The rate, and the three exceptions
The Chester County Recorder of Deeds states it plainly: the tax is 1% for the state and 1% for the municipalities, with exceptions for the City of Coatesville at 2%, Malvern at 1.5% and Tredyffrin at 1.5% on the local side. Add the state’s penny and you get the numbers that land on a settlement sheet.
| Where | Total rate |
|---|---|
| City of Coatesville | 3% |
| Malvern Borough | 2.5% |
| Tredyffrin Township | 2.5% |
| Everywhere else in Chester County | 2% |
The county lists no other deviations, and a separate title-industry deviation table agrees. From Honey Brook to Chadds Ford, it is 2%.
Where the money goes
One percent is the Commonwealth’s, everywhere in Pennsylvania. The local penny is split between the municipality and the school district, and the split is set locally. West Whiteland Township publishes its own version: 1% state, 0.5% township, 0.5% West Chester Area School District, collected by Keystone. Coatesville breaks its 3% into 1.5% to the city, 0.5% to the Coatesville Area School District and 1% to the state.
None of that changes what you pay. It matters when someone tells you the “township” rate is half a percent and you have to remember the school district’s half and the state’s full point are sitting behind it.
Who pays, and who is liable
Custom in this county is half each. The custom is not the law: both parties are jointly liable for the entire amount, and the split lives in the agreement of sale, where it can be negotiated like the closing date or the appliances.
Sellers take on more of it when a house has been sitting. Buyers offer to cover more of it when four other people want the same colonial off Route 100. Whatever you agree, get it written into the agreement of sale. A contract that says nothing about it leaves the question open at the worst possible moment.
What it costs, in dollars
The arithmetic is simple and the numbers are not small.
| Sale price | At 2% | At 2.5% | At 3% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $400,000 | $8,000 | $10,000 | $12,000 |
| $600,000 | $12,000 | $15,000 | $18,000 |
| $800,000 | $16,000 | $20,000 | $24,000 |
Now put real numbers on it. Movoto’s July 2026 sold median for the Malvern postal area was $825,000, and for the Downingtown postal area $589,500. Both are postal-area figures that blend surrounding townships, so read them as market color, not as borough medians.
A $825,000 sale inside Malvern Borough owes $20,625 at 2.5%. A $589,500 sale in Downingtown owes $11,790 at 2%. The gap is $8,835 in total and $4,417.50 on the customary buyer’s half. Of that gap, the extra half point accounts for $4,125 on its own — the same house, the same closing table, the borough line being the only difference.
The mailing address is not the taxing municipality
This is where the money actually goes missing from a budget. Malvern Borough is 1.27 square miles. The 19355 postal area runs far past it into East Whiteland and Willistown, and both of those townships are at 2%. A house with a Malvern address is more likely than not outside the borough.
Berwyn straddles Easttown and Tredyffrin, so two houses on the same street can owe 2% and 2.5%. Paoli is split between Tredyffrin and Willistown with the same result. The postal service and the Recorder of Deeds have never consulted each other on any of this.
Before you budget the line, find the municipality on the deed or the county parcel record. On an $825,000 sale, guessing wrong costs $4,125.
Exemptions, and the refinance
Pennsylvania exempts transfers between spouses, between a parent and a child, between a grandparent and a grandchild, and between siblings, and transfers taken under a will. Buying a house from an estate is a normal taxable sale, and every year somebody learns that at settlement.
There is no first-time buyer exemption in Pennsylvania. A state bill to exempt first-time buyers from the 1% state share has been sitting in Senate Appropriations, and as of August 2026 it has not moved. Budget as though it never passes.
A refinance owes nothing at all. The tax reaches deeds that convey title, and a mortgage is not a taxable document here, so a refinance with the same names on the deed pays only the recording fee.
Getting the number right before you sign
The tax is paid at recording, and in practice the title company collects it at settlement. It is usually the biggest single line in your cash to close, and it is the one people forget when they move their price range up by $50,000.
Run your own figure on the transfer tax calculator, then check the municipality. Price and township, in that order, and a licensed Pennsylvania lender calls you back, usually the same business day, and puts the right rate in the estimate.