A majority of Washington voters support the Affordable Homes Act, despite Realtor opposition

A major­i­ty of vot­ers in Wash­ing­ton favor leg­is­la­tion that would raise rev­enue to sup­port hous­ing projects across the Ever­green State, despite stri­dent oppo­si­tion from the Real­tors and oth­er pow­er­ful busi­ness inter­ests, accord­ing to our 2024 win­ter sur­vey of Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers, which field­ed last month.

The Afford­able Homes Act (HB 2276 / SB 6191) is prime spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive April Berg (D‑44th Dis­trict: Sno­homish Coun­ty) and Sen­a­tor Noel Frame (D‑36th Dis­trict: Seat­tle). It was heard ear­li­er this ses­sion but has not yet received a floor vote in either cham­ber. The House iter­a­tion of the bill is cur­rent­ly in the Rules Com­mit­tee. The 2024 leg­isla­tive ses­sion con­cludes on Thurs­day, so law­mak­ers would have to move quick­ly to get it to Gov­er­nor Inslee’s desk.

But that would be worth doing, espe­cial­ly giv­en their refusal to pass a bevy of oth­er bills that would have helped Wash­ing­to­ni­ans, par­tic­u­lar­ly rent stabilization.

54% of respon­dents sur­veyed by our poll­ster said they strong­ly or some­what sup­port­ed the Afford­able Homes Act, while 32% were opposed. 14% said they were not sure. Respon­dents were pro­vid­ed with not only a descrip­tion of what the bill does, but also argu­ments for and against it, includ­ing the Real­tors’ strongest argu­ments in oppo­si­tion, which they have been trot­ting out at every oppor­tu­ni­ty. How­ev­er, a major­i­ty of like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers found the argu­ments in favor of the leg­is­la­tion more per­sua­sive than the Real­tors’ argu­ments against.

Take a look:

QUESTION: Leg­is­la­tors are debat­ing a bill that would raise and ded­i­cate more mon­ey to afford­able hous­ing by restruc­tur­ing the real estate excise tax. The bill would exempt the first $750,000 of a prop­er­ty sale, while adding a mod­est 1% tax on high val­ue prop­er­ty sales over $3.025 mil­lion. Oppo­nents like the Real­tors say that tax increas­es on real estate, espe­cial­ly dur­ing a time of low hous­ing sup­ply and high inter­est rates, would cre­ate more mar­ket uncer­tain­ty. They also say the tax increas­es would apply to vacant land intend­ed for devel­op­ment of afford­able mul­ti­fam­i­ly and sin­gle-fam­i­ly hous­ing. Pro­po­nents counter that the bill would cut tax­es for 98% of tax­pay­ers who would pay the real estate excise tax when they sell their prop­er­ty, while rais­ing approx­i­mate­ly $396 mil­lion through 2029 for afford­able hous­ing projects that are des­per­ate­ly need­ed in Wash­ing­ton. Do you strong­ly sup­port, some­what sup­port, some­what oppose, or strong­ly oppose restruc­tur­ing the real estate excise tax to raise and ded­i­cate more mon­ey to afford­able hous­ing, while cut­ting tax­es for 98% of taxpayers?

ANSWERS:

• Sup­port: 54% 
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 27%
  • Some­what sup­port: 27%
• Oppose: 32%
  • Some­what oppose: 9%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 23%
• Not sure: 14%

Our sur­vey of 789 like­ly 2024 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers was in the field from Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 13th through Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 14th, 2024.

The poll uti­lizes a blend­ed method­ol­o­gy, with auto­mat­ed phone calls to land­lines (42%) and online answers from respon­dents recruit­ed by text (58%).

It was con­duct­ed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling (PPP) for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, and has a mar­gin of error of +/- 3.5% at the 95% con­fi­dence interval.

