For the third year in a row, New York has the most expensive mortgage origination and closing fees in the country, according to Bankrate.com's exclusive annual survey. The survey, conducted in June, used a minimum of four lenders in each state.

A resident of New York City getting a $200,000 mortgage would pay an average $3,830 in origination, title and closing costs, according to Bankrate's survey of lenders. On the other end of the scale, an Indianapolis resident would pay $2,339 for the same loan, or $1,491 less.

Texas has the second-highest origination and closing costs. The Lone Star State was No. 2 last year, too.

After New York and Texas, the top five are rounded out by Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The most populous state, California, was the 17th most expensive at $2,779.

For all states and the District of Columbia, total origination and closing costs averaged $2,736.

Minnesota and West Virginia both sported the median of $2,692 — 24 states, plus D.C., were more expensive, and 24 states were less expensive.

Mortgage-related fees vary from place to place because of differing taxes, customs and regulations.

Bankrate's rankings don't include taxes and government fees that are passed on directly to the consumer as line items on the HUD-1 summary of closing costs. But New York has the uncommon practice of levying mortgage recording taxes directly on lenders instead of borrowers. Naturally, these charges are passed on to consumers in fees charged by lenders.

In New York, the lender pays a mortgage tax of one-quarter of a percent of the loan amount, says Michael Moskowitz, president of Equity Now, a lender based in New York City. "We don't have that in New Jersey and we don't have that in Connecticut," Moskowitz said. "Obviously, if we want to make the same amount of money, we have to charge a little more in New York."

On top of that, there's the separate mortgage recording tax, which varies based on location and even the number of housing units in the building.

In New York, as in most northeastern states, lawyers customarily conduct closings. "Generally, the buyer has an attorney, the seller has an attorney, the bank has an attorney. Right there, you have three attorneys in the mix and it's going to be a little bit more expensive," said Neil Garfinkel, partner in charge of real estate practices for the New York-based law firm of Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson.

In some states, especially in the West, title agents and escrow officers customarily conduct closings. They tend to earn less per hour than lawyers, and that holds down costs.

Title insurance is another budget buster, and New York and Texas have some of the country's most expensive title insurance. In each state, the insurance department sets (or "promulgates") the rates, with heavy input from the title agencies and insurance companies. Because the state establishes the rates, title companies don't compete for consumers by offering lower prices.

How do title insurers compete in states where regulators set prices? According to a report issued in April by the Government Accountability Office, "Title agents do not market to consumers, who pay for title insurance, but to those in the position to refer consumers to particular title agents, thus creating potential conflicts of interest." The report says the industry is rife with kickbacks and undisclosed referral fees among title agents, real estate agents and lenders.

Over the past 20 years, the federal housing department has tried to reduce mortgage fees by amending the regulations that govern the marketing of home loans, but efforts have gone nowhere. The title industry and small lenders vigorously opposed reducing closing costs because it would have cut into their profits.

Some lenders have adopted flat pricing, charging the same fee to everyone. ABN-AMRO was one of the first lenders to offer such a deal, with a product called OneFee. This spring, Bank of America rolled out its No Fee Mortgage PLUS product, in which the borrower pays no fees and no mortgage insurance.

Flat-fee and no-fee products don't eliminate the need to comparison-shop. Bank of America executives say their no-fee loan has competitive rates, and customers say the rates tend to be slightly higher. But it's a tempting deal for buyers making down payments of less than 20 percent because it doesn't require mortgage insurance, resulting in lower total mortgage-related costs for several years.

— Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail Holden Lewis at hlewis@bankrate.com.