Is it cheaper to buy a house with cash?

At the closing table, yes, but by less than most people assume. Two costs exist only because there is a loan: the recording fee for the mortgage, which is $245 under the current Connecticut schedule, and the lender's own charges for origination, underwriting and the appraisal. The lender's title policy is usually assumed to be a third, and it is not: when both policies are written at the same closing they are priced as one, so adding the lender's policy costs nothing on top of the owner's.

Does a cash buyer need title insurance?

There is no lender's policy, because there is no lender to insure. But the owner's policy is the one that protects your own stake, and a cash buyer has more of that stake at risk, not less. Paying cash removes the party who would have required a policy; it does not remove the reason to want one. It also means the premium is the same either way, since a financed buyer's two policies are priced as one.

What does financing add to closing costs in Connecticut?

The recording fee for the mortgage, which runs $245 under the current Connecticut schedule, and the lender's own charges. That is the whole of it. The lender's title policy does not add to the premium when it is issued alongside an owner's policy at the same closing, which is the part most people get wrong.

Cash vs financed · Connecticut

What financing adds to the closing table.

Everyone knows cash closes cheaper. Almost nobody can say by how much, and the usual guess includes a cost that isn’t real. Two things genuinely change, and one famous one doesn’t.

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The same house, two ways.

Price and down payment set the loan. Everything else follows from it.

Purchase price

Down payment

Everything above this is financed. Leave it blank and we’ll compare against financing the whole price.

Lender charges (optional)

Sections A–C of your Loan Estimate. They only land on the financed side.

Paying cash

Owner’s title policy

Recording the deed

Attorney fee

Lender charges

Enter a purchase price to compare

Add a down payment too and the financed side prices off the real loan.

The conveyance tax is in neither column. It is the seller’s, and financing does not change it.

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This calculator needs JavaScript. The three costs below are the whole of the difference.

These calculators produce estimates for general information, not legal advice. Every transaction is different. Reach out to talk through yours.

Estimates only, and Connecticut only. Title premiums measured against CATIC’s own premium calculator; recording fees per CGS §7-34a as amended by PA 25-168. Prepaid taxes and insurance your lender escrows are not modelled and land only on the financed side, which makes the gap above a floor. Lender charges are not included unless you enter them. Your settlement statement is the number that counts, and you will see it before you sign.

Also useful The full buyer closing-cost estimate Price the title policies on their own

Two costs that exist only because of the loan.

And one that everybody counts and shouldn’t. Everything else on a settlement statement is the same whether you borrow or not.

Recording the mortgage Financed only

A cash purchase records one document, the deed. A financed purchase records two, and the mortgage is the more expensive of them: it runs far longer than a deed and Connecticut charges per page. Under the current schedule that is $245 for the mortgage against $82 for the deed.

The lender’s own charges Financed only

Origination, underwriting, the appraisal, the credit pull. Usually the largest single piece of the difference and the least predictable, which is why this page asks you for the number rather than inventing one. Two lenders quoting the same rate can be hundreds apart here, and it is the part of a closing you can genuinely shop.

The lender’s title policy Costs nothing extra

This is the one people add to the list, and it does not belong there. A financed buyer does need a lender’s policy, and it does protect the lender rather than them. But both policies are written at the same closing, so they are priced as one: the pair costs what the owner’s policy costs alone. Run the numbers above and the title line is identical in both columns. A cash buyer saves nothing here, because there was nothing to save.

Questions cash buyers ask.

Is it cheaper to buy with cash?

At the closing table, yes, and by a specific amount you can see above. Whether it is the better use of the money is a different question, and not one a closing attorney should be answering for you.

Does a cash buyer still need title insurance?

There is no lender’s policy, because there is no lender. But the owner’s policy protects your stake, and paying cash means more of your own money is in that stake. Removing the party who would have required a policy does not remove the reason to want one, and the premium is the same either way.

Does paying cash make the closing faster?

Usually, and mostly because the lender’s timeline disappears: no underwriting, no appraisal, no loan documents to prepare and no funding to wait on. The title work still has to happen, and that is the part that can surface something worth slowing down for.

Buying with cash, or deciding whether to?

Send us the details and we will put the full settlement picture together, whichever way you are paying.

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