Westchester Closing Costs
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Westchester closing costs depend on price, loan, property type and municipality. The county’s statutory mortgage recording tax is 1.30%, while Yonkers is 1.80%; the lender generally pays a 0.25% residential component. Sellers usually pay New York’s 0.4% basic transfer tax, and Yonkers sellers face a separate 1.5% city transfer tax.
The county line changes less than the city line inside it. A house in White Plains and one in Yonkers can share a price and produce different tax sheets.
Start with the exact Westchester location
Write down the municipality, property type, price, mortgage amount and seller status. Those five facts decide more than a countywide percentage.
A Westchester closing can involve:
- New York State transfer tax;
- county or city mortgage recording tax;
- Yonkers transfer tax;
- title and recording work;
- lender, legal, inspection and survey costs;
- property-tax and utility prorations;
- condo, co-op or association charges.
The Closing Costs hub shows the general buyer-seller split. This guide keeps the Westchester and Yonkers columns separate.
Buyer closing costs Westchester purchasers should budget
A financed buyer typically budgets lender charges, appraisal, title policies, searches, mortgage recording tax, attorney, inspection, survey, recording and initial tax or insurance escrow.
The house has a lawn and the loan still has departments. Compare Loan Estimates on rate, points, credits and five-year cost, not one origination line.
If you pay cash, you avoid mortgage recording tax and lender costs. Title, legal, inspection, recording, mansion tax at $1 million or more and prorations can remain.
If you want to reduce eligible cash due, compare those charges with a disclosed buyer rebate and show it to your lender early.
Use our closing-cost calculators for a planning estimate, then replace title, legal, survey and municipal inputs with written quotes.
Mortgage recording tax Westchester and Yonkers
Current New York Form MT-15 lists a 1.30% statutory total for Westchester County and 1.80% for Yonkers. Its official table is titled “Mortgage Recording Tax Rates by County and City.” The decimal point in the old article moved enough money to buy furniture.
| Location | Statutory total | Common borrower arithmetic* |
|---|---|---|
| Westchester outside Yonkers | 1.30% | 1.05% |
| Yonkers | 1.80% | 1.55% |
*The borrower column subtracts the lender’s usual 0.25% residential component.
For a qualifying mortgage on six or fewer residential units, the lender generally pays the 0.25% special additional component and can’t pass it to the borrower. That produces common borrower arithmetic of 1.05% outside Yonkers and 1.55% in Yonkers.
Those borrower figures are subtraction, not separately published universal rates. Exempt lenders and property facts can change the split.
The $10,000 exclusion also applies only to one additional-tax component on a qualifying one- or two-family mortgage. It doesn’t reduce every component.
For CEMA and refinancing, use the full mortgage recording tax guide. The documents and lender cooperation matter outside the city too.
Seller closing costs Westchester owners should budget
Your seller-side worksheet should include New York State transfer tax, your attorney, mortgage payoff and release work, agreed brokerage compensation, property adjustments and building charges.
New York’s basic transfer tax is $2 per $500, or 0.4%, when consideration exceeds $500. The seller’s proceeds leave by several smaller doors.
You may also need nonresident tax forms or federal FIRPTA withholding analysis. Those items affect cash at closing but aren’t necessarily your final income-tax liability.
Brokerage compensation is negotiable under New York Department of State guidance. Use the signed listing and buyer agreements, not an automatic 6% assumption from an old post.
Westchester transfer tax in Yonkers and property-tax timing
Yonkers imposes a 1.5% real-estate transfer tax on the selling price, paid by the seller. The city says no tax is required at $25,000 or less.
Yonkers is in Westchester and also insists on its own column. Add that city tax to the state transfer tax rather than replacing it.
The city’s property-tax calendar also matters for prorations. It issues a March county bill and a July city and school bill, with the latter split into three installments. Use the parcel bill and closing date for the actual adjustment.
Coop vs condo closing costs Westchester buyers face
A condo is deeded real property. A co-op purchase transfers shares and a proprietary lease. A suburban address does not persuade co-op shares to become real property.
That distinction changes mortgage-tax and title work. A financed condo can carry mortgage recording tax and deed title policies. Co-op financing generally uses UCC filings and lien searches instead.
Building charges also vary. Obtain the current move, transfer, managing-agent, flip-tax and assessment schedule from the actual cooperative or condominium.
Read the New York co-op title guide before using a condo title quote for a co-op.
Title insurance and recording charges
Westchester is Zone 2 in the current TIRSA manual. Filed owner and lender premiums use stepped bands. The Zone 2 premium includes the title search and one tax-lot search, but not all ancillary work.
The Westchester County Clerk uses PREP to generate cover pages and tax forms. PREP is a workflow, not a fee oracle. Ask the attorney or title company for the exact document calculation.
Compare the policy amount, endorsements, searches, survey and recording work in writing. A percentage estimate hides which services are included.
If you use a disclosed NestApple buyer rebate, tell the lender and closing team before final figures. It can reduce eligible cash due but doesn’t change the statutory tax.
Build the final Westchester estimate
Collect the Loan Estimate, attorney quote, title quote, parcel tax bills, building fee schedule and payoff statement. Add state and city taxes from current official tables.
If the worksheet says Westchester as one line, it is still taking a shortcut. Separate Yonkers, mortgage amount, property type and seller status.
Then compare credits using our closing-cost credit guide. A lower cash number can come from the seller, lender or broker, and each source has a different cost.
That final worksheet is the number to bring to an offer discussion. The county average is only the first question.
Common questions
Is Yonkers mortgage recording tax the same as Westchester’s? No. Form MT-15 lists 1.80% for Yonkers and 1.30% for Westchester outside it.
Does Yonkers charge a separate transfer tax? Yes. The city states a 1.5% seller-paid tax above its threshold.
Are Westchester co-op and condo costs identical? No. Their ownership and financing structures change title and mortgage-tax work.
Can a county average replace a closing quote? No. Your municipality, loan, title file and property documents produce the real amount.
Nicole Fishman Benoliel co-founded NestApple in 2017. She's a lawyer admitted to the New York bar - her law degree is from La Escuela Libre de Derecho in Costa Rica, with further study at IE Business School in Madrid and an LLM from Fordham in New York. She does not act in a legal capacity at NestApple; every client is referred to an attorney who handles real estate deals full time.
