American families are spending more than $300 per month in homeownership costs compared to before the pandemic, according to a new report.
The figure does not include the mortgage costs.
Currently, homeowners are shelling out, on average, $1,510 in homeownership costs - that figure includes expenditures such as taxes, homeowners insurance, maintenance and utility bills. In 2020, that figure sat at an average of $1,202 per month, according to the analysis by Bankrate.
That represents about a 26 percent jump in costs in four years.
“It was really eye-opening to see just how much it costs to maintain a home,” Jeff Ostrowski, an analyst at Bankrate, told Bloomberg. “Until you own a house, it doesn’t dawn on you how much money you’re throwing into the house every month and year.”
The figure comes as Americans have seen massive inflation driving up the prices of homes and everyday goods.
Since February 2020, American consumer prices have jumped a staggering 20.8 percent. Meanwhile, home prices have jumped nearly 50 percent in the same time period, according to the ResiClub.
The current mortgage payment across America sits at $2,317.
The Bankrate study found that across the US the yearly cost of homeownership sits at $18,118 in 2024. Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut are the states with the highest additional homeownership costs - all sitting above $23,000 per year.
Utah, Idaho and Hawaii have all seen the biggest percentage increases since 2020 with residents shelling out at least 38 percent more in the “hidden costs,” according to Bankrate.
Ostrowski said that some costs might be higher for some homeowners than others. For example, families who have bought a new home likely spend far less on maintenance costs than average Americans.
Even then, families need to keep in mind the extra costs of owning a home.
“It’s certainly better to be over-prepared and have some extra money sitting in a high-yield savings account,” he said, “as opposed to under-prepared and scrambling.”
Housing have become a hot-button topic ahead of November’s election. A recent Gallup poll found that housing costs was the top concern for voters, with inflation coming in second place.
Both President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have talked about ways to slow the increasing cost of homeownership.
“We have to create a big incentive for housing so that we have housing,” Trump told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “The housing prices, they’re just unaffordable for anybody. That’s why you have so many people, I mean, they’re living in the streets. They don’t have the money and the interest rates are way too high.”
In April, Biden announced plans to increase affordable housing across the country. The president also discussed bringing down housing costs during the State of the Union address.
“For millions of renters, we’re cracking down on big landlords who break antitrust laws by price-fixing and driving up rent,” Biden said in March.
“I’ve cut red tape so more builders can get federal financing, which is already helping build a record 1.7 million housing units nationwide.
“Now pass my plan to build and renovate 2 million affordable homes and bring those rents down!”
