Uncertified election outcomes on Wednesday present that almost three-fourths of ballots had been solid in favor of the brand new tax on residence gross sales of over $1 million, in a metropolis prized for its high-desert vistas, vibrant arts scene and stucco structure.

The poll measure was pitched as a lifeline to academics, service-sector employees, single mother and father and youth professionals who can’t afford native mortgages or wrestle to pay hire amid a nationwide housing scarcity and the arrival in Santa Fe of high-income digital nomads.

Santa Fe resident and state Rep. Andrea Romero mentioned the tax galvanized voters and can shore up spending for native inexpensive housing in perpetuity.

“It’s simply precisely within the nexus of what issues,” mentioned Romero, a Democrat who led a fundraising and academic effort in assist of the tax. “Actually, we’re in a disaster.”

Tuesday’s vote indicators newfound public assist for so-called mansion taxes to fund inexpensive housing and stave off homelessness.

Voters in Los Angeles final yr accredited a tiered-rate tax on residential and business actual property gross sales of $5 million or extra to handle housing shortages, whereas Chicago could ask voters subsequent yr whether or not to boost actual property switch taxes, beginning with gross sales over $1 million, to struggle homelessness.

The town of Santa Fe estimates that the tax would generate about $6 million yearly for its inexpensive housing belief fund, which underwrites price-restricted housing, down-payment help for low-income homebuyers and rental help to stave off monetary hardship and evictions. The belief awards funds every year to inexpensive housing suppliers who can safe matching funds from different authorities and nonprofit sources.

The brand new tax is levied towards the client for residential property gross sales of $1 million or extra — with no tax on the primary $1 million in worth.

On a $1.2 million residence sale, for instance, the brand new tax would apply to $200,000 in worth. The client would pay $6,000 to town’s inexpensive housing belief fund.

Santa Fe voters beforehand shied away from distinguished tax initiatives, rejecting a 1% tax on high-end residence gross sales in 2009 and defeating a tax on sugary drinks to develop early childhood schooling in 2017.

The town of roughly 90,000 residents is within the midst of a constructing growth, with hundreds of just lately accredited housing items progressively coming on-line inside metropolis limits since 2021 — however most new items hire at free-market charges that may pressure private or household funds.

In the meantime, greater than 400 single household properties offered for greater than $1 million throughout Santa Fe in 2022, based on a city-commissioned evaluation.

The Santa Fe Affiliation of Realtors has filed a lawsuit geared toward blocking the voter-approved tax, arguing that town overstepped its authority underneath state legislation by extending an excise tax past providers and items, equivalent to tobacco and autos, to actual property.

Affiliation President Drew Lamprich mentioned the tax falls on the client’s aspect of the ledger in a house sale, however finally has implications for the vendor and total residence values within the metropolis.

“We’re simply validating that they’ve the authorized proper to do that,” he mentioned. “In the end it must go to the state degree to regulate the state statutes, if that’s what the voters need.”