How much does a home inspection cost? In 2026 the national average is $344, and most buyers pay between $296 and $424, according to HomeAdvisor’s June 2026 cost data. Size moves the number more than anything else: a condo under 1,000 square feet runs $200 to $250, while a 3,000 square foot house can reach $500.
I lead with that because the price is the least interesting part. I’ve watched buyers shop three inspectors to save $60, then waive the contingency outright on a $500,000 house. The fee is rounding error. What the inspector finds is not.
How much does a home inspection cost?
A home inspection for a single family home costs $344 on average in 2026, with a normal range of $296 to $424, according to HomeAdvisor’s cost data, last updated June 19, 2026. However, this number can vary depending on a wide range of factors, including location and size of the home. If the home includes additional features or systems, such as a barn, septic system or private well, this can increase the price of the inspection.
One thing to know before you call around: most inspectors count the attic and basement in your square footage. So a 2,100 square foot listing can price like a 2,600 square foot job. That’s standard practice, and it’s why phone quotes come in low and invoices come in high.
Home inspection cost by home size
Square footage is the biggest driver of what you pay:
| Home size (sq ft) | Typical inspection cost |
|---|---|
| Under 1,000 | $200-$250 |
| 1,000-1,500 | $225-$325 |
| 1,500-2,000 | $250-$375 |
| 2,000-2,500 | $275-$400 |
| 2,500-3,000 | $300-$500 |
Home inspection cost by city
Location is the second lever. Here’s the average price of a home inspection in several major markets:
| City | Average home inspection cost |
|---|---|
| New York, NY | $450 |
| Philadelphia, PA | $450 |
| Houston, TX | $350 |
| Los Angeles, CA | $330 |
| Chicago, IL | $320 |
| Atlanta, GA | $320 |
| Miami, FL | $300 |
Philadelphia at $450 surprises people, including plenty of Philadelphians. Our Pennsylvania agents see why weekly: rowhomes with party walls and knob-and-tube leftovers take longer than a 2015 Sun Belt build. You pay for hours, not for a form.
Optional Testing
Here’s where budgets get blown. The base inspection is visual and general; anything specialized is quoted separately.
| Add-on inspection | Typical 2026 cost | When it comes up |
|---|---|---|
| Termite / wood-destroying organism | $100 average ($75-$325) | Often lender-required in the South |
| Roof | $230 | Curling, patching, or age past 18 years |
| Radon | $250 | Below-grade space in radon regions |
| Plumbing / sewer line | $287 average ($122-$672) | Older homes, slow drains, mature trees |
| Lead-based paint | $340 | Anything built before 1978 |
| Chimney | $450 | Any working fireplace or capped flue |
| Asbestos | $490 | Pre-1980 insulation, floor tile, duct wrap |
| Mold | $660 | Musty smell or past water intrusion |
Termite inspections (or Wood Destroying Organism inspections) require an additional license to conduct (though many home inspectors will have this license, so they can do both at the same time). These inspectors can check for insects such as ants and termites, as well as fungi like toxic mold. I’d bundle it if the house is anywhere south of Virginia. This inspection will take around an hour and come with an additional fee. According to HomeAdvisor, the average cost of a termite inspection is $100, running $75 to $325, and bundling it into a home inspection package brings the combined bill to $250 to $400.
Radon inspections are also optional, but recommended for any home with below-grade living space. Radon exposure can lead to lung cancer over time. This will run you another $250 approximately, and the test itself is a passive canister left in the lowest lived-in level for 48 hours.
A plumbing inspection is sometimes recommended for older homes, or for homes that are suspected to have sewer line problems. They are not included in the base inspection and cost $287 on average, with a $122 to $672 spread depending on whether the plumber scopes the lateral with a camera. On a rowhome with a 90-year-old clay lateral, that camera is the best $300 in the transaction. Chimney inspections get skipped almost universally, and then the flue liner turns out cracked.
How much does a home inspection cost next to everything else you pay?
