>> Not surprisingly, that's a state level, rather than federal, thing. In PA, it's 2%, normally paid 1% by the buyer and 1% by the seller.

Right. One of the benefits of a company or trust owning the property for those who intend to retain the asset- is that you only pay this tax when you transfer.

FWIW, in New Zealand there is no transfer/stamp tax, no estate tax, no capital gains tax, no gift duty. Those who intend to hold onto property still form trusts, not least because governments change and moochers abound. There is only one state (imagine that!) but you do pay city taxes or rates which is a property tax depending on the value of property. Those taxes amount to thousands of dollars per year for an average family home and if you are unlucky enough to own in Auckland there is billions of $ of planned infrastructure spending that needs to come out of ratepayers' hides.

FWIW, Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand) are becoming extremely expensive places to live. The average home price in Auckland reached NZ$697,454 in July or > US$600K compared to a median price of < $160K in Philadelphia. Suddenly the absence of stamp duty isn't so attractive when kids wanting their first home are looking around.