3 hours ago
Potential homebuyers tend to agonize over two things: mortgage rates and home prices. But that's not where the burden of homeownership ends. It's really just the beginning.
Buyers will lock in a rate, sign at closing, and ****** ume the hard part of buying a house is over, but many things can go wrong, and there are many hidden homeownership costs that not everyone stops to consider.
For example, a recent survey of 2,500 U.S. homeowners from Ownwell, a property tax appeal service, found 76% say their property taxes in recent years have run higher than they budgeted for—up 10 percentage points from just a year earlier. Nearly two-thirds said they were surprised or shocked by their most recent tax bill, and 9 in 10 said they're concerned about the long-term financial hit of rising property taxes. And even more startling is 40% said they had considered moving specifically because of them.
"Taxes have quietly joined insurance as one of the biggest affordability shocks after closing, especially in states with high property taxes like New York, Massachusetts, and Texas," Ownwell CEO Colton Pace told Fortune.
These new stats point to an affordability problem the usual housing conversation misses. While it's more accessible (albeit sometimes painful) to monitor mortgage rates and home prices, recurring expenses like taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other line items that ****** ody mentions at the closing table are quietly reshaping what it actually costs to keep a home.
Buyers will lock in a rate, sign at closing, and ****** ume the hard part of buying a house is over, but many things can go wrong, and there are many hidden homeownership costs that not everyone stops to consider.
For example, a recent survey of 2,500 U.S. homeowners from Ownwell, a property tax appeal service, found 76% say their property taxes in recent years have run higher than they budgeted for—up 10 percentage points from just a year earlier. Nearly two-thirds said they were surprised or shocked by their most recent tax bill, and 9 in 10 said they're concerned about the long-term financial hit of rising property taxes. And even more startling is 40% said they had considered moving specifically because of them.
"Taxes have quietly joined insurance as one of the biggest affordability shocks after closing, especially in states with high property taxes like New York, Massachusetts, and Texas," Ownwell CEO Colton Pace told Fortune.
These new stats point to an affordability problem the usual housing conversation misses. While it's more accessible (albeit sometimes painful) to monitor mortgage rates and home prices, recurring expenses like taxes, insurance, maintenance, and other line items that ****** ody mentions at the closing table are quietly reshaping what it actually costs to keep a home.
