Two percent, and the arithmetic never moves
| Who levies it | Rate |
|---|---|
| Commonwealth of Pennsylvania | 1.00% |
| Your municipality | 0.50% |
| Your school district | 0.50% |
| Total | 2.000% |
That is $2,000 per $100,000 of sale price, and it shows up on the settlement sheet as one of the biggest single lines that buys you no equity at all.
Four independent checks on 26 August 2026 all landed in the same place. Montgomery County’s own Recorder of Deeds page says the realty transfer tax is 2 percent, with no municipal table and no exceptions named. Fidelity National and Commonwealth Land Title’s list of Pennsylvania local governments charging other than 1% local, as of 1 September 2023, names sixteen Allegheny County municipalities, three in Chester, four in Delaware and a dozen counties besides — and Montgomery County does not appear on it. Alliance Title’s version, effective 1 July 2025, is the same shape and also has no Montgomery County entry. And a per-municipality statewide table covering both 2006 and 2016 lists sixty Montgomery County municipalities, every one at 0.50% municipal plus 0.50% school.
Montgomery is the only one of the four collar counties with no municipal deviation at all. Delaware County has four. Chester County has three.
Why “it depends on the township” sounds right here
It sounds right because in this county almost everything else does depend on the township, and because there is a real mechanism sitting in plain sight.
The 1% local cap comes from the Local Tax Enabling Act. Where a municipality and its school district both levy, each drops to half of the rate it could otherwise charge. Abington Township’s ordinance carries the standard clause word for word: if another political subdivision imposes a realty transfer tax, the tax levied by the township shall be one half of the rate otherwise provided. Horsham Township’s ordinance imposes the tax “at the rate of 1%,” which is the ceiling, halved to 0.5% because Hatboro-Horsham School District levies as well. Read either ordinance cold and you would think there was room to move.
There is, technically. Home rule lifts the Act 511 rate cap, and every Pennsylvania municipality that exceeds 1% local is a home rule municipality — Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Radnor, Upper Darby, Tredyffrin, Malvern, Coatesville, Upper Providence in Delaware County. Montgomery County has six home rule municipalities of its own: Bryn Athyn, Cheltenham Township, Horsham Township, Norristown, Plymouth Township and Whitemarsh Township.
None of the six has used the power. Plymouth Township publishes the whole thing on its own site — 2.0% total, 1.0% to the Commonwealth generally paid by the buyer, 0.5% to Colonial School District and 0.5% to the township, those two generally paid by the seller. All six sit at the standard split, and none appears on either underwriter’s deviation list.
The one genuine variation in the county is about who receives the local dollar, and it never changes the total. Bryn Athyn Borough is the single Montgomery County entry recorded as 1.00% municipal and 0.00% school, because Bryn Athyn School District levies none. A buyer there still pays 2.000%.
What does change it is the county line
| Where the deed is recorded | Total transfer tax |
|---|---|
| Anywhere in Montgomery County | 2.000% |
| Radnor Township, Delaware County | 2.5% |
| Upper Darby Township, Delaware County | 2.5% |
| Coatesville, Chester County | 3% |
| Philadelphia | 4.578% |
| Reading, Berks County | 5% |
On a $350,000 house, that Philadelphia line is roughly $9,000 more in transfer tax than the identical price in Montgomery County. If you are looking at both sides of City Avenue, or at both sides of the Delaware County line in Bryn Mawr and Wynnewood, it is worth putting the two numbers next to each other before you write an offer.
A refinance owes nothing
The tax applies to deeds that convey title. A mortgage is not a taxable document in Pennsylvania — 61 Pa. Code §91.193 — so refinancing costs you no transfer tax at all. The name on the deed stays put and nothing is owed to the county or the Commonwealth. The recording fee is still real, and it is small.
Exempt transfers, and the one that gets missed
Exempt: transfers under a will or by intestate succession; between spouses; between parent and child; between grandparent and grandchild; between siblings. Sheriff’s sales. Transfers to nonprofit conservancies and to government agencies.
Not exempt: buying a house from an estate. That is an ordinary taxable sale, and it catches families every year, usually about a week before settlement.
One more thing to leave out of your planning. Senate Bill 815 would exempt first-time buyers from the state’s 1% share. As of August 2026 it was still sitting in Senate Appropriations. Nobody should build a cash-to-close plan on it.
Who pays, and the paper that goes with it
Custom in Montgomery County splits the tax down the middle, so roughly 1% each. Custom is all it is. Both parties are jointly and severally liable for the entire amount, and the agreement of sale controls, which means the split is a negotiating item exactly like the closing date. A contract that says nothing about it leaves you exposed to the whole tax, and “everybody knows it is fifty-fifty” is not a defense.
The Recorder of Deeds collects the tax and distributes it, keeping a 2% commission on the local share for doing the collecting. Every transfer has to be accompanied by a REV-183 Statement of Value. A deed that spans two taxing authorities has to state the value in each, and the county charges $5.50 for the first unique parcel identification number in each taxing authority. For a specific parcel, the Recorder of Deeds in Norristown will confirm what is owed: 610-278-3289.
What to do next
Work out your half of the 2% before you write the offer, and get the split written into the agreement of sale instead of assumed. Then call with the price and the municipality, and one licensed Pennsylvania mortgage lender calls you back — usually the same working day, and by the end of the next working day at the outside. If it is easier to type than to talk, put the price and the township in the form and send it along. Two percent is one of the few numbers in this county you can carry from town to town without checking.