FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Hoa fees are up by nearly 30 since the pandemic and pricing americans out of their homes | History Defined

While HOA and condo fees aren’t the biggest expense for most homeowners, they are climbing at the same time as property taxes, mortgages and utility bills have also become more expensive.

All these things are “pricing some people out of homeownership,” Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, told the Journal.

While mortgage rates may drop from current levels, HOA and other homeownership costs are likely to continue increasing, according to the report.

About 21.6 million households, or a fourth of homeowners in the U.S., paid HOA or condo fees in 2024, according to Census Bureau data. The fee was over $500 for about three million of those households.

These types of fees, typically paid by homeowners either monthly or annually, often go toward building-wide infrastructure for condos or neighborhood amenities for HOAs. The fees have been becoming more expensive as property insurance, labor and materials have all also gotten more expensive, according to the Journal.

The high fees have kept many people who are interested in buying a condo from making a purchase. That includes Rebecca Lotsoff, who has been looking for a two-bedroom condo in the Chicago area since 2022. She told the Journal she didn’t want to pay a monthly fee above $500.

“It has limited what’s available to me,” she said. “I’m very frustrated.”

The fees have also become a nuisance for people who bought their condos when fees were more affordable, including Donald DeFesi, whose payments in Walnut Creek, California, have doubled since 2015 to $1,500.

DeFesi currently pays more for his condo association fees, condo insurance and property taxes than he does for the principal and interest on his mortgage.

“I certainly didn’t expect the homeowners association dues to increase as they have,” DeFesi told the Journal.

However, some HOAs and condo associations are actively trying to limit fee hikes. Cindy Kielty, the board president of her HOA in St. Charles, Missouri, told the Journal that her HOA may cut back on services like watering the grass to keep costs low.

Kielty’s fees were about $125 a month when she and her husband first bought their home in 2009, but have since shot up to $350 a month.

“People are just going to have to change their expectations as to what’s going to be covered,” she said. “They have a choice: Do more yourself or pay more money to the HOA.”