Impact Fee Map
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Budgeting fees before you buy the land

Fees are the one major cost that is fully knowable before closing and routinely discovered after. This is the pre-purchase checklist.

Why this belongs in due diligence

A June 2026 study by the National Association of Home Builders put the cost of regulation at all levels at $131,734 on a typical new single-family home, about 26.4 percent of the average sales price of $499,500 as of January 2026. Roughly $46,795 of that lands during lot development and $84,939 during construction.

The study also reports that the construction-phase share rose by nearly four percentage points since 2021, attributed partly to higher building permit fees. This is not a rounding error in a pro forma, and unlike lumber prices it can be pinned down before you commit.

The pre-purchase questions

Is the parcel inside city limits or unincorporated? Which special districts appear on the parcel record? Is there a water main and a sewer main in the street fronting the lot, or does either need extending? What meter size does the intended use require? Has the jurisdiction noticed a fee increase taking effect soon? Is there a platting lock-in in this state, and would platting before the increase capture the current schedule?

Every one of those has an answer available for free before you close.

What to put in the pro forma

Four separate lines, not one: permit and plan review; impact fees; utility connection and capacity charges; and utility line extensions. They come from different bodies, land at different moments, and only some of them are refundable or creditable.

Then add a contingency specifically for the district you have not found yet. In most of the country there is one.

The two decisions fees should influence

Meter sizing, because capacity charges scale with it and the decision is permanent.

Sequencing, because in a lock-in state the platting date sets the ceiling, and in every state the notice window before an increase is the last moment the number is soft.

Keep going

How to find the actual number for your parcelNobody publishes a national table of what you will pay, because there isn't one. Here is the sequence that gets you a real number in about two hours.Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, and what it actually changedIn 2024 the Supreme Court removed the shield that legislatively adopted impact fees had enjoyed. Then, in 2025, the fee survived anyway. Both halves matter.The three cases every fee argument runs throughEssential nexus, rough proportionality, and the rule that money counts. Twenty minutes here will make every conversation with a permit desk shorter.
Read this before you rely on anything here. Impact Fee Map describes who is legally allowed to charge new construction, for what, and what a fee payer's rights are under state law. It does not publish fee amounts for any city, county or district, and it never will, because no source keeps thirty-nine thousand local schedules current and a stale number is worse than none. This is not legal advice, not a fee quote and not a substitute for the adopted fee schedule of the bodies with jurisdiction over your parcel. Statutes change; verify against the current text and confirm every figure in writing with the agency that will bill you.