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 — 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.
| 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 | 9/50 | For most states no statute or statewide form assigns it. The contract decides. |
| Veteran property tax relief | 14/50 | Whether relief exists and by what mechanism — exemption, partial exemption, refund, or narrowly gated. |
| Spousal signature | 10/50 | 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 9 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.
Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker originating since 1996 and licensed in 14 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.