Accord­ing to House non­par­ti­san staff, HB 2276 would:

• Increase the “ceil­ing” for the Tier 1 1.1 per­cent state real estate excise tax (REET) from $525, 000 to $750, 000 begin­ning Jan­u­ary 1, 2025.
• Impose a new real estate trans­fer tax (RETT) of 1 per­cent on the val­ue of the sell­ing price over $3.025 million.
• Direct the rev­enue from RETT to be divid­ed between accounts cur­rent­ly receiv­ing REET mon­eys and the Wash­ing­ton Hous­ing Trust Fund, Apple Health and Homes Account, the Afford­able Hous­ing for All Account, the new Devel­op­men­tal Dis­abil­i­ties Hous­ing and Ser­vices Account, and the new Hous­ing Sta­bil­i­ty Account.
• Cre­ate a REET exemp­tion for cer­tain sales or trans­fers of prop­er­ties that qual­i­fy for a prop­er­ty tax exemp­tion that will be used for a com­mu­ni­ty purpose.

Here’s a fact sheet from Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Berg:

The Real­tors dis­like the Afford­able Homes Act so much that they’re run­ning TV spots oppos­ing the bill — a lot of them. The ads, which can be seen in between net­work pro­gram­ming on local TV sta­tions, appear to have been cre­at­ed by out of state con­sul­tants. They make it sound as though the bill will dev­as­tate access to hous­ing, even though the leg­is­la­tion would gen­er­ate fund­ing for the Home Secu­ri­ty Fund, the Apple Health & Homes Account, devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties hous­ing and ser­vices, and the Hous­ing Trust Fund, which includes sup­ports to sta­bi­lize low-income hous­ing and pro­vide farm­work­er housing.

Many indi­vid­ual real­tors dis­agree with the Real­tor line. In Jan­u­ary, two agreed to go on the record in sup­port of the leg­is­la­tion at the time that Berg unveiled it.

“This bill is good for my clients. It will mean that many prop­er­ties sold in Spokane Coun­ty – includ­ing the vast major­i­ty, if not all of the ones that my clients will sell – will receive a REET reduc­tion. Reduc­ing REETs for most prop­er­ty sell­ers while cre­at­ing a new, ded­i­cat­ed way to pay for the afford­able hous­ing that my com­mu­ni­ty needs is a win-win,” said Latrice Williams, a real­tor from Spokane.

“We have an afford­able hous­ing cri­sis through­out our com­mu­ni­ties. It is neg­a­tive­ly impact­ing small and large busi­ness­es, school dis­tricts, indi­vid­u­als, and fam­i­lies – it is indis­putable. As a real estate agent and car­ing com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber of King and Island Coun­ties, I have a mul­ti-lev­el per­spec­tive on this,” said Peter Wolf, a for­mer board mem­ber of the Seat­tle-King Coun­ty Realtors.

“We need to do some­thing about it. Adding a 1% trans­fer tax on prop­er­ties that sell for over $3.025 mil­lion is a rea­son­able and effec­tive way to help increase the sup­ply of the afford­able homes that we so des­per­ate­ly need. For the record, the REET is paid by the sell­er – not the buy­er. This will not increase the list price of prop­er­ty for sale. The list­ing price is dic­tat­ed by what the mar­ket will bear and by what the buy­er can afford. Not by tax­es and not by what prof­it the sell­er wish­es to make.”

All good points. It’s a shame that the Wash­ing­ton Asso­ci­a­tion of Real­tors and oth­er busi­ness inter­ests aligned with them are work­ing so fever­ish­ly to stop this leg­is­la­tion when they could be work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with sup­port­ers of the bill to pass it. Shel­ter is a basic human neces­si­ty, and we know from cen­turies of expe­ri­ence that the for-prof­it pri­vate sec­tor can­not be relied upon to ensure that every­one in our soci­ety is tak­en care of. That’s why we need pub­lic resources like Apple Health & Homes, which the Afford­able Homes Act would boost fund­ing for.