If you need a little extra push toward buying that new home, you can pay a lot less to close on the deal in Mississippi than most other states, according to financial website Bankrate.com.
Mississippians pay an average of $2,320 in origination and third-party fees when closing, the 14th-lowest such figure in the U.S., according to an annual survey from Bankrate.
Of course, whether each person closing on a home recently in the state will pay more or less that amount will vary greatly. Some lenders, for example, charge an application fee, Bankrate says, but others don’t.
There are a host of other fees some lenders will charge but that others won’t. The Bankrate calculations also don’t touch on variable costs such as title insurance, title search, taxes, any government fees and escrow fees. The website surveyed up to 10 lenders in each state in July and got what it called “online good-faith estimates” for a $200,000 mortgage on a single-family home with a 20 percent down payment in each state’s largest city — in Mississippi’s case, Jackson.
Got all that? Expect a pop quiz.
So if your lender wasn’t surveyed, and your house costs $350,000 and is in Horn Lake or Moss Point and you can’t afford a one-fifth down payment, you might find yourself paying a significantly different amount to close on your dream home.
Still, Mississippi’s standing can at least be taken as another sign that the state’s housing market is stabilizing after several years of being to some degree at the whim of the national recession, which plunged the national housing market to startling depths.
In seven central Mississippi counties, including Hinds, Madison and Rankin, closed and pending sales in the first four months of 2013 were up slightly from that period in 2012, as was the average sales price, according to the Jackson Association of Realtors. Average days on the market were down.
The start of a year typically draws more homebuyers out as the weather warms and holiday debt is paid down, so it’s hard to tell if those trends will continue. If nothing else, the market will move more closely toward seller than buyer if sales prices continue their upward trend, so if you can close on a house now, this might prove the ideal time to do it.
Crye Leike Signature One Realty 
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