CPA Legislation Filed to Assist Affordable Homebuyers
The Massachusetts Legislature is back in session and a new bill has recently been filed that would amend the CPA legislation in order to assist affordable homebuyers. Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante has filed H.2899, An Act Reducing CPA Recording Fees for Affordable Housing, which would eliminate compounding CPA recording fees from being applied to homebuyers filing multiple affordable mortgages at the State's Registries of Deeds.
Whenever a mortgage is filed at any of the State’s Registries of Deeds, a CPA recording fee is applied — these fees create the revenue source for the statewide CPA Trust Fund. Most home buyers have only one mortgage, and they pay the fee when filing that document. However, it is common for buyers of affordable homes to use multiple funding sources, and that means they are filing second, third, and even fourth mortgages. Currently, the CPA recording fee is applied to each of these documents.
Now that this issue has been identified, housing advocates feel that it is an unnecessary burden to pay the CPA fee multiple times when purchasing an affordable home. In response to this, Representative Ferrante’s bill would amend the CPA legislation to eliminate these additional CPA recording fees from being applied on affordable mortgages.
As of April 15th, a total of 22 legislators have signed on to co-sponsor the bill, and it has been referred to the Joint Committee on Revenue. The Coalition fully supports the passage of H.2899 as legislation that would benefit the statewide Community Preservation Act - we will report again once the bill has been scheduled for a committee hearing.
Sponsor of H.2899: Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante
House Co-Sponsors: Peter Capano, Lindsay Sabadosa, Jack Patrick Lewis, Christina Minicucci, Patricia Haddad, Thomas Stanley, Carlos González, Maria Robinson, Carmine Gentile, Steven Howitt, Paul Schmid, Brian Murray, Tommy Vitolo, Tram Nguyen, Kate Lipper-Garabedian, & David Rogers
Senate Co-Sponsors: Joanne Comerford, Jason Lewis, James Eldridge, Anne Gobi, Michael Brady, & Sal DiDomenico
The Coalition is also pleased to report that after the House Comittee on Ways and Means released its recommendations for the FY22 State Budget, Representative Tram Nguyen filed House Amendment 91 with identical language to Representative Ferrante's bill. Unfortunately the amendment was not accepted into the final version of the House budget, but we are grateful for Representative Nguyen and the amendment cosponsors' efforts to improve the statewide CPA program.
The Coalition will continue to report on the progress of H.2899 and the FY22 budget process throughout the legislative session.