For Homebuyers, the Neighborhood Grocery Bill Is Another New Closing Cost Consideration

The cost of buying a home has never stopped at the listing price. From mortgage fees to closing costs to insurance and maintenance, homebuyers have a laundry list of additional dollar amounts to consider and manage before, during, and after they close on a home. 

In 2026, savvy buyers will add the cost of living to their calculations—starting with the cost of groceries. That’s because U.S. food prices have ramped up significantly—by more than 23% since 2020. In 2025 alone, food prices increased by 3.1%, with coffee and tea, meat and eggs, and nonalcoholic beverages seeing particularly sharp increases. 

Mortgage rates and home prices may be stabilizing, but the price of food can still shift your all-in housing and living costs by hundreds of dollars each month, especially if you aren’t taking note of where you’re shopping. If homebuyers have previously considered factors like school ratings and walkability in their criteria, perhaps low-cost supermarkets and grocery stores should also make the list today. 

The data behind the shift

There is a wealth of data emerging that shows just how top of mind grocery prices and shopping are to homebuyers.

For example, a 2026 Re/Max survey of more than 1,000 prospective homebuyers found that the most important amenity was grocery stores and shopping, with 57% of respondents saying that proximity to shopping was an important geographical consideration. 

And when it comes to shopping, increasingly, the specific retailer will matter. A Consumer Reports study, which compared grocery baskets across more than 30 retailers in six metro areas, found that the difference between the highest- and lowest-priced stores in any given city exceeded 33%. Costco ranked as the cheapest nationally, with prices averaging 21.4% below the Walmart baseline. At the other end, Whole Foods averaged 39.7% more expensive than Walmart.

The retail industry has perhaps taken notice. BJ's Wholesale Club is opening eight new locations in 2026. One of them is headed to Forney, TX, a fast-growing suburb about 20 miles east of Dallas, where the median listing price sits around $335,000, well below the broader Dallas–Fort Worth metro average of $405,000.

Meanwhile, Dollar Tree has been strategically expanding into affluent ZIP codes, opening its 9,000th North American location in an upscale section of Plano, TX, where homes sell for more than $1 million. The company reports that shoppers earning more than $100,000 accounted for 60% of its 3 million new customers in its most recent quarter.

Taken together, the picture is clear: In an era of immense inflation, people are seeking out big-box stores and discount retailers, and those stores are seeking those consumers right back. 

What the price gap actually costs you

The store-by-store price gaps are striking on their own. But they are even more impactful when you translate them into monthly dollars for a real household.

Research by Consumer Affairs has found that grocery costs alone can vary by as much as $500 per year for a family of four simply based on where they live—and that's before accounting for the stores they shop at within that location. 

"Grocery pricing is one of the factors that varies from place to place, even at the neighborhood level," says John Donikian, vice president of Best Interest Financial. "A family that does their grocery shopping at discount stores like Costco, BJ's, or Lidl will spend $400 to $800 less each month than a family that shops at Whole Foods, even when they are located in the same metro area. That is a difference of roughly $5,000 to $9,000 a year that those families would have to spend on a mortgage, save money, or invest."

Grocery price inflation in some metro areas has run more than twice as high as in others over a 12-month period, according to Consumer Affairs. This means homebuyers who don't account for local food costs at purchase may find themselves squeezed harder than expected as those costs rise unevenly over time.

​​The agent perspective

Real estate agents are often the first to notice when buyer priorities shift. Erik Leland, who works primarily in the Lake Oswego, OR, and Portland, OR, metro area, says the conversation has changed noticeably in recent years.

"Five years ago, buyers targeted being 'close to shopping,'" he says. "Now, I find that buyers try to position themselves somewhere with both a premium grocery store for hard-to-find items and a more economical store for daily shopping. Buyers across all segments of the market are more aware of their spending habits, and they realize that you are going to shop at whatever store is convenient."

Leland works in a market where groceries already run roughly 7% to 8% above the national average—a gap that widens further depending on which stores are accessible from a given address.

He recently worked with a couple comparing two homes listed at around $636,000. One was in Lake Oswego, with several premium grocery options nearby. The other was in Tigard, which has a Costco, a WinCo, and a Fred Meyer. When Leland calculated the all-in monthly cost—factoring in groceries, fuel, and property tax differences—the Tigard home was roughly $430 per month cheaper to actually live in.

"Seeing that number written out was enough to make the decision for them," he says. "When all else is equal, buyers are going to choose the neighborhood that saves them money."

It's a dynamic that plays out constantly, he says, even when buyers don't initially frame it in those terms. If they don't bring up grocery costs, he does. 

"The listing price gets you into the house," Leland says, "but the neighborhood costs are the slow drip that determines whether you can afford being there."

How to calculate your ‘grocery tax’ 

Knowing that groceries can cost more at one store or another is one thing, but understanding how that affects your bottom line is where you’ll find empowerment as a homebuyer. 

Start by mapping the grocery stores within a 2-mile radius of any listing you're seriously considering, and note which chains are present. A ZIP code anchored by a Costco and an Aldi is a fundamentally different financial environment than one where the nearest option is a specialty market—even if the homes are priced identically.

Then do what Leland recommends: Shop there. 

"If they are not familiar with the stores in the area, I tell them to go grocery shopping at the stores near the homes they are considering," he says. "That 30 minutes of real-world research can save years of financial stress." 

Finally, run the annual math.

The USDA's Food Access Research Atlas, available for free, lets you investigate food access by census tract and flag neighborhoods with structural grocery gaps that could affect both your day-to-day costs and long-term resale value.

If the nearest store costs your household $300 more per month than one near another home you're considering, that's $3,600 a year—a number worth weighing alongside the listing price.

While the mortgage payment is the number that dominates the homebuying conversation, everyday costs continue to press on household budgets. Grocery access is one of the most predictable of those variables, one of the easiest to research in advance, and one of the most consequential.

If an extra several thousand dollars a year would affect your ability to own a home, start by considering your grocery habits.