Closing Costs Statistics (2026): Average Closing Costs on a House

Closing costs are the fees and charges paid to finish a home purchase or a refinance, beyond the down payment. For a buyer, they include the lender's origination charges and any discount points, the appraisal, credit report, title insurance and settlement fees, government recording fees and transfer taxes, and prepaid items such as property taxes, homeowners insurance and interest until the first payment, according to the CFPB. The CFPB notes that the buyer generally pays all of the costs of the transaction unless the contract or state law assigns some to the seller.

The most complete national measure comes from federal mortgage data. Under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, lenders report the total loan costs each borrower paid, and the CFPB's analysis found the median home purchase borrower paid $6,684 in 2023. The median refinance borrower paid $7,329. Those figures leave out taxes, recording fees and prepaid items, so the cash a buyer brings to the table is higher.

Seller-side costs, including real estate commissions, are covered on the page on home selling cost statistics.

Two datasets give the average closing costs on a house, and they measure different parts of the bill. The CFPB's HMDA figure ($6,684 median in 2023) counts the lender's fees, discount points and third-party loan services. LodeStar Software Solutions, a company whose software produces closing cost quotes for lenders and title companies, measures title policies, settlement fees, recording fees and transfer taxes. In its 2025 data, the average purchase closed with $4,528 in those costs and the median with $3,492.

LodeStar's average works out to 1.04% of the average $433,632 sales price, down from 1.06% in 2024, and the median to 0.85%. Without recording fees and transfer taxes, the average was $2,993. LodeStar reports that closing costs ranged from 0.5% to 3% of the sales price depending on location. The figures come from more than 620,000 purchase quotes generated during 2025, so they reflect quoted fees on the transactions its users priced.

For scale, the CFPB's 2023 median loan costs equal about 2.1% of that year's median purchase loan of $315,000 (simple division of the two medians). NAR put the median existing-home price at $417,500 in September 2026, up 1.3% from a year earlier; price trends are covered under home price statistics.

Federal disclosure rules split closing costs into two groups. "Loan costs" are the lender's charges plus services the borrower cannot shop for (such as the credit report) and services the borrower can shop for (such as lender's title insurance). "Other costs" include recording fees, homeowners insurance and property taxes, according to the CFPB's 2024 request for information on closing costs.

In the same document the CFPB reported that origination fees paid to the lender, including discount points, are the largest disclosed closing cost, and title fees (title insurance, title search and settlement) are the next largest category. MISMO, a mortgage industry standards body, lists more than 200 different fees that have appeared on closing disclosures, the CFPB noted.

Costs can be paid in cash or covered indirectly. A seller credit usually means a higher purchase price, and a lender credit typically means a larger loan or a higher interest rate, according to the CFPB. The HMDA total loan cost measure counts only the portion the buyer pays, not amounts paid by a seller or other third party.

Median total loan costs on home purchase loans rose every year the CFPB has measured them, from $4,332 in 2018 to $4,475 in 2019, $4,736 in 2020, $4,889 in 2021, $5,954 in 2022 and $6,684 in 2023 (CFPB). The 2023 median is about 54% above the 2018 figure, by simple arithmetic on those medians.

The largest increases came in 2022 and 2023, as rates rose. Costs rose 22% from 2021 to 2022 (CFPB), and from 2021 to 2023 median total loan costs on home mortgages increased by more than 36% (CFPB). The CFPB tied part of the rise to discount points: more borrowers paid them, and those who did paid larger amounts. Over the same period the median purchase loan grew from $225,000 in 2018 to $315,000 in 2022 and stayed at $315,000 in 2023.

The 2023 report, published December 13, 2024, is the latest edition of the CFPB's annual mortgage market report. The bureau has released the underlying loan-level HMDA files for 2024 and for 2025, the latter on March 31, 2026, but has not published a matching closing cost analysis for those years. LodeStar's industry data shows purchase closing costs of $4,661 in 2024 and $4,528 in 2025, a 2.9% decline (LodeStar).

FHA loans carry the highest closing costs of any major loan type. The median FHA home purchase loan had $11,368 in total loan costs in 2023, about 2.1 times the $5,433 median for conventional conforming loans (CFPB). The CFPB attributes much of the difference to FHA's required upfront mortgage insurance premium, which is counted as a service the borrower cannot shop for.

Jumbo loans had median loan costs of $8,337, VA loans $7,530 and USDA-backed (FSA/RHS) loans $6,257. VA was the one type where the median fell in 2023, from $7,917 in 2022. Median loan sizes differ sharply across these types: $294,000 for FHA, $341,000 for VA and $1.2 million for jumbo purchase loans in 2023.

FHA's costs have climbed faster than average since 2018, when its median was $6,963. For refinances, FHA ($11,727) and VA ($11,476) also had the highest median loan costs in 2023, against $5,051 for conventional conforming refinances. More on loan volumes and approvals is on the mortgage statistics page.

