California = Lowest Refinance Closing Costs

LodeStar Software Solutions, a leading provider of nationwide mortgage closing cost data, released its first refinance mortgage closing cost data report, which showed that the national average total closing costs for a refinance mortgage transaction were $2,403. 

This amount consists of a national average of 0.72% of the home refinance loan amount. California had the lowest closing costs as a percentage of the refinance loan amount at .33%. The average refinance loan in California was $524,458 and the average closing costs, including recording fees and taxes, was $1,746

Key Takeaways

• Closing costs as a percentage of refinance loan amount hovers around 0.3% to 2%, with an average percentage of 0.72% and a median of 0.65%. New York leads the pack with 2.1% of the refinance loan amount.
  
  
• The states without a mortgage tax, mortgage recordation tax, mortgage intangible tax, or mansion tax tend to have a lower total closing cost when expressed as a percentage of the refinance loan amount.
  
  
• The states with the highest closing costs as a percentage of refinance loan amounts tend to be in places where the above taxes make up the bulk of the overhead, such as Washington D.C., New York, Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
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• The states with the lowest closing costs in comparison to the refinance loan amount were California (0.33%), Utah (0.40%), and Maine (0.44%).

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 title policies (both owners and lenders). The actual closing fees from a sample of 92,000 refinance quotes, from January 1 through December 31, 2024, were analyzed. Loan amounts over $10 million were not considered.