Nobody frames this properly, so here it is with numbers. NAR put the median existing-home price at $440,600 in June 2026. A $344 inspection is 0.08% of that house.
| Line item on a $440,600 home | Cost |
|---|---|
| Home inspection, national average | $344 |
| Listing-side commission at a conventional 3% | $13,218 |
| Listing-side commission at Houwzer’s 1% | $4,406 |
| What that 1% difference is worth | $8,812, or 25 home inspections |
When a seller tells me they’re skipping a pre-listing inspection to save money, I ask what they negotiated on commission. Usually: nothing. Run yours through our realtor commission calculator, or see what a 1% listing fee does to the math.
What do home inspectors look for?
Home inspectors are concerned with the home’s livable condition, not whether it’s pretty or ugly. An outdated kitchen won’t make it into your inspection, but loose tiles or painted-over outlets will.
Keep in mind that the inspector is not expected to pull apart your home. While they are trained to look for subtle signs of issues, they won’t be drilling holes through your drywall to inspect the interior for mold or insects.
For this reason it’s possible for inspectors to miss issues if they’re not apparent to the naked eye.
The scope isn’t a matter of opinion, either. According to the American Society of Home Inspectors Standard of Practice, this is what you can expect your inspector to focus on:
- Heating system
- Central air conditioning system
- Interior plumbing
- Electrical systems
- Roofing
- Insulation and ventilation
- Fireplaces and fuel-burning appliances
- Interior (walls, ceilings, floors, windows, etc)
- Exterior
- Foundation
- Basement
- Structural components
Read its “not required to” clauses too. The inspector is excused from anything not readily accessible, which is how a finished basement hides a foundation problem straight through closing. My rule: if a house shows settling, hire a structural engineer, not a generalist. Our guide to living in a house with foundation problems covers the cost.
Who pays for the home inspection, and is it part of closing costs?
So: is it the buyer or the seller who pays for the inspection? The homebuyer pays for the inspection, and the inspection is not part of closing costs. You pay the inspector directly, usually on the day of the inspection and weeks before you close, so the fee never lands on your Closing Disclosure. It is often included in your agent’s estimation of what you should put aside for closing, which is exactly where the confusion starts.
If you back out of the contract for the home, you’ll still be out the cost of the inspection, but it’s a small price to pay if it means avoiding unexpected costly and difficult repairs. I’ve seen a $344 inspection catch a collapsed sewer lateral that would have cost the buyer $28,000 after closing. I’ve never once heard a buyer say they regretted the fee.
Sometimes a home seller will pay for a home inspection prior to listing the house. This can be a savvy way to get ahead of potential issues that could potentially hold up the sale or reduce the home’s selling price once an offer is made. In a slower market it’s usually worth it, because it removes the buyer’s best excuse to reopen price after you’re already under contract.
How long does a home inspection take?
Home inspections take one to three hours. This will depend on both the size of the house, how experienced the inspector is, and how easy it is for them to maneuver around. If someone quotes you 45 minutes on a 2,500 square foot house, that’s not a bargain. That’s a walkthrough with a clipboard.
Should I attend the home inspection?
Attending the home inspection yourself will allow you to have a more full conversation with your home inspector. If you can’t attend, they will send you a detailed, multi-page report of their findings. Just because something is listed in the report, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a serious problem,. The fastest way to learn which flags matter is to be standing there when the inspector raises them, so I tell every buyer to block the full three hours.
What’s the biggest reason to make your offer contingent on a professional home inspection?
In competitive markets, you may be tempted to ditch the inspection in order to make your offer more appealing to home sellers. However, keep in mind that the inspection is your bargaining chip, and it’s a standard step in selling a home. House inspections, even on new homes, almost always turn up something.
If that something is a small issue, like a leaking faucet or a missing smoke detector, it might not matter much to you. But if the issue is a shifting foundation, HVAC issues or plumbing problems, it’s important to uncover, as repairs for these issues can potentially cost thousands of dollars. If you knew a home would immediately require $30,000 worth of reconstruction and remediation to address termites, would you still be willing to offer top dollar?
