Midyear Revenue Collections

Besides recording documents, the registry of deeds also takes in revenue for the Commonwealth in the form of recording fees, excise taxes, surcharges for the Community Preservation Act matching fund, and a few others. Revenue for the first six months of calendar year 2016 is significantly higher than the same six months in 2015. Here are some particulars:

Overall revenue is up 19%, from $6,320,680 in the first half of CY15 to $7,520,323 of CY16;

Recording fees are up 5%, from $2,021,201 to $2,123,125;

The big increase is in deeds excise tax collections which increased 31%, from $3,450,603 to $4,518,864. Because the number of deeds recorded is only up slightly, this indicates that home prices are up considerably since the excise tax is calculated based on the sales price of property sold.