Survey Finds Buyers Pay $32,000 in Additional Costs Above Down Payment

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Best Interest Financial, St. Clair Shore, Mich., and Clever Real Estate, St. Louis, Mo., released a new survey finding that in addition to their down payment, buyers spent an average of $31,502 on upfront home-buying expenses.

The average buyer says they spent about four times more than they expected on upfront home-buying costs.

Broken down by buyer type, first-timers spent about $36,460 on additional expenses, and repeat buyers spent $28,260 on additional expenses.

What are these buyers spending the extra cash on? On average, buyers spent $15,073 on repairs and improvements during their first year of ownership, $7,678 on concessions to the sellers, $5,719 on closings costs and $3,032 on moving costs. If buyers have to pay the average buyer’s commission rate of 2.82% on the average-priced home, that’s also an additional $15,058.

The vast majority–81%–were surprised by at least one home-buying expense beyond the initial sale price. The most surprising costs were repairs and upgrades, closing costs and property taxes.

About 75% of buyers say the cost of buying significantly impacted their finances in the first year of owning their home, and 72% have regrets about their purchase.

First-time buyers are once again more likely to see stress on that front: 85% of first-time buyers report having regrets, compared with 65% of repeat buyers.

About three-quarters also think that they would make different decisions if they could go through the process again, and respondents believe they could have saved $38,082 on average if they had made better decisions.