Higher-income borrowers paid more in dollars. The median home purchase loan carried $7,315 in total loan costs for high-income borrowers in 2023, $7,104 for middle-income borrowers and $5,521 for low- and moderate-income borrowers, according to the CFPB. By neighborhood, the medians were close: $6,721 in lower-income areas, $6,552 in middle-income areas and $6,814 in high-income areas.

Hispanic white borrowers had the highest median loan costs on purchase loans, $9,080, followed by Black borrowers at $8,464. The medians were $6,625 for Asian borrowers and $5,911 for non-Hispanic white borrowers. Costs also rose fastest for the first two groups in 2023: 15.1% for Hispanic white borrowers and 12% for Black borrowers, against 8% for Asian and 10.5% for non-Hispanic white borrowers.

The CFPB notes that these medians do not control for loan size, and that greater use of FHA loans, with their upfront insurance premium, could be contributing to the higher medians for Black and Hispanic borrowers.

A discount point is a fee of 1% of the loan amount paid at closing to lower the interest rate. In 2023, 56.6% of home purchase loans paid some points, up from a range of 29.2% to 32.7% in 2018 through 2021, and 67.7% of refinance loans did (CFPB). The median amount paid by purchase borrowers who bought points was $3,000 in 2023, up from $2,370 in 2022 and $1,225 in 2021. For refinances it was $3,902.

The CFPB's quarterly data through September 2023 showed 87.4% of cash-out refinance borrowers paying points, up from 61.2% in January 2021, and about 65% of FHA homebuyers paying them, against 62% for VA loans and 57% for conventional loans (CFPB data spotlight). Among borrowers who paid points, the median was 2.1 points on cash-out refinances, 1.1 on other refinances and 1.0 on purchase loans.

Freddie Mac's research on prime conforming borrowers found 58.8% of purchase borrowers paid points in 2023, averaging 0.99 points, and that borrowers who paid points ended up with an average effective rate of 6.86% against 6.69% for those who did not, through November 2023 (Freddie Mac). More than 70% of prime purchase borrowers paid points in Hawaii, New Mexico, West Virginia, Oregon, Washington and Delaware. Current rate levels are on the mortgage rate statistics page.

Washington, D.C. had the highest average purchase closing costs in 2025 at $13,836, followed by Delaware ($12,707), New York ($12,418), Maryland ($9,486) and Vermont ($9,164), according to LodeStar. South Dakota was the lowest at $1,386, followed by Iowa ($1,541), Missouri ($1,748) and Indiana ($1,980). The D.C. average is about 10 times South Dakota's.

Measured as a share of the sales price, Delaware led at 3.06%, ahead of Vermont (2.34%), Pennsylvania (2.33%), New York (2.32%) and D.C. (2.24%). South Dakota (0.39%), Colorado (0.50%) and Iowa (0.56%) were the lowest. Hawaii shows how price and cost rankings diverge: it had the highest average sales price, $913,449, but closing costs of only 0.65% of it.

D.C.'s average fell 21.1% from $17,544 in 2024 as its average price dropped by about $119,000, while Delaware's rose 4.5% from $12,157. New York's fell 9.6% from $13,738. Nationally, 28 states saw decreases and 23 saw increases (LodeStar).

Most of the gap between the cheapest and most expensive states comes from government charges. Without recording fees and transfer taxes, LodeStar's 2025 state averages were much closer together: $4,411 in D.C., $3,609 in Delaware and $4,227 in New York, against $1,042 in South Dakota (LodeStar). Nationally, recording fees and transfer taxes accounted for $1,535 of the $4,528 average, the difference between the two published averages.

LodeStar describes D.C. as having one of the steepest transfer tax rates in the country and Delaware's transfer tax structure as aggressive. Because transfer taxes are a percentage of the sale price, they fall when prices fall. New York also levies a mortgage recording tax based on the loan amount, and Florida's documentary stamp tax applies to the note amount (LodeStar).

Who pays a transfer tax varies by state and by contract, and LodeStar's totals do not split the cost between buyer and seller. Annual property tax bills, often prepaid into escrow at closing, are covered under property tax statistics.

Title insurance is one of the costliest settlement services, and its premiums typically range from 0.5% to 1.0% of the purchase price, according to the CFPB. Borrowers pay the lender's policy in a one-time payment at closing, and a separate owner's policy is needed to cover losses the lender's policy does not.

Lender's title insurance is classed as a service the borrower can shop for on the Loan Estimate. Title fees as a group (insurance, search and settlement) are the second largest category of closing costs after the lender's origination charges, the CFPB reported. LodeStar's state averages include owner's and lender's title policies alongside settlement charges.

Lenders told the CFPB that their cost to obtain credit reports had increased 25% to 400% in recent years (CFPB). One midsize lender reported the price of a tri-merge credit report rising from $50 to $110 over two years, and a large lender reported an increase from under $30 to over $60. A consumer can get a copy of their own report free the first time and for $15.50 after that, while a lender pulling it can pay twice that.

The CFPB also named the costs of credit scores and employment verification as having risen markedly. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, USDA and VA all require reports from the three national credit bureaus, and lenders typically pull credit at least twice per application.

The CFPB opened its inquiry into these fees on May 30, 2024, calling them junk fees. Many of these costs are fixed regardless of loan size, so they take a larger share of a small mortgage, the bureau wrote.

Refinance costs rose faster than purchase costs. The median refinance borrower paid $7,329 in total loan costs in 2023, up 47.2% from $4,979 in 2022, and above the purchase median for the first time in the 2018 to 2023 series (CFPB). In 2021 the median was $3,336. The CFPB's data spotlight reported a 49.3% increase from 2021 to 2022.

Most refinances left in 2023 were cash-out loans, and refinance originations fell 64.2% that year, from 2.2 million to 796,000. Cash-out borrowers paid the most points: a median 2.1 points among those who paid any (CFPB).

Title, settlement and government fees on a refinance are lower than on a purchase. LodeStar's refinance figures include the lender's title policy but no owner's policy, and its 2025 data puts them at an average of $2,207, or 0.67% of the average $330,622 refinance loan, with a median of $1,807 (LodeStar). New York was the highest at $10,553 (2.06% of the loan), driven by its mortgage recording tax, followed by Florida at $5,250. California (0.32%), South Dakota (0.35%) and Arizona (0.37%) were the lowest as a share of the loan.

FHA borrowers pay an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 1.75% of the base loan amount, under HUD's premium schedule in Mortgagee Letter 2023-05. On a $300,000 loan that comes to $5,250, by arithmetic on the published rate. The same letter cut the annual premium, to 0.50% or 0.55% of the balance for loans with terms over 15 years and base amounts up to $726,200, effective March 20, 2023.

VA loans have no mortgage insurance but charge a funding fee. For a first-time purchase with less than 5% down it is 2.15% of the loan, falling to 1.5% with 5% down and 1.25% with 10% down. Subsequent use with less than 5% down costs 3.3%, and an interest rate reduction refinance costs 0.5% (VA). Veterans receiving VA disability compensation are exempt.

VA allows only the funding fee to be financed on a purchase loan; other closing costs must be paid at closing, by the buyer or by the seller under the contract. Both premiums help explain why FHA and VA borrowers show higher median loan costs in the CFPB data.

Sellers and other interested parties can pay part of a buyer's closing costs, within limits. Fannie Mae allows contributions of up to 3% of the price when the loan-to-value ratio is above 90%, 6% between 75.01% and 90%, and 9% at 75% or less, with a 2% cap on investment properties (Fannie Mae). The money can cover closing costs, prepaids and up to 12 months of HOA dues, but not the down payment.

VA places no limit on seller credits toward closing costs but limits seller concessions to 4% of the home's reasonable value (VA). Temporary rate buydowns, which can be paid by the borrower, builder, seller or other interested parties, peaked at 7.6% of Freddie Mac funded purchase loans in December 2022 and fell to 2.8% by June 2023, and nearly two of three were a 2-1 buydown (Freddie Mac). Borrowers with buydowns received rates 15 basis points higher on average.

A lender credit reduces cash due at closing in exchange for a higher rate or larger loan, and closing costs are often rolled into the loan amount, where they accrue interest for the life of the loan (CFPB). The CFPB also reported that borrowers who cannot bring cash to closing often pay more through higher rates or mortgage insurance.

Lenders must send a Loan Estimate within three business days of receiving an application, showing the estimated rate, monthly payment and total closing costs (CFPB). The final figures arrive on the Closing Disclosure, a five-page form the lender must provide at least three business days before closing (CFPB).

Freddie Mac found that in late 2022, when rate dispersion averaged about 0.5 percentage points against less than 0.2 points from 2010 to 2021, buyers could potentially save $600 to $1,200 a year by getting quotes from multiple lenders, and more than $6,000 over the life of the loan with five quotes, assuming the loan stays active at least five years (Freddie Mac).

The CFPB's 2024 request for information pointed to research finding that consumers pay more when prices are split into many separate fees, and that mortgage borrowers underreact to closing cost pricing.

Because many closing costs are fixed and do not change with loan size, they weigh most on borrowers with smaller mortgages, including lower-income and first-time buyers, according to the CFPB. The bureau cited a 2021 study that found nearly 15% of lower-income homebuyers had closing costs larger than their down payment.

Buyers can pay closing costs from savings, which can reduce the down payment, or finance them. Down payment amounts by buyer type are on the down payment statistics page, and the wider picture for new buyers is on first-time home buyer statistics.

Prepaid items collected at closing include homeowners insurance, according to the CFPB; premiums by state are on the home insurance statistics page.

In LodeStar's 2025 data, title, settlement and tax costs alone ran above $12,000 in D.C., Delaware and New York and under $2,000 in four states, and lender loan costs and prepaid taxes and insurance come on top. Paying them out of pocket can reduce the down payment, the CFPB notes. For buyers saving for those costs in a brokerage account, Walnut, an AI investing app, can read the connected account to show how the money is doing. These figures describe what borrowers paid; they are not a recommendation.