Data study · 2026
Closing Costs by State, 2026
Search for average closing costs and you will find numbers that differ by a factor of three. They are not contradicting each other — they are measuring different things. This study reconciles them, reports what is actually verified for 2026, and is explicit about what is not.
Average US purchase closing costs are $4,528, or 1.04% of the sales price, when you count title, settlement, recording and transfer taxes. Count lender origination fees and prepaid escrows too — as the CFPB does — and the figure becomes 2%–5%. Both numbers are right. Knowing which one you are being quoted is the whole game.
Why published closing-cost figures differ threefold
There is no single legal definition of a “closing cost.” Every study draws the boundary somewhere, and where it draws it changes the answer enormously. That is the single most useful thing to understand before comparing any two figures you find.
| Source | Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| CFPB | 2%–5% of price | The whole closing bill — origination fees and discount points, title and settlement, recording, transfer taxes, and prepaid escrows |
| LodeStar (2026) | 1.04% of price | Settlement/escrow fees, owner's and lender's title policies, recording charges, transfer taxes — no origination fees, no prepaids |
The missing pieces account for the gap. The CFPB's own analysis of closing costs found that lender origination fees, including discount points, are the largest single category, with title fees the next largest. A study that excludes origination is therefore excluding the biggest line on the page. Add prepaid property tax and insurance — the money the lender collects up front to seed your escrow account — and you have most of the remaining difference.
What to do with this
For budgeting how much cash you need at the table, use the wider figure — the CFPB's 2%–5%, or better, price your own components with our Closing Costs Calculator. Use the 1.04% figure for what it is good at: comparing states, because the fees it measures are the ones that actually vary by geography.
The 2026 national picture
| Measure | Average | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Total closing costs — with recording & transfer taxes | $4,528 | $3,492 |
| Total closing costs — excluding recording & taxes | $2,993 | $2,923 |
| Closing costs as a share of sales price | 1.04% | 0.85% |
| Home sales price | $433,632 | $406,786 |
LodeStar Purchase Mortgage Closing Cost Data Report, published April 27, 2026, covering 620,000+ purchase quotes from January 1 to December 31, 2025.
Note how far the median sits below the average — $3,492 against $4,528. That gap is the signature of a distribution with a long right tail: a minority of high-transfer-tax jurisdictions pull the mean up well above the typical transaction. If you are buying in a state without a significant transfer tax, the median is much closer to your reality than the average.
Year over year the direction was down: purchase-loan closing costs fell about 2.9% nationally, and as a share of sales price the average moved from 1.06% to 1.04%. But that headline conceals a split — 28 states saw closing costs decrease while 23 saw increases. Much of the dollar decline reflects falling sale prices rather than fees themselves getting cheaper.
The state extremes
These are the states we can source figures or rankings for. See the methodology below for why this is not a complete fifty-state table.
| State | Share of price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware | 3.06% | Highest in the nation as a share of sales price |
| District of Columbia | Highest in dollars | Fell 21.1% year over year as prices declined |
| New York | Among the highest | No current figure published |
| Vermont | Among the highest | No current figure published |
| Pennsylvania | Among the highest | No current figure published |
| Iowa | 0.56% | Third lowest |
| Colorado | 0.50% | Second lowest |
| South Dakota | 0.39% | Lowest in the nation |
National average for comparison: 1.04%. Figures from the LodeStar 2026 report.
Why these states and not others
The pattern is not random, and it is mostly one variable. Transfer taxes are the single largest driver of variation, and they are levied by states — and often additionally by counties and cities. Delaware sits at 3.06%, roughly triple the national average, because its realty transfer tax is among the heaviest in the country. The three cheapest states — South Dakota at 0.39%, Colorado at 0.50%, Iowa at 0.56% — are states where transfer taxation is minimal or absent.
Two secondary factors shape the rest. Some states require an attorney at settlement rather than allowing a title or escrow company to close — a professional fee that shows up in every transaction in those states. And recording charges vary by jurisdiction, though they are usually small relative to transfer taxes.
The practical consequence for a buyer: none of this is negotiable with your lender. It is a function of where the property is. Two identical $400,000 purchases in Delaware and South Dakota differ by roughly $10,700 on this fee set alone, before anyone has quoted an origination fee. Confirm your own state's rules — transfer-tax rates, who customarily pays them, and whether an attorney is required — on your state guide.
Closing costs in every state
Each state page covers its transfer-tax regime, who customarily pays what, and the local closing process.
- Connecticut
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- District of Columbia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- South Dakota
- Wisconsin
- Alaska
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- Utah
- Washington
- Wyoming
Methodology
Source and vintage
Figures are drawn from LodeStar Software Solutions' Purchase Mortgage Closing Cost Data Report, published April 27, 2026 and covering purchase quotes from January 1 to December 31, 2025. It is the second annual edition. The sample is 620,000+ purchase quotes drawn from LodeStar's closing-cost calculator platform, excluding properties over $10 million.
What is included
Settlement, closing and escrow fees; owner's and lender's title policies; recordation charges; and transfer taxes. Excluded: lender origination fees and discount points, prepaid escrows for property tax and insurance, appraisal, and inspection. This is why the figures are far below the CFPB's 2%–5% range, which counts all of those.
How the national figure is computed
Average total closing costs divided by average sales price within each geography. The national number is an average of state-level averages — the source report states it should be read as a benchmark rather than a population-weighted national mean. We repeat that caveat rather than presenting the figure as a true national average.
