Why HOA Costs Matter
Home prices and mortgage rates get all the attention, but HOA dues are becoming the bill that keeps growing in the background. You cannot refinance them, you cannot build equity from them, and they stick around long after the mortgage is gone.
Realtor.com puts the median HOA fee at $135 a month, up from $125 a year ago and $108 in 2019. HOAs are increasingly prevalent: they cover almost 85% of townhomes and condos, and 33% of single-family homes do. "It's something that's a little bit more accepted than it was maybe 10, 20 years ago, paying HOA dues every month," Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, said.
With inflation lingering and labor and materials costing more, those fees are moving higher and taking a larger bite. Across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro, a typical homeowner pays $617 per month in HOA dues on a roughly $425,000 median home, Realtor.com reports. That is close to 27% of a typical mortgage payment there. "These (rising costs) are effectively pricing them out of living in the home that they bought," Berner said.
A Real Homeowner's Math
In 2021, 55-year-old Jo Meleca-Voigt, a disabled and retired public educator, and her wife, Christine, bought a townhouse in Rochester, New York. They liked the accessibility features and the HOA's exterior maintenance, and on a fixed income they built in a $235 monthly HOA payment.
Five years later, it is $385, more than a 60% jump. In 2023, the HOA added two special assessments totaling $3,000 to rebuild reserves and repair aging roofs, sending the couple to their savings to cover the bills. "This is absolutely a shadow mortgage," Meleca-Voigt said. "It's actually worse than a mortgage."
HOAs do provide real services by managing communities, maintaining common areas and amenities, and rebuilding reserves. Meleca-Voigt said the community's well-kept appearance adds to their home's value; visitors often remark on how nice the neighborhood looks, and she believes the HOA's upkeep makes the area attractive - particularly for those who can handle the rising dues.
HOA dues are the housing cost you cannot refinance away, and they rarely get the scrutiny a rate does. Market Briefs covers the full cost of ownership free every morning.
The Risks: Assessments, Liens and Foreclosures
The monthly dues are only part of the story. Special assessments cover big-ticket repairs or costs not in the budget or reserves, and they can be huge. "In downtown San Diego, we have seen some high-rise buildings have special assessments in the tens of thousands of dollars," said Kimberly Schmidt, who leads Kimberly Schmidt and Associates with Compass in San Diego, California.
Rising dues also shrink purchasing power. Lenders include HOA costs in debt-to-income math, which can reduce how much you can borrow. "HOA fees can potentially limit the buying pool for a community, forcing buyers to look elsewhere or to seek out a less-expensive home in the community," Schmidt said. "Less expensive often translates into a home that is smaller, less upgraded and/or in a less desirable location." She added that buyers should expect increases, and that underfunded reserves can lead to deferred maintenance, higher dues, or special assessments later.
Fall behind, and the costs can chew into equity. Late fees, interest and attorney charges stack up, and HOAs can secure what they are owed. "Any debtor can file a lien against the property," said Brian Fox, chief revenue officer at Benutech, a Southern California-based real estate data solutions firm.
State rules govern when that happens, but the point is straightforward: "They're doing that to protect their owed money." A lien blocks a sale or refinance until it is paid. If it is not resolved, an HOA can in some cases start foreclosure even if your mortgage is current. Typically the mortgage gets paid first in a foreclosure sale, then the HOA, yet in a handful of jurisdictions - Nevada, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., among them - HOAs hold "super-priority" rights that can put them ahead of the mortgage lender.
The trend is showing up in data. Benutech reports that by 2025, HOA lien filings reached 284,933 - an 8.6% increase compared with 262,446 in 2024 - with the highest counts in Florida, Texas and California. Between 2022 and 2025, HOA-related foreclosures increased 50% nationwide, according to ATTOM Data Solutions, with Florida, Texas and California seeing the most significant activity.
What This Means For Your Money
Rising dues lift the cost of staying put, and sporadic assessments add another layer of risk. "By increasing in a linear fashion these HOA fees every year, you're diminishing the value of the asset, the home that you bought and you're so eager to maintain the value of," Berner said. "We're not in 2022 when home values are just shooting through the roof, and so these little pieces on the margin really make a difference." Attorney Ashley Morgan, who owns and founded Ashley F. Morgan Law in Virginia, notes that unpaid HOA balances, with fees and interest, can reduce your equity when it is time to sell. Should you choose to contest fee increases or assessments in court, her advice is straightforward: "If you're going to do that, escrow the money."
Fees like these decide what a home actually costs long after the closing table. Get Market Briefs free each morning and keep the whole picture in view.