In competitive markets, many buyers structure their deals so that the inspection is a pass/fail contingency. In other words, if minor issues are revealed during the inspection, the buyer waives their right to request money, but if the issues are serious enough, they can still back out of the sale as a result. This helps protect the buyer from having to pay for serious unexpected issues, while also assuaging the seller that they won’t be nickled and dimed over a loose railing.
It’s the compromise I recommend most often, and it costs the buyer nothing beyond the fee they were paying anyway. Our list of things that fail a home inspection is a good primer on what rises to pass/fail territory.
What fixes are mandatory after an inspection?
Requirements for home sales vary state by state. Lenders often require repairs for things that could impact living conditions (like a working HVAC, the roof, renovations done without a permit, etc). Generally if there are structural, health, and regulatory concerns then repairs might be required.
Most fixes aren’t required, though, and you can buy the home without addressing the problems in the inspection. I’ve closed deals where the buyer took the house as-is and banked a credit instead.
Beyond that, the purchase agreement between the seller and the buyer dictates which repairs need to be done. Typically when issues come up with inspection, the seller will either make the fixes before the sale, or offer a discount from the home price, leaving the buyer responsible for the repairs.
Note: don’t guess when it comes to the cost of hiring a contractor. Always get an estimate. If a home seller offers you $10,000 off the listing price to account for the issues with the roof that came up during inspection, this might sound great, until you hire a contractor later on who quotes you $20,000 for the job.
If something goes wrong with my home, is the inspector liable?
So what happens if the inspector fails to notice an issue? This is a question that comes up frequently, especially with older homes that are revealed to have problems that never came up during the home buying process. You may move in and everything is fine, only to realize a season later that the basement wall has a crack that leaks, and it might cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars to deal with. So can you sue for negligence or breach of contract?
Typically when your home is inspected, you’ll sign a contract with the inspector, and that contract will likely limit their liability (these contracts often have an exculpatory clause that limits the potential liability to the cost of the inspection). Read that again: the ceiling on your recovery may be the $344 you paid. It can also be difficult to prove liability. If you don’t notice the cracked wall for six months, for example, it’s harder to prove that the damage wasn’t incurred during that time. Your inspection may also include language that limits liability, potentially disclaiming areas that the inspector can’t fully access.
In most situations, an inspector is only liable for your home’s issues if they were negligent in meeting the applicable standards of their profession. An example would be: your home inspector claiming to inspect the roof, when they never actually did so. They would not be liable for your roof’s issues if they checked the roof correctly, but found no problems at the time.
In short: while you can sue your inspector, your chances of winning against them and recovering your damages are small, so it’s good to pay close attention to your inspection while it’s happening, and get a second inspection if you’re not sure about the first.
Do new homes need an inspection?
It’s not required, but it’s a good idea to have an inspection for your new home. According to the National Association of Realtors, issues turn up during the inspection for 65% of new homes, and about 24% of new-build buyers say the home did not pass the first one.
There’s plenty of things that can go wrong during home construction, especially when there’s multiple teams putting together your walls, plumbing, electrical, etc. Outdoors, there can be drainage issues or incorrectly applied siding; indoors, appliances may not have been installed properly, or there could be issues with the flooring. Don’t assume that a newly built home is problem free!
However, the benefit of buying a truly new home is that it often comes with a warranty from the builder. If something goes wrong in the first year, they will typically fix the issue free of charge, which is precisely why you want a documented third-party inspection before that first year runs out.
Read more: Is a New Home Inspection Really Necessary? Here’s Why You Might Want One
How to choose a home inspector
Your Realtor may have recommendations for home inspectors they’ve worked with in the past: this is a good place to start. It’s also where I’d push back a little. An inspector who gets every referral from one brokerage has a quiet incentive to keep deals together. Ask for three names, not one.
Check the credential against the trade body directly. ASHI’s Certified Inspector designation carries NCCA accreditation, and InterNACHI runs a parallel certification. Either means the person was tested against a written standard rather than a state minimum, which matters because not every state licenses home inspectors.