What we could not verify
A complete fifty-state table. The source report publishes its state-by-state breakdown as charts rather than as extractable data, and secondary coverage names only the states shown above. We have chosen to publish the verified subset and say so, rather than estimate the remaining states — estimated figures would look exactly as authoritative as sourced ones and would be wrong. If you have licensed access to the underlying dataset and would like us to extend this study, get in touch.
A note on older figures. Much of what circulates online — including the state table on NAR's own site, which shows DC at $29,888 and Missouri at $2,061 — comes from CoreLogic's ClosingCorp data for the 2021 data year. Those numbers are five years old and measure a different fee set again. We have not used them, and we would not recommend comparing them to anything on this page.
Cite this data
This analysis is free to reuse with attribution, under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence. If you publish any figure from this page, please credit RealCostIQ and link back — and please also credit LodeStar as the underlying data source.
Suggested citation
RealCostIQ, “Closing Costs by State, 2026,” published July 30, 2026. https://realcostiq.com/data/closing-costs-by-state/ — analysis of LodeStar Software Solutions, Purchase Mortgage Closing Cost Data Report (April 2026).
The verified figures on this page are also available as a downloadable CSV. It contains only the values sourced above — no estimated state figures.
Run your numbers
Price your own closing costs
Averages are for comparing states. For your own purchase, price the individual components — origination, title, recording, transfer tax, and prepaids.
Open the Closing Costs Calculator →Keep reading
- The True Cost of Buying a HomeWhere closing costs sit among every other cost of buying — pre-offer, contract, closing, move-in, and year one.
- Cost to Sell a House in 2026The seller's side: commission, seller closing costs, transfer taxes, prep, and a worked net-proceeds example.
- How Much Cash to Buy a $400,000 House?Down payment scenarios, closing costs, earnest money and reserves, with the arithmetic shown.
- First-Time Buyer Questions, AnsweredThirty sourced answers, including who can pay your closing costs and how concessions work.
Frequently asked questions
What are average closing costs in 2026?+
It depends entirely on which fees are counted. LodeStar's report published in April 2026, covering 620,000+ purchase quotes from calendar year 2025, puts average total closing costs at $4,528 — 1.04% of the average sales price — but that measures title, settlement, recording and transfer taxes only. The CFPB's familiar 2%-5% range covers the whole closing bill including lender origination fees and prepaid escrows. Both are accurate; they measure different things.
Why do closing cost figures vary so much between sources?+
Because there is no single legal definition of what counts as a closing cost. Some studies measure only the title and settlement side; others include lender origination fees, discount points, and the prepaid property tax and insurance the lender collects to seed your escrow account. That definitional gap explains most of the roughly threefold difference between the figures you will see quoted. Always check what a study included before comparing it to another.
Which state has the highest closing costs?+
Measured as a share of sales price, Delaware is the highest in LodeStar's 2026 report at 3.06% — roughly three times the national average of 1.04%. Measured in raw dollars, the District of Columbia is the highest in the country, though its figure fell 21.1% year over year as prices declined there. New York, Vermont and Pennsylvania are also named among the highest as a percentage.
Which states have the lowest closing costs?+
South Dakota at 0.39% of sales price, Colorado at 0.50%, and Iowa at 0.56%, per LodeStar's 2026 report. All three are well under the 1.04% national average, and the reason is almost entirely transfer taxes — states without a significant real estate transfer tax cluster at the bottom of this ranking.
Why are closing costs so different from state to state?+
Transfer taxes are the single largest driver of variation, and they are set at state and often county or city level. Two secondary factors matter: whether the state requires an attorney at settlement, which adds a professional fee, and local recording charges. None of these are negotiable with your lender — they are a function of where the property is, which is why the same purchase price produces very different closing bills in different states.
Did closing costs go up or down in 2026?+
Down slightly. Purchase-loan closing costs fell about 2.9% nationally year over year, and as a share of sales price the average moved from 1.06% to 1.04%. The picture was mixed at state level: 28 states saw closing costs decrease while 23 saw increases. Falling sale prices explain much of the dollar decline rather than fees themselves getting cheaper.
Can you negotiate closing costs?+
Partly. The fee set measured in this study — transfer taxes and recording charges — is set by government and is not negotiable. Title and settlement services often are: under CFPB rules your Loan Estimate identifies which services you are allowed to shop for. Lender origination fees, which this study does not measure, are also negotiable. The practical move is to compare Loan Estimates from more than one lender rather than trying to argue a single figure down.
Why doesn't this page show a figure for every state?+
Because we could not verify one. The underlying report publishes its full state-by-state breakdown as charts rather than as extractable data, and press coverage names only a handful of states with figures. Rather than estimate the remainder — which would produce numbers that look authoritative and are not — we publish only the states we can source and say so. Every state still links to its own closing-costs page here.
Sources
- LodeStar Software Solutions — Purchase Mortgage Closing Cost Data Report (published April 27, 2026; data period January 1 – December 31, 2025) — accessed 2026-07-30
- LodeStar — report announcement and year-over-year commentary — accessed 2026-07-30
- CFPB — Determine your down payment (closing costs typically 2%–5% of purchase price) — accessed 2026-07-30
- CFPB — Loan Estimate explainer (services you can shop for) — accessed 2026-07-30
- CFPB — Request for Information on closing costs (May 2024): origination and title fees are the largest categories — accessed 2026-07-30
- NAR — Average closing costs by state (reproduces CoreLogic ClosingCorp 2021 data) — accessed 2026-07-30
This study is educational and is not financial or legal advice. Closing costs depend on your specific transaction, lender, and jurisdiction.