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http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article_bankrate.aspx?cp-documentid=10658478&GT1=35000

North Carolina is the place to be for the lowest closing costs on your home loan. But no matter where you choose to reside, it’s likely there are hidden ‘junk’ fees you should demand be removed from the total.

New York, Texas, Florida. For the second straight year, those are the most expensive states in which to get a mortgage.

Nationwide, the average origination and title fees on a $200,000 mortgage this year totaled $3,118, according to Bankrate’s annual survey of closing costs. The fees in the survey don’t include taxes, insurance or prepaid items such as prorated interest or homeowner association dues.

Fees in New York City were highest, averaging $4,016 in Bankrate’s survey. Houston came in second, with fees that averaged $3,975. After that came Buffalo, N.Y., with fees averaging $3,845, and then Miami, at $3,683.

North Carolina had the least expensive closing costs in the survey, at an average of $2,650. The previous year, Indiana took the last spot.

The annual survey of online lenders is conducted by obtaining fee estimates for a $200,000 mortgage in each state’s most populous city. Bankrate also surveyed Springfield, Ill.; Buffalo; San Francisco; and Sacramento, Calif., just in case Chicago, New York and Los Angeles were unrepresentative. It turns out that it didn’t matter much. Cities in the same state weren’t far apart in total closing costs.

Why New York is tops
New York tops the list for the fourth year in a row for two reasons. First, origination fees are swollen by taxes that the state levies directly on lenders, which are passed along to consumers. Second, lawyers customarily conduct closings in New York. Many closings are attended by at least three attorneys (for the buyer, seller and lender). In some other states, especially in the West, closings are conducted by title agents and escrow officers who charge less than lawyers.

When comparison shopping for a loan, pay attention to the origination and title fees. In most places, those are the costs that are subject to negotiation. Taxes aren’t negotiable, and most prepaid costs, such as prorated interest, vary depending on the day of the month when you close the loan.

Study the good-faith estimate
Even as the housing market has slumped in the last three years, fees have gone up, says Mike Kratzer, president of FeeDisclosure.com, a Bankrate company, which provides consumers with information to help cut their mortgage transaction costs.

He says appraisal fees have crept up recently, as lenders ask appraisers to do more thorough, time-consuming work. During the housing boom, lenders favored appraisers who did the job quickly and inexpensively. Above all, lenders favored appraisers who justified house prices that, in retrospect, were too high.

State-by-state closing costs

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