The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the median monthly owner costs for homeowners with a mortgage rose to $2,035 in 2024, up from $1,960 in 2023 after adjusting for inflation. This data comes from the latest American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year estimates.
“One way we measure housing affordability is based on how much households spend on selected costs such as mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, utilities, and various fees,” said Jacob Fabina, a Census Bureau economist. “In 2024, the median percentage of income householders with a mortgage spent on these costs was 21.4%, which points to an increased burden on homeowners.”
The increase in median monthly owner costs from 2023 to 2024 was 3.8%, compared to a 3.0% rise between 2022 and 2023. The main factors contributing to this growth were higher mortgage payments and insurance fees.
Homeowners with mortgages in California ($3,001), Hawaii ($2,937), New Jersey ($2,797), Massachusetts ($2,755), and the District of Columbia ($3,181) faced the highest median monthly costs among all states and D.C.
About 59.7% of owned homes had a monthly mortgage payment in 2024. The number of homes owned free and clear—without a mortgage—increased by about 900,000 from the previous year to reach approximately 35 million nationwide.
Vermont (8.9%) and New Mexico (8.7%) saw two of the largest increases in homes owned free and clear between 2023 and 2024.
Around one-quarter of homeowners paid condo or homeowners’ association (HOA) fees in 2024: roughly 21.6 million out of about 86.6 million owned households paid these fees during the year. The national median fee was $135 per month; those with mortgages paid a median fee of $120 while those without mortgages paid $184 per month.
The share of households paying HOA or condo fees varied across states: Nevada (51%), Florida (44%), and Arizona (45%) had the highest proportions reporting such payments; Rhode Island (10%), South Dakota (10%), Wisconsin (10%), Maine (8%), and North Dakota (8%) had among the lowest shares.
Rental housing also became more expensive over the past year. Median gross rent—including utilities—rose by 2.7% from $1,448 in 2023 to $1,487 in 2024 according to ACS data. Despite this increase, renters continued spending a median of about 31% of their income on rent.
Some states experienced larger jumps in rent than others; Delaware, Mississippi, Idaho, Vermont and Alabama each saw increases exceeding six percentage points in their respective median gross rents.
Median household income went up in twenty-nine states after adjusting for inflation while remaining statistically unchanged elsewhere; Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland reported some of the highest incomes among states but were not significantly different from each other. The District of Columbia’s median household income reached $109,707—the nation’s highest—while Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia posted some of the lowest figures.
Income inequality as measured by the Gini index increased only in North Carolina but decreased across nine other states including Georgia and Ohio between survey years.
Poverty rates dropped in thirteen states plus Puerto Rico between last year’s survey period and this year’s results; only North Dakota and D.C., however, saw increases while most other state rates remained stable within margins of error. State poverty rates ranged from just over seven percent up to nearly nineteen percent during this time frame.
In major metropolitan areas like Atlanta; Riverside-San Bernardino; and Tampa—the poverty rate fell significantly compared with last year’s numbers.
Health insurance coverage showed mixed trends: uninsured rates rose across eighteen states plus D.C., particularly among working-age adults where seventeen states plus D.C recorded increases versus declines seen only in three states for this group since last year’s ACS release period ended.
For children under nineteen years old specifically—the uninsured rate increased across nineteen states but declined only once at state level compared with prior findings.
Further details are available through data.census.gov as well as supporting materials published alongside today’s release.