Then ask for a sample copy of an inspection report they’ve already conducted on a home similar to yours. This will give you a great idea of how thorough the inspection is that they conduct, as well as how good they are at communicating the issues they do find: 12 pages of stock photos, or 40 pages of specifics with locations and severity ratings. It’s a good idea to check online for reviews of your inspector, even if they come highly recommended by your agent, a friend, or family member.
Home inspection cost by state
How much does a home inspection cost where you live? Curious as to your state’s average cost? Rural areas (and smaller homes) lean toward the low end of the estimate, while metro areas (and larger homes) will be on the high end of the range.
One caveat I’ll be straight about: these state ranges are approximate, not quotes, and they don’t come from a single published dataset. The figures I can point to a live source for are the national average, the size bands, the city averages and the add-ons, all from HomeAdvisor’s June 2026 data, plus the plumbing number from Thumbtack. Use the state column as a sanity check, then get two real quotes.
- Alabama: $300
- Alaska: $350-$475
- Arizona: $275-$350
- Arkansas: $200-$400
- California: $350-$500
- Colorado: $250-$600
- Connecticut:$400-$500
- Delaware: $270-$380
- Florida: $250-$375
- Georgia: $250-$600
- Hawaii: $300-$800
- Idaho: $240-$600
- Illinois: $300-$600
- Indiana: $250-$600
- Iowa: $300-$450
- Kansas: $350-$400
- Kentucky: $200-$450
- Louisiana: $200-$350
- Maine: $300-$500
- Maryland: $200-$550
- Massachusetts: $350-$600
- Michigan: $250-$600
- Minnesota: $270-$650
- Mississippi: $240-$600
- Missouri: $300-$550
- Montana: $250-$375
- Nebraska: $200-$550
- Nevada: $250-$600
- New Hampshire: $300-$500
- New Jersey: $300-$500
- New Mexico: $200-$500
- New York: $200-$700
- North Carolina: $300-$600
- North Dakota: $250-$400
- Ohio: $200-$450
- Oklahoma: $225-$550
- Oregon: $275-$700
- Pennsylvania: $390
- Rhode Island: $300-$750
- South Carolina: $250-$650
- South Dakota: $250-$625
- Tennessee: $300-$500
- Texas: $350-$600
- Utah: $200-$600
- Vermont: $275-$650
- Virginia: $300-$700
- Washington: $500-$700
- West Virginia: $225-$600
- Wisconsin: $250-$575
- Wyoming: $300-$450
Home inspection cost FAQs
How much does a home inspection cost in 2026?
How much does a home inspection cost in 2026? $344 on average, with most buyers paying $296 to $424. Homes under 1,000 square feet run $200 to $250; homes of 2,500 to 3,000 square feet run $300 to $500. Add-ons like radon ($250) are billed separately.
Is a home inspection part of closing costs?
No. A home inspection is not part of closing costs. The buyer pays the inspector directly, usually on inspection day and weeks before closing, so the $344 fee never appears on the Closing Disclosure. Agents often still fold it into the cash you set aside.
Who pays for the home inspection, the buyer or the seller?
The buyer pays for the home inspection in nearly every transaction, because the inspection exists to protect the buyer, not the seller. Expect the same $296 to $424 either way. Sellers sometimes order a pre-listing inspection instead: a separate report at the same price, done before the home hits the market.
How much does a home inspection cost in Philadelphia?
How much does a home inspection cost in Philadelphia? About $450, well above the $344 national average. The city’s older housing stock, rowhome party walls and legacy knob-and-tube wiring take longer to inspect. Expect the top of that range for a Center City trinity.
How much does a home inspection cost in Florida?
How much does a home inspection cost in Florida? Roughly $250 to $375, with Miami averaging about $300. Budget separately for a wind mitigation inspection and a four-point inspection: insurers frequently require both, and neither is included in a standard inspection.
How much do radon and termite inspections cost on top of the base fee?
A radon test costs about $250 and a termite or wood-destroying organism inspection averages $100, ranging from $75 to $325. Bundled, a termite plus home inspection package runs $250 to $400. A sewer scope adds about $287; mold about $660.
