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Homebuyers paid an average of $4,661 in closing costs on purchase mortgages last year, according to a new report from LodeStar Software Solutions.
The company released its first-ever purchase mortgage closing cost report. The findings showed that, on average, closing costs represented 1.06% of home sale prices at the national level. The median percentage came in slightly lower at 0.88%.
Closing costs ranged widely across the country, from as low as 0.46% of the sale price in South Dakota to as high as 2.99% in Delaware, where transfer taxes played a significant role.
“Some might find it surprising how little the difference there is between median and average sales prices and closing costs,” said Ron Carvalho, LodeStar’s director of data operations.
“It goes to show that there’s not much skewing of the average for high or low transaction prices. Our data seems to suggest that there’s a fairly tight price range in a given market, maybe a narrower price range than one might expect.”
The report notes that states with either no transfer taxes or minimal ones — such as South Dakota, Alaska (0.54%) and North Carolina (0.56%) — typically had the lowest closing costs relative to sale prices.
On the other hand, states with some of the highest percentages were those where transfer taxes made up the bulk of the expenses. Along with Delaware, New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., topped the list.
Nationally, the average and median home sale prices in 2024 were $438,236 and $409,839, respectively. When including recording fees and taxes, the average and median closing costs came in at $4,661 and $3,513. Without taxes and recording fees, the average and median costs fell to $3,042 and $2,958.
LodeStar said it plans to release a separate report on refinance mortgage closing costs on May 5. The full purchase closing costs report can be found here.
