Open dataset
All fifty states, compiled from each state's own authority. Who may conduct a closing, which states tax the recording of a mortgage, and three more fields, with every answer naming the statute, bar opinion or regulator publication it rests on.
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Free to quote, cite and reuse with attribution. Please credit Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, solverya.com. The underlying statutes are public law; what took the work was reading each state's own authority and recording honestly where none exists.
Suggested citation: Jeff Moran (NMLS #483943), "Mortgage Closing Rules by State: An Open, Sourced Dataset," Solverya Lending Tools, version 2026-11-05, https://solverya.com/data/closing-rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
| Field | Sourced | What it records |
|---|---|---|
| Who conducts the closing | 50/50 | 10 require an attorney, 7 use a neutral escrow holder, 33 allow a licensed title or settlement agent. |
| Mortgage recording tax | 50/50 | 10 states tax the recording of the mortgage itself. It recurs on every refinance, where a transfer tax does not. |
| Who pays owner’s title | 11/50 | For most states no statute or statewide form assigns it. The contract decides. |
| Veteran property tax relief | 15/50 | Whether relief exists and by what mechanism, exemption, partial exemption, refund, or narrowly gated. |
| Spousal signature | 11/50 | Whether a non-borrowing, non-titled spouse must sign, and through which legal mechanism. |
This is the part that makes the dataset worth citing over a more confident one. Every field carries an explicit sourced flag. Where no authority could be found, the record says so. It does not fall back to a negative answer.
The clearest case is the owner's title premium. Published tables assign it buyer-or-seller for all fifty states with apparent confidence. Reading the actual authorities, only 11 could be sourced to a statute, regulator publication or statewide form. For the rest there is nothing official to cite, which means those confident tables are reporting regional custom as though it were state law. Treating an unsourced field as a “no” is the specific error this dataset exists to avoid.
The dataset records 10 states where an attorney must conduct or control a residential closing: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont and West Virginia. Seven states (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) use a neutral escrow holder that carries out written instructions, and 33 allow a licensed title or settlement agent to conduct it. Each state’s entry names the statute, bar opinion or regulator publication behind its answer.
Ten states tax the recording of the mortgage itself: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia. The dataset records no tax on the recorded mortgage in the other 40. A mortgage recording tax is a different charge from a tax on the deed transfer, and the two are easy to confuse.
For most states, no statute, regulator publication or statewide form assigns it, so the purchase contract decides. The dataset could source an answer for 11 of 50 states: the buyer in Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota and South Carolina; the seller in Illinois and Wisconsin; negotiation between the parties in Alaska, Florida, South Dakota and Texas; and a payer that varies by region within California. For the other 39, a table that names a payer is reporting local custom, not state law.
It depends on the state, and the states that say yes get there in different ways. In Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, homestead law can require a spouse who is on neither the loan nor the title to sign the mortgage of the family home. In California, the spouse joins because the home is community property, not because of marriage alone. Alaska has a statute that directs spouses to join, then limits what happens if one does not. Maine has a statute that says a nonowner spouse need not sign. Georgia and South Carolina have no marriage-based rule identified, so only an owner signs. The other 39 states are not yet sourced.
The dataset records a total exemption for qualifying veterans in Arkansas and South Carolina; a partial exemption in Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming; a refund or credit in Kansas and Wisconsin; and narrowly gated relief in Missouri. Each entry names the source it rests on. The other 35 states are not yet sourced, which is not the same as having no relief.
It means no authority was found for that state, and nothing more. It is not a negative answer. Every field carries an explicit sourced flag so a reader can tell the two apart, and treating an unsourced field as a no is the specific error this dataset exists to avoid.
It is free to quote, cite and reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution to Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, solverya.com. Suggested citation: Jeff Moran (NMLS #483943), "Mortgage Closing Rules by State: An Open, Sourced Dataset," Solverya Lending Tools, version 2026-11-05, https://solverya.com/data/closing-rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker originating since 1996 and licensed in 15 states, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation. It was compiled while writing state-by-state guidance and kept because the published answers kept disagreeing with the states themselves. More about him, or the rendered comparisons: who conducts a closing, who pays owner's title, recording tax, veteran relief and spousal signature.
Reference material, not legal advice, and not an offer to lend in any state. Statutes are amended; each fact names its authority so it can be re-checked at the source. Equal Housing Opportunity.