Published 19 September 2026 · San Rafael, Marin County

San Rafael's Measure W: what a 1% transfer tax would cost you

San Rafael voters decide Measure W on 3 November 2026. It would raise the city's real property transfer tax from 0.2% to 1% of the sale price. On a $1.5 million sale, the total transfer tax — city plus county — would go from roughly $4,650 to roughly $16,650. In Marin, the seller customarily pays it.

This page explains the measure. It does not tell you how to vote, and it is not tax advice. It exists because every San Rafael owner thinking about selling in the next year now has a real financial question with a date on it, and the plain-English answer was not written down anywhere we could find.

What is Measure W?

Measure W is the San Rafael Essential Services Protection Measure. The City Council placed it on the ballot at its meeting on 20 July 2026. If a simple majority of San Rafael voters approve it, the city's real property transfer tax rate rises from 0.2% to 1% of the price, paid only when a property sells. The city estimates it would generate about $7.5 million a year — roughly $6 million more than the transfer tax brings in today — and it would stay in place until voters end it.

It applies inside the San Rafael city limits. It does not change anything in Novato, Larkspur, San Anselmo, Mill Valley, or anywhere else in Marin.

What do you pay in San Rafael today?

$3.10 for every $1,000 of the sale price. That is two separate taxes stacked: the city's own transfer tax at $2.00 per $1,000 (the 0.2%), plus Marin County's documentary transfer tax at $1.10 per $1,000.

Almost everywhere else in Marin, the total is $1.10 per $1,000 — the county tax alone. San Rafael is the only city in Marin that adds its own on top, because it is the only charter city in the county. A general-law city may only levy a transfer tax that the county then credits back, so the total stays $1.10 no matter what the city charges. A charter city sits outside that arrangement: San Rafael's tax is genuinely additional, and the county keeps its full $1.10.

What would you pay if Measure W passes?

$11.10 for every $1,000 — the new city rate of $10.00 per $1,000, plus the unchanged county $1.10. The increase works out to an extra 0.8% of the sale price.

These are close approximations, not settlement figures. The county's portion is assessed per $500 of value and rounds up, so the exact number on your closing statement will differ by a few dollars. Your escrow officer produces the real figure.

Who actually pays it?

In Marin, the seller customarily pays the transfer tax, both the county's share and San Rafael's. That is local custom, not law: like most closing costs, it is negotiable between buyer and seller and it gets written into the purchase agreement. In a market where a buyer is competing, it is one of the terms that can move. In a slower market, it usually does not.

If you are buying rather than selling, this matters to you indirectly. A cost that lands on the seller still ends up in the negotiation.

Does it apply to a refinance, or to a transfer inside the family?

No to the refinance. The tax is triggered by a transfer of ownership for consideration — a sale. Refinancing your mortgage is not a transfer, and no transfer tax is due.

Family and estate transfers are more complicated, and the answer depends on the specific transaction. California's transfer tax rules exempt a number of things — gifts, many transfers into and out of revocable trusts, transfers between spouses in a dissolution, and a foreclosure back to the lender among them — and San Rafael's ordinance carries its own list. If your situation is a transfer rather than an ordinary sale, ask your title or escrow company before assuming either way. This is exactly the question they answer for a living, and the wrong assumption is expensive.

When would the new rate start?

Not on election night. The city has said the measure would take effect ten days after the City Council certifies the election results, which happens after the count is complete, typically some weeks after the election rather than the day of it.

Two things follow from that, and they are the practical heart of this page:

• The date that matters is the recording date, not the offer date. Transfer tax is assessed when the deed records at the county, the moment the sale actually closes. A property that goes into contract in October but records in December is subject to whatever rate is in force in December.
• The exact operative date is not yet nailed down publicly, and you should not plan around a guess. Whether a transaction already in escrow on the operative date would be taxed at the old rate or the new one is a question for the ordinance text, and we would rather point you at the City of San Rafael and your escrow officer than tell you something confident and wrong.

Should I sell before the election?

Only if you were going to sell anyway. Here is the honest arithmetic. On a $1.5 million San Rafael home, Measure W passing costs the seller about $12,000. That is real money and worth planning around. It is also less than the price difference between a well-prepared listing and a rushed one, and less than the cost of hitting the market at the wrong moment in the wrong condition.

So the question is not "should I beat the tax." It is "does the sale I was already planning fall near enough to the line that timing is worth managing?" A few useful distinctions:

• If you were planning to sell this autumn: the timing question is real, and it is a scheduling conversation, not a panic. Closing before the operative date requires the property to be ready, not just listed.
• If you were planning to sell next spring: compressing a spring sale into six weeks to avoid $12,000 will usually cost more than $12,000. Spring is Marin's strongest selling season for reasons that do not change with a ballot measure.
• If you are not sure you are selling at all: Measure W is not a reason to sell. A tax on a transaction you did not want to make is not a cost you avoided.
• If it does not pass: nothing changes, and you have simply had a clear-eyed look at your own timing. That is not wasted.

Whatever we would say about the measure itself, we would say the same thing about the decision: a sale timed around a tax deadline instead of around the property's readiness is the more expensive mistake in most cases we have seen.

What would the money pay for?

The ballot question names fire protection, paramedics and 9-1-1 response times, street and road maintenance, and the impacts of homelessness, litter and illegal dumping, alongside other city services. It commits the city to annual audits and public disclosure of the spending. The measure sits against the backdrop of a multi-year budget shortfall the city's own finance subcommittee has been working through.

Because it passes on a simple majority rather than a two-thirds vote, the revenue is not legally restricted to a single named purpose; the ballot language describes the services it is intended to fund. If where the money goes is what decides your vote, read the full measure text and the City Attorney's impartial analysis rather than any summary, including ours.

What are the two sides arguing?

Supporters, including the City Council members who put it on the ballot, argue the city needs locally controlled revenue to protect core services through a sustained budget shortfall, and that a tax paid only at sale spreads the cost differently from a general tax everyone pays every year.

Opponents, including much of the local real estate community, argue it adds a significant cost to selling a home in a county where the cost of moving is already high, and question whether a five-fold increase is proportionate.

Both sides submitted official arguments and rebuttals, and the City Attorney wrote an impartial analysis. They are published in the county voter information guide, and they are the version worth reading. We have summarised them here only so you know they exist; a two-sentence paraphrase is not a substitute for either one, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

What we can and cannot tell you

We can tell you what a sale would cost under each outcome, how the two taxes stack, who customarily pays, and how the timing works. That is our job, and we do it on San Rafael transactions regularly.

We are not tax advisors, attorneys, or a title company. Anything involving a trust, an estate, a partial interest, a 1031 exchange, or a transfer that is not an ordinary arm's-length sale needs the professional who handles that. The figures on this page come from the city, the county, and the published transfer-tax schedule; they are dated below, and we will update them.

Sources

• Ballot question, rate change, revenue estimate and council action — City of San Rafael, Measure W / Real Property Transfer Tax measure page.
• Ballot designation, election date, votes required and effective date — Marin County Elections, November 3, 2026 General Election, Measure W.
• Current city and county transfer tax rates, and charter-city treatment — California City Finance, California City Documentary and Property Transfer Tax Rates.
• Charter status — City of San Rafael charter, published with the San Rafael Municipal Code.
• Exemptions and the tax's operation — San Rafael Municipal Code chapter 3.22, and the California Revenue and Taxation Code transfer-tax provisions.

Figures verified 29 August 2026 and current as of 19 September 2026. This page will be updated after 3 November 2026 with the result.

Thorne Home Team · Naomi Thorne, CalRE #01988116 · Katherine Thorne, CalRE #01988117