RDC Tdx Prices on Teledex

Prices on Teledex

For more information about how we report prices, click on a topic in the index below or simply scroll through this page. All of the links in the index point to topics on this page. Printing this page will print all the indexed topics.

Index

Source of Price Information
The New Hampshire Real Estate Transfer Tax
Consideration and Minimum Consideration
The Tax Rate Change Date Problem
Historic Transfer Tax Rates In New Hampshire
Calculating a Price From a Tax Stamp Amount Yourself
Federal Agency Transactions
The Price/Mortgage Relationship
Prices and Multiple Parcel Conveyances

Source of Price Information

Most prices on Teledex were calculated from New Hampshire real estate transfer tax stamps. These stamps are attached to the deeds at the time they are recorded.

Occasionally the deed itself states the actual price paid. If a stated price is available, we use this in preference to the tax stamps. Except as otherwise noted, the discussion below assumes that the price was not stated in the deed and that to get a price, it was necessary to calculate (or attempt to calculate) a price from the stamp.

The New Hampshire Real Estate Transfer Tax

New Hampshire imposes a real estate transfer tax on the transfer of real property. The tax rate is set by law in dollars per hundred of the price paid (or value under special circumstances). The tax is normally shared half and half by the buyer and seller, but the parties are free to make their own sharing arrangements. This tax is established by the RSAs and administrated according to rulemakings by the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration (DRA). The tax is actually collected by Registrars of Deeds at the time the deed is recorded in the county. The tax has various exemptions and special rules for many unusual circumstances. For more information contact the DRA at (603) 271-2191 or any of the county registries.

Consideration and Minimum Consideration

If it were economically possible, we would prefer to report all "sales for consideration", that is all sales over "one dollar and other valuable consideration". Unfortunately, the tax includes a minimum which obscures the consideration paid for all sales which would otherwise have been taxed at the minimum or less. Because of this minimum, for all sales where the deed does not state the price, it is only practical to report sales "over minimum consideration".

You might see sales prices on Teledex that are less than would usually be reported due to the current minimum consideration. These prices were available to us because they were stated in the deed.

Note from the table below that the minimum can change with or independently of the actual tax rate

The Tax Rate Change Date Problem

Due to legal and administrative technicalities in the transfer tax, we can't calculate prices for sales executed before and recorded on or immediately after the effective date of a change in the tax rate.

New Hampshire law and DRA rules require that the transfer tax be calculated using tax rates that were in effect on the date the deed was executed by the parties. This is usually close to but earlier than the date of recording. See Date of Record and Date of Deed in the Detail Page Help, Dates in Search Help and Dates of Recording Vs Dates of Execution. This normally does not cause problems, however, a glance at the historic tax rate table below shows that the rate changes every two years on average.

It is the rate changes that cause trouble. If a deed is executed before the date the tax change is effective, the sale is entitled (or required depending on your viewpoint) to be taxed at the "old" rate even if the deed is recorded on or after the tax change date. This causes lots of confusion and many errors. Sales are often taxed at the new rate even though, according to the rules, they should have been taxed at the old rate. Since we must calculate prices according to the rules, a price we calculated for such a sale would be wrong.

Because of the high error rate, we don't calculate prices for any sale where this could be a problem. Before making any stamps to price calculation, we compare the date of deed to the date of recording. If the deed was executed before a tax change date and recorded on or after such a date, we put the tax stamp itself in the price field and mark it as such.

Most deeds executed and recorded in the suspect timeframe are, in fact, correctly taxed. We regret losing this data but we feel it is imprudent to publish prices for these sales. Since the average time lag between execution and recording is usually only a few days, the problem is acute only during the several weeks after a tax change date. The problem abates when most sales being recorded were also executed on or after the the tax change date. Study the table below to see the dates most likely to be affected.

Stamp amounts are clearly distinguished from prices on Teledex. If an ‘S’ follows the number in the index price field, that amount is a tax stamp amount. The message "Actual Stamp amount - Not a price!" will show after the amount in the Detail Page price field.

Historic Transfer Tax Rates in New Hampshire

The following table gives change dates, rates in effect, minimum stamp and resulting minimum reportable price.*

July 1, 1999 to present - $15.00 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $40. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, 1993 to June 30, 1999 - $10.00 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $40. (Min $4,000. price)
April 1, 1990 to June 30, 1993 - $10.50 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $42. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, 1989 to March 31, 1990 - $9.50 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $38. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, l987 to June 30, l989 – $7.00 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $28. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, 1985 to June 30, l987 - $7.50 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $30. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, 1983 to June 30, 1985 - $10.00 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $40.00 (Min $2,000 price)
July 2, 1981 to June 30, l983 - $5.00 per $1,000. * Minimum stamp $20. (Min $4,000. price)
September 12, 1977 to July 1, 1981 - $2.50 per $1,000. Minimum stamp $10. (Min $4,000. price)
July 1, 1972 to September 11, 1977 - $1.50 per $1,000. Consideration less than $100.00 exempt

*Effective on and after July 1, 1981 the tax is normally paid by the half by the buyer and half by the seller.

Effective January 1, 1990 "Non-contractual" transfers are exempt.

Calculating a Price From a Tax Stamp Amount Yourself

Subject to all of the above considerations and cautions, you can calculate the prices that might have been paid for any transaction where the stamp value is listed instead of the price. Calculate the sales price(s) that might have resulted by dividing the stamp amount by the rates in effect before and after the tax change date. You have no way of knowing whether the transaction was actually taxed according to the rules (and therefore the correct price) unless you investigate other sources of information such as the parties themselves or perhaps the town records.

Federal Agency Transactions

Agencies of the federal government are exempt from the New Hampshire real estate transfer tax. Since this tax is imposed equally on the buyer and seller, deeds to which these agencies are a party on one side, bear half the "normal" value of tax stamps. A calculation of price based on these stamps would show only half the price actually paid. To adjust for this, we double the amount of tax stamps shown on the deed before calculating the price.

For reasons that are not clear, occasionally the tax is paid based on the full value of the sale even though the "Federal Agency half" was not actually owed. The tax stamp on the deed will therefore reflect the full value of the sale. Since we have no way to tell in advance that sale was "double taxed", the prices published on Teledex for these sales will be double the actual price.

Because most of these transactions do follow the rules, we have not changed our standard stamps-to-price reporting policy. We simply want you to be aware that these exceptions do occur and that you should be extra cautious about interpreting the published prices of transactions where a government entity was involved.

If you find sales on Teledex where this has occurred, PLEASE contact us so that we can investigate and correct them.

The Price/Mortgage Relationship

Mortgages frequently exceed the indicated purchase price. See The Mortgage Price Relationship topic in on the Mortgage Information On Teledex page for more information.

Prices and Multiple Parcel Conveyances

Frequently you will see the abbreviation MPC in the price field instead of a price. On other records, there will be a reference to the comment section and some indication that the price included the real estate listed in other records on Teledex. This means that more than one parcel was involved in the sale or that we created multiple records to describe what happened in one sale. See Multiple Parcel Conveyances for information about what this means and how to deal with it.