed without the proper declaration can be challenged later, which is not a dispute worth having after the deed has already recorded.

Why This Matters More in Richmond Than in Most Cities

Richmond’s median home values sit well below the $1 million first-tier threshold for most typical residential sales, which means most Richmond homeowners selling a primary residence will never see the higher tiers apply.

Where this becomes significant is for larger residential parcels, multi-unit rental buildings, and any property near or above the $1 million mark — exactly the properties most likely to be inherited, held in an estate, or owned by a landlord working through a tenant-occupied sale, since those categories skew toward older, larger, or multi-unit properties compared to the city’s typical starter home.

A seller unwinding an inherited multi-unit building, where appreciation over decades has pushed the property’s value well past the original purchase price, is far more likely to feel Richmond’s second or third tier than someone selling a typical single-family home bought more recently, since the original purchase price has little bearing on a tax calculated purely from the current sale price.

How Transfer Tax Interacts With an Inherited or Trust Sale

An heir selling an inherited Richmond property, or a successor trustee selling out of a trust, still owes the transfer tax on the eventual sale to a third-party buyer — the earlier transfer into the trust or to the heirs may have been exempt, but that exemption does not carry forward to a later arms-length sale.

What does carry forward is the stepped-up basis the property typically receives at the original owner’s death, which affects capital gains exposure but has no bearing on how much transfer tax is owed at the recorder’s office; the transfer tax is calculated on the sale price, not on gain over basis, so even a property that will generate no taxable gain for the seller still generates a full transfer tax bill at closing, calculated the same way it would be for any other seller in the city.

What a Buyer Should Know Too

While local custom generally has the seller pay Richmond’s transfer tax, nothing in state or local law prevents a purchase agreement from allocating it differently, and in a negotiated sale — particularly one near a tier threshold — a buyer and seller sometimes split the difference or adjust the purchase price to account for which side of a threshold the final agreed price falls on.

A buyer negotiating a price just above $1 million, $3 million, or $10 million should be aware that a small reduction in the agreed price, if it drops the sale below the next threshold, can save far more in combined transfer tax than the price reduction itself costs the seller — which is sometimes a more useful negotiating lever than either side initially realizes, and one worth raising with an agent before the purchase agreement is finalized rather than after.

A Short Checklist for a Richmond Seller

Confirm the current Richmond and Contra Costa County transfer tax rates with the county recorder or a title company before estimating net proceeds.
If the sale price is close to $1 million, $3 million, or $10 million, confirm with escrow whether the tier rate applies to the entire price or only the portion above the threshold — Richmond’s own ballot language suggests the entire price.
Check whether the transfer qualifies for an exemption under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911 before assuming the full tax applies.
Factor the combined city-and-county rate, not just Richmond’s rate alone, into any net-proceeds estimate.
If the property is part of an estate or trust, confirm that an earlier exempt transfer into the trust does not exempt the later sale to a buyer.

Selling a Richmond Property for Cash

Richmond’s transfer tax is one of several closing costs that can shrink a seller’s net proceeds on a traditional listed sale, especially on a higher-value or multi-unit property that lands in the city’s upper tiers.

When you sell to Cash Home Buyers CA, we pay the standard closing costs, including the county and city transfer taxes, escrow and title, so the tax tiers above do not come out of your proceeds the way they would in a typical listed sale.

See our guide for cash home buyers in Richmond, CA, request a no-obligation offer at Cash Home Buyers CA, or see our Google Business Profile here. You can also call us at (424) 435-2326.

Richmond’s Real Property Transfer Tax: What Measure H Actually Costs at Closing