The Hidden Costs of Homeownership

Combined Zillow and Thumbtack data show that U.S. homeowners pay an average of $16,566 a year beyond their mortgages for maintenance, property taxes and homeowners insurance.

"The hidden costs of homeownership are a big piece of the affordability puzzle, and one that’s easy to overlook," Zillow senior economist Kara Ng said, according to Fox Baltimore.

How much does a home cost beyond the mortgage?

The combined total is 32% higher than five years ago, although the annual increase has slowed to 3% over the past year. Property taxes account for an estimated $3,129 per year, or nearly 19% of these additional ownership costs.

Redfin’s August analysis puts the income needed to afford the median-priced U.S. home at nearly $110,000 per year, around $22,000 more than the typical household earns. These are purchase-affordability figures based on Redfin’s analysis, while the $16,566 figure covers costs that continue after a mortgage begins.

For international buyers, the findings provide a U.S.-specific budget category. They do not establish purchase prices, taxes, visas or financing rules in another country.

How much does maintenance add?

Maintenance accounts for more than $11,000 annually for the typical homeowner in the Zillow and Thumbtack analysis. The annual increase reached 1% over the latest year, although costs remain substantially higher than before the pandemic.

Realtor.com’s report on preliminary findings from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies shows the longer-term increase. Collective spending on routine maintenance rose 61% from 2019 to 2023, climbing from $65 billion to $105 billion. After adjusting for inflation, the increase was 35%.

The researchers reported three different views of the affordability gap:

Under conventional measures, 22.7 million homeowners, or 26%, were cost-burdened in 2023.
Including reported routine maintenance and major replacement projects raised the estimate to 28.4 million, nearly one in three homeowners.
A modeled measure based on expected upkeep puts the number at 30.8 million, or 35.5%.

The modeled estimate was about 8 million higher than the conventional count. It was designed to capture deferred repairs that may not appear in what homeowners report spending because a major repair can be postponed when money is tight.

Which ownership costs have risen fastest?

Between 2019 and 2025, homeowners’ property-tax expenses rose 31%, while average monthly homeowners insurance premiums increased 72%, according to ICE Mortgage Technology data cited by Harvard.

The Zillow and Thumbtack analysis reported a different five-year insurance increase of 54%. It also cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing premiums up 0.7% since the beginning of the year and 1% over the previous 12 months.

These percentages are not directly interchangeable because the reports use different datasets and timeframes. They nevertheless identify insurance and property taxes as major additions to the cost of owning a home beyond the mortgage.

How should buyers account for these costs?

The strain is particularly acute for first-time buyers, who lack equity in an existing home and are already struggling to save for down payments. Maintenance can therefore consume money that conventional affordability measures leave out.

The age of the housing stock adds another layer. The median owner-occupied home was 42 years old in 2023, compared with 27 years old three decades earlier. More than 22% of owner-occupied homes built before 1960 had a structural deficiency in 2023, more than twice the rate for homes built since 2000.

The spending gap is also clear. Among owners of homes built before 1960, households in the highest income quintile spent an average of $12,700 on improvements and repairs in 2023, compared with $3,400 among households in the lowest quintile.

Lower-income owners were already more exposed under conventional measures. Three-quarters of homeowners earning less than $30,000 annually exceeded the traditional housing-cost threshold; Harvard’s modeled upkeep measure raised that share to 93%.

These U.S. findings do not establish purchase, tax, visa or financing rules elsewhere. Related guides cover flood risk in England’s mortgage market, Spain’s housing decree changes for foreign buyers, and heavy-rain property risk in Malaga.

On Harvard’s broadest upkeep measure, 30.8 million homeowners, or 35.5%, are cost-burdened.