For 33 years, selling a home in Piedmont has cost less in city transfer tax than selling the same home in Berkeley, Oakland, or Albany. That has been true even though Piedmont routinely posts some of the highest sale prices in the East Bay. The rate simply never moved while the cities around it raised theirs again and again.
That gap is now on the ballot. Measure GG, headed to Piedmont voters on November 3, 2026, would raise the city's real property transfer tax from 1.3% to 1.75%, the first change to the rate since it was set in 1993. If it passes, the new rate would not touch a single transaction until July 1, 2027. If it fails, Piedmont keeps charging less than most of its neighbors, the way it has since before most current homeowners bought their houses.
Either outcome changes the math on a sale. Here is what the numbers actually say, and what a seller should be checking before deciding when to list.
The Math Nobody Puts On A Net Sheet Yet
Piedmont's current transfer tax works out to $13.00 per $1,000 of sale price. Measure GG would move that to $17.50 per $1,000. On a $2.5 million sale, that is the difference between a $32,500 tax bill and a $43,750 one, an increase of $11,250 on a single transaction.
That $11,250 does not disappear into a void. City staff project the higher rate would generate roughly $1.5 million more per year for Piedmont, on top of the $4.2 million the tax already brings in annually at the current rate. The money is earmarked for aging buildings, stormwater drains, and road maintenance, the kind of deferred infrastructure work a small city with an older housing stock accumulates over decades.
For a seller, the number that matters is not the city's revenue projection. It is which side of July 1, 2027 your closing date falls on.
How Piedmont Compares To Everyone Around It
Here is where the "33 years unchanged" detail actually earns its place. Piedmont's flat rate has not kept pace with a wave of transfer tax increases across Alameda County over the past several years, most of them approved by voters in Albany, Berkeley, and San Leandro. On paper, Piedmont looks like the bargain.
| City | Current transfer tax (per $1,000) |
|---|---|
| Hayward | $8.50 |
| San Leandro | $11.00 |
| Alameda | $12.00 |
| El Cerrito | $12.00 |
| Piedmont | $13.00 |
| Albany | $15.00 |
| Emeryville | $12.00 to $25.00, tiered by price |
| Oakland | $10.00 to $25.00, tiered by price |
| Berkeley | $15.00 up to $1.7 million, $25.00 above that |
Run an actual sale price through that table and the "bargain" framing gets more interesting. On a $2.5 million home, Piedmont's current rate produces a $32,500 tax bill. The same sale in Albany costs $37,500. In Oakland, which taxes sales in that price band at $17.50 per $1,000, it costs $43,750. In Berkeley or Emeryville, both of which jump to $25.00 per $1,000 above roughly $1.7 to $2 million, the same sale costs $62,500, nearly double what a Piedmont seller pays today.
Now apply Measure GG's proposed $17.50 rate to that same $2.5 million Piedmont sale. The bill becomes $43,750, which happens to land exactly where Oakland already sits, and still well below Berkeley and Emeryville. That is not a coincidence. City staff have said directly that the goal is to bring Piedmont's rate in line with its neighbors, not ahead of them. The math backs that up almost exactly.
Why This Wasn't Always The Plan
Piedmont tried this once before. A 2020 measure, then called Measure TT, would have raised the transfer tax to 1.75%, the identical target rate on this year's ballot. It narrowly failed at the polls.
This year's push came out of Piedmont's Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee, which spent months reviewing the city's five-year capital improvement plan before recommending a rate somewhere between 1.5% and 1.8%. Former Mayor Bob McBain, who chairs the committee, has described the increase to community groups as a modest adjustment meant to bring Piedmont's rate closer to what its neighbors already charge. The City Council adopted the ordinance unanimously in July, which tells you the disagreement here is not really about direction. It is about whether voters, who said no to nearly this same number six years ago, will say yes this time.
The Date That Actually Matters Isn't November 3
It is easy to assume that if Piedmont voters approve Measure GG this November, the higher rate kicks in right away. It does not. Even with approval, the new 1.75% rate would not apply to any sale until July 1, 2027. A home that closes escrow in December 2026 or any month before that date pays the current 1.3% rate no matter how the vote goes.
That gives sellers a real, calendar-bound window rather than a vague sense of urgency. If you are already thinking about listing in the next several months, the outcome of this specific election does not change your transfer tax bill. If your timeline stretches into the second half of 2027, it might, and only if voters approve the measure.
One more wrinkle worth knowing about, even though it is not something to plan around yet: a separate statewide ballot initiative, still uncertain to qualify, would bar charter cities like Piedmont from levying their own real estate transfer taxes at all. City officials have flagged that if it does qualify and pass, it could eliminate a meaningful share of Piedmont's budget regardless of what happens with Measure GG locally. It is a bigger, slower-moving story than this fall's local vote, but it is the kind of detail a seller with a longer timeline should keep half an eye on.
Who Pays It, And Why That's Still Up To You
Piedmont's transfer tax, like most city transfer taxes in Alameda County, is customarily split between buyer and seller. Custom is not the same as a rule. California law does not dictate who pays a city transfer tax. The purchase contract does, and that line is negotiable in every transaction.
That matters more as the tax itself gets bigger. An $11,250 increase split two ways is a different negotiating conversation than one absorbed entirely by the seller, and it is exactly the kind of term that gets traded against other concessions, repair credits, or closing date flexibility during offer negotiations. Worth raising with your agent before you are already in contract, not after.
What This Means If You're Timing A Piedmont Sale
None of this changes what a Piedmont home is worth. It changes what a seller nets, and by how much, depending on when the closing happens and how the November vote turns out. A seller closing before July 1, 2027 pays the current rate regardless of the election outcome. A seller closing after that date pays the higher rate only if Measure GG passes, and continues paying the current, comparatively low rate if it fails, the same rate Piedmont has charged since 1993.
The city has been explicit that it wants to land closer to Oakland's number, not exceed it. Based on the math, that is exactly what a passed measure would do.
A few questions worth asking before you decide when to list:
Does the transfer tax apply to every kind of property transfer, or just an arm's length sale? The tax is triggered by the transfer of real property generally, though certain transfers, such as those between spouses or into a revocable trust, commonly qualify for exemptions. Confirm your specific situation with a title company before assuming a transfer is taxable or exempt.
If Measure GG fails in November, is that the end of it? Not necessarily. The city tried a nearly identical rate in 2020, and this year's effort came from the same underlying budget pressure. If it fails again, expect the conversation to resurface as Piedmont's infrastructure needs continue to build.
Can a seller simply refuse to split the tax with a buyer? Yes, within the bounds of what the market will bear. The split is a negotiated term of the purchase contract, not a fixed requirement, and buyers and sellers routinely adjust it as part of broader deal terms.
If you are weighing whether to list a Piedmont home this year or wait, the transfer tax is one line on a much longer net sheet, but it is one with an actual deadline attached to it. Homes by Karthiga can walk through exactly what a Piedmont sale nets under either scenario, so the decision is based on your numbers, not a ballot outcome you cannot control. Get your personalized market strategy before you set a list date.
