Point-of-sale requirements in 2026: what the data shows
Published November 2026 · Data: City Home Rules dataset and U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020-2024
We compiled the home sale requirements of 913 municipalities in 8 states. 648 of them (71%) require an inspection, test, certificate or report before a house can change hands. Here is what the data shows.
Key findings
- 648 of 913 municipalities we track have a point-of-sale requirement.
- $100 is the median published city fee among the 394 municipalities that publish one. The highest is $1,040.40 in Ross, CA.
- 1962 is the median of median build years in towns with a rule, versus 1980 in towns without one. Rules cluster where housing is old.
- 114 municipalities with a rule have a median home built before 1950.
- $10,500 is the largest refundable deposit we found to close before a sewer lateral is fixed (South San Francisco). EBMUD and Berkeley take $4,500.
- 150% of the repair estimate is the highest escrow rate we found for unfixed code violations (Shaker Heights and Warrensville Heights, Ohio).
Share of municipalities with a requirement, by state
| State | Tracked | With a rule | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 55 | 50 | 91% |
| Ohio | 85 | 42 | 49% |
| Minnesota | 40 | 17 | 43% |
| Pennsylvania | 353 | 273 | 77% |
| New Jersey | 95 | 95 | 100% |
| Illinois | 175 | 80 | 46% |
| Michigan | 11 | 11 | 100% |
| Missouri | 99 | 80 | 81% |
Coverage differs by state, so shares are not a measure of how common rules are statewide. In Ohio and Minnesota we list many towns with no rule; elsewhere we mostly list towns with one.
Most common types of requirement
| Type | Municipalities |
|---|---|
| Resale use & occupancy (U&O) | 153 |
| Sewer dye test | 102 |
| New Jersey resale certificate | 95 |
| St. Louis-area occupancy inspection | 86 |
| Occupancy inspection | 74 |
| Illinois transfer stamp and village inspection | 74 |
| Point-of-sale inspection | 35 |
| City presale report | 30 |
| Sewer lateral | 25 |
| Michigan Time of Transfer evaluation | 11 |
| Truth-in-Sale of Housing / Time-of-Sale | 9 |
| Point-of-sale sewer inspection | 9 |
| Septic or well inspection | 5 |
Highest published fees
| Municipality | Fee |
|---|---|
| Ross, CA | $1,040.40 |
| San Pablo, CA | $536 |
| Sausalito, CA | $490 |
| San Lorenzo, CA | $450 |
| San Leandro, CA | $450 |
| Castro Valley, CA | $450 |
| Gardena, CA | $435 |
| Laguna Beach, CA | $400 |
| Oakland, CA | $370 |
| Alameda, CA | $370 |
See the full fee ranking and the ranking by home age.
Methodology
Requirements come from official municipal and district pages first, then title-company and realtor-association compilations. Each city page lists its sources and the date checked. Fees are the first published amount for a single-family home. Housing ages are Census medians matched to each municipality. Read more about our method.
Use this data
Journalists, researchers and agents may reuse these figures with a link to this page. The full dataset is free to download under CC BY 4.0 on the data page.