file photo by Boyd Loving
Bergen County home closing costs top $10,000
FEBRUARY 2, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015, 7:57 AM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Buying a home in North Jersey is expensive, and we’re not just talking about the purchase price.
Closing costs top $10,000 in Bergen County – the highest in the state – and $8,000 in Passaic County, according to a new survey by a personal finance website, SmartAsset.com. This is the first year SmartAsset has studied closing costs.
Those costs include “every possible fee you could be charged,” SmartAsset.com said, including inspection fees, title insurance premiums, appraisal costs and attorney’s fees, the website said. It also includes prepaid property taxes and prepaid home insurance premiums.
Annekee Brahver-Keely, an agent with Russo Real Estate in Teaneck, said that closing costs can vary depending on such factors as how high a town’s property taxes are and how much the lawyer charges.
“There are a lot of variables,” she said.
AJ Smith, managing editor for SmartAsset.com, agreed that while some closing costs are fixed, home buyers can shop around to reduce their costs – for example, comparison-shopping for a lawyer, homeowners insurance and other costs.
Bergen and Passaic county closing costs come in at about 2.2 percent of the median home price in each county – about the same percentage as statewide and nationally, Smith said.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/bergen-county-home-closing-costs-top-10-000-1.1263322
Done in by banks and lawyers as usual.