State Coffers Shrink on Real Estate Transfer Tax Shortfalls

State coffers are seeing a projected $40 billion shortfall for Fiscal 2009 (Fiscal year ends June 2009) due to many causes - retail sales dropping, higher gas costs which cause people to drive less and cut back on discretionary spending, layoffs - but it turns out that shortfalls in the real estate transfer tax due to the hosuing market crash are the greatest culprit.

Here are the states projecting a shortfall for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2008:

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures and the Wall Street Journal

Here are the total sales of single family homes, Condos and Co-ops by state for 2005 - 2007 (partial):

According to the National Association of Realtors, home prices are down 6.1% U.S.-wide year over year, and unit sales are down 15.5%: