Closing costs

Closing costs by state

Closing costs, and who handles the closing, vary by state. Pick yours for typical buyer costs, transfer taxes, and how the process works.

What's in your closing costs

The line items are the same wherever you buy. What changes by state is the transfer tax, who conducts the closing, and how much property tax you prepay — that's what each state page covers.

Lender fees — loan origination (~0.5–1% of the loan), plus the appraisal.
Title insurance — a lender's policy (and usually an owner's policy) protecting against title defects.
Prepaids & escrow — a year of homeowners insurance plus a couple months of property-tax escrow set aside up front.
Recording & settlement — county recording fees plus the settlement agent (or attorney) who runs the closing.

Why you prepay into escrow

Lenders commonly collect two months of property tax at closing plus a full year of homeowners insurance. That cushion is refundable in the sense that it stays your money — it sits in your escrow account — but you still have to bring it on closing day. How big it is depends on your state's property-tax rate, which is why each state page works it out separately.

FHA loan limits are set by county, not by state

If you're using an FHA loan, the amount you can borrow is capped by county, not by state. Nationally the cap runs from a floor of $541,287 in lower-cost counties to $1,249,125in the highest-cost ones — more than double. Two buyers in the same state can face different limits, so look up the county you're buying in before you budget.

CY2026 limits, effective for case numbers assigned on or after 2026-01-01. Source: HUD Mortgagee Letter 2025-23 (Dec 11, 2025). Confirm your county's figure with HUD's FHA mortgage-limit lookup.