Methodology

ClosingCorp average closing costs are defined as the average fees and transfer taxes required to close a conventional purchase transaction in a geographical area. These costs consist of fees from the following service types: title policies (both owners and lenders), appraisals, settlement fees, recording fees, land surveys and transfer tax.

Actual closing fees for 2.9 million single-family home purchases from January 1 through December 31, 2021 as well as 3.4 million refinances were analyzed. Homes within a $100,000 range of the average home price (source: CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider) were used to estimate closing costs for an average home at the state, core-based statistical area (CBSA) and county levels.

The average service type component fee was computed for every geographical area where at least 30 transactions occurred in the specified range during the period under review. Total cost to close was then computed as the sum of the service type averages. Land survey fees only were included for Florida and Texas single-family homes where land surveys are required. If a geographic area did not contain at least 10 data points for a given service type (excluding transfer tax), the average of the next largest geographical unit within the $100,000 range was used as an estimate. Only one estimate was allowed per geography. Cost to close was computed with and without transfer taxes.