The sale price is not the number a seller takes home. In Connecticut, three deductions do most of the work. They are conveyance taxes, commissions and, for some sellers, income tax on the gain. Here is how each works in Westport.
What conveyance taxes will I pay?
Connecticut charges a tax on the transfer of real estate, and the seller pays it before the deed can be recorded. There are two parts.
The state portion is tiered for residential property.
| Portion of the price | State rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $800,000 | 0.75% |
| $800,000 to $2.5 million | 1.25% |
| Above $2.5 million | 2.25% |
The town portion in Westport is 0.25 percent of the full price. Some Connecticut towns may charge an additional 0.25 percent, but Westport is not among them.
What the conveyance tax takes
State plus Westport conveyance tax on a residential sale, by price
Data from Address District calculation from Conn. Gen. Stat. 12-494 rates and Westport's 0.25 percent municipal rate
Show the numbers as a table
| Area | Value |
|---|---|
| $1 million sale | $11,000 |
| $2 million sale | $26,000 |
| $2.5 million sale | $33,500 |
| $3 million sale | $46,000 |
| $5 million sale | $96,000 |
| $10 million sale | $221,000 |
On a $3 million sale, the state tax is $38,500 and Westport’s is $7,500, for a total of $46,000. A law firm’s published example for a $3 million sale in Greenwich, which has the same town rate, reaches the same $46,000 total. At the top of the market the numbers grow quickly. The record $54 million Beachside Avenue sale in November 2025 produced $135,000 in Westport conveyance tax and about $1.19 million for the state, by 06880’s count.
What will commission cost?
There is no standard commission in Connecticut. Connecticut Realtors has said so directly, and the 2024 national settlement with the National Association of Realtors made the point harder to miss. Since Aug. 17, 2024, buyers sign written agreements with their own agents that state compensation in specific terms, and offers of compensation to buyers’ agents no longer appear on the multiple listing service. A seller can still agree to pay the buyer’s agent, or decline to.
What sellers actually pay varies. Redfin’s data put the average commission paid to buyers’ agents at 2.43 percent in the second quarter of 2025, and 2.21 percent for homes priced at $1 million or more. In a Redfin survey, 37.4 percent of recent sellers said they negotiated their commission.
Every percentage point is real money at Westport prices. On a $3 million sale, one point is $30,000.
See what a private, off-market sale of your home would look like →
Will I owe capital gains tax?
The federal exclusion for the sale of a primary residence lets a single filer exclude up to $250,000 of gain, and a married couple filing jointly up to $500,000. To qualify you must have owned the house and lived in it as your main home for at least 24 months of the five years before the sale, and you cannot have used the exclusion on another sale in the prior two years. The sale must still be reported if you receive a Form 1099-S, even when the gain is fully excluded.
Connecticut’s income tax starts from federal adjusted gross income, with rates from 2 percent to 6.99 percent. Gains are generally taxed as ordinary income in Connecticut, and gain excluded at the federal level does not enter that calculation. Proposals for an additional capital gains surcharge were not included in the 2025 budget, and similar bills were filed in 2026. Ask a CPA about their status before you close.
For long-time Westport owners, the exclusion may cover far less than the gain. At Westport prices, a house held for many years can carry a gain well above $500,000, and the excess is taxable.
What if I sell without an agent?
You can sell a Connecticut house yourself, but few owners do. For-sale-by-owner transactions accounted for 5 percent of U.S. home sales in the year ending June 2025, an all-time low, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the median FSBO price was $360,000, compared with $425,000 for agent-assisted sales. Those figures are not adjusted for location or type of home.
If you sell on your own, the legal duties still apply. You owe the buyer the state’s Residential Property Condition Report or a $500 credit at closing. For a house built before 1978 you owe the federal lead paint disclosures. And a Connecticut attorney must conduct the closing.
The rest of a seller’s closing statement depends on the house, including the mortgage payoff, prorated property taxes and attorney’s fees. Ask your attorney for an estimated settlement statement before you list. To discuss the numbers for your own house, contact the Seller’s Desk.
Sources
- Connecticut Department of Revenue Services, Real estate conveyance tax change, 2019
- Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, Real estate conveyance tax, July 9, 2020
- Town of Westport, Land records, Town Clerk, accessed Oct. 2026
- Mandelbaum Barrett, Connecticut conveyance tax explained, May 1, 2026
- 06880, Beachside sales bring great family and tax windfall to Westport, Dec. 4, 2025
- Connecticut Realtors, Communication points on the NAR settlement, Aug. 15, 2024
- National Association of Realtors, Consumer guide to written buyer agreements, Sept. 6, 2024
- UConn Today, What the NAR settlement means for buyers and sellers, July 29, 2024
- Redfin, Real estate commissions, May 16, 2025
- BusinessWire, Redfin, Buyer’s agent commissions tick up to pre-NAR settlement levels, Aug. 12, 2025
- IRS, Topic 701, sale of your home, Sept. 24, 2026
- Connecticut Office of Legislative Research, Connecticut income tax, Nov. 7, 2024
- Hartford Business Journal, Capital gains surcharge left out of budget, 2025
- National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, Nov. 4, 2025
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Real estate disclosures about potential lead hazards, May 27, 2026
