LodeStar: Closing Costs Averaged 1% of Home Sales Price in 2024

April 22, 2025

The national total closing costs for a purchase mortgage transaction averaged just over 1% of the home sales price last year, according to LodeStar’s 2025 Purchase Mortgage Closing Data Report. 

The report showed that the average total closing costs for a purchase transaction was $4,661.

States without transfer taxes or with minimal transfer taxes tend to have a lower total closing cost when expressed as a percentage of the sales price. The states with the lowest closing costs in comparison to the sales price were South Dakota (0.46%), Alaska (0.54%) and North Carolina (0.56%). The states with the highest closing costs as a percentage of sales price tend to be in places where the transfer taxes make up the bulk of the overhead. Delaware (2.99%), New York (2.47%), Vermont (2.20%), Pennsylvania (2.36%) and Washington, D.C. (2.39%) are examples of this.

“Some might find it surprising how little the difference there is between median and average sales prices and closing costs,” said Ron Carvalho, Director of Data Operations at LodeStar. “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.”

Additional Takeaways
  • The national average and median home sales prices are $438,236 and $409,839, respectively.
  • The national average and median total closing costs (w/recording and taxes) are $4,661 and $3,513, respectively.
  • The national average and median total closing costs (w/out recording and taxes) are $3,042 and $2,958, respectively.

LodeStar defines average closing costs as the average fees, recordation charges, and transfer taxes required to close a typical purchase transaction in a geographical area, in addition to the following service types: settlement/closing/escrow fees and owners and lenders title policies. The actual closing fees from a sample of 450,000 purchase quotes, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024, were analyzed. Home prices over $10 million were not considered. LodeStar calculates the percentage of the sales price as the average total closing costs with recording fees & taxes included divided by the average sales price in a given geographical area.


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].