[Andrea3051]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

No. Impact fees are fees charged to the company that builds the house, because their company is adding a property intended to be used by people who will contribute to the useage and maintenance requirements of the infrastructure leading to the house.

In other words - the developer has to pay a fee because the road leading to the driveway has to be built, modified, dug under, etc - traffic has to be planned to accommodate the existence of the house, sewers and drainage and underground electricity has to be installed from the road, and so on and so forth.

It is a one-time fee that exists to allow a structure to be built on the property.

The developer will (usually) pass that extra cost on to you, as part of the overall cost of the home. So if he's charging $249,900 to buy the home, it's likely $750 of that cost is to pay him back for his impact fee that he already paid.

The good news, is when you've owned your home for awhile, and want to sell it, you can include that initial cost in the value of your property and pass the charge along to the next buyer.

It's not taxes AT ALL, in any way, shape, or form. It is a basically invisible fee, just like the cost of the siding is an invisible fee, the cost of the walls is an invisible fee, the cost of the ceiling vents is an invisible fee, since the developer has to pay SOMEONE for all those materials. It's all built in to the value of the house.

got it, thanks so much for the great explanation!