HOA dues have climbed more than 50% over four years, driven by insurance and utilities

Homeowners association dues have been rising at about twice the pace of overall inflation as communities wrestle with the growing expense of insuring and maintaining shared property.

According to a new report from HOA management software company Vantaca, assessments increased nearly 51% between 2021 and 2025. Insurance was a major factor, surging 75%, while utilities climbed 63%. Maintenance, usually the biggest line item for HOAs, rose at a much slower 26%.

The findings highlight how much this major hidden cost of owning a home has grown, putting more strain on the budgets of the nearly 80 million Americans living in HOA or condo association communities.

“Insurance is such a meaningful contributor in most geographies,” Vantaca CEO Ben Currin said in an interview. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen more natural disasters, wildfires, and hurricanes in the Southeast. The effect on renewals and carriers leaving markets has been a major driver of rising costs, especially in condos.”

Association dues — and the services they cover — differ widely from one community to another. Single-family neighborhoods often have lower fees that help pay for shared amenities such as parks and pools. Condo buildings, by contrast, usually charge much more because they have more common spaces and systems that must be insured and maintained.

Although costs have increased across all association types, condo owners have been hit harder: Their assessments rose 96% between 2021 and 2025, compared with a 49% increase for single-family home communities.

One-time special assessments, which are separate from regular dues and often used for major repairs or unexpected budget gaps, are also much larger for condo owners. In 2025, they averaged $1,450 per condo, versus $514 for the typical single-family home.

As housing affordability worsens, many current and prospective buyers are paying closer attention to HOA fees and special assessments. In particular, the high costs tied to older condos have helped push up inventory and weaken demand for those units in many cities, experts have told Yahoo Finance.

Vantaca found that nearly 40% of homeowners believe their dues are too high, but 73% would accept an increase if the reason were clearly explained.

Even so, many say they do not feel well informed about their community’s finances. Fewer than one in five homeowners say they receive all the information they need about an association’s finances and operations.

“This is a major expense for these folks, and they feel like it’s a little bit of a black box when they don’t have access to all the right information,” Currin said.