The average American homeowner with a mortgage paid more than $2,000 in monthly costs in 2024, about a 4% increase over the previous year when accounting for inflation, according to government data released Thursday.

The data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows homeowners are paying more because of higher mortgage costs driven by rising inflation and interest rates, as well as through higher insurance fees.

Jacob Fabina, a Census Bureau economist, said the median homeowner spends more than 21% of their income on mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, utilities and fees, “which points to an increased burden on homeowners.”

Nearly 60% of homeowners have a monthly mortgage payment, though almost a million people paid off their homes fully last year. Nationally, about 35 million homes are owned free and clear, without a mortgage.

“The main story is that the monthly cost of owning a home with a mortgage has increased about 40% since 2014,” said Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of real estate research at the National Association of Realtors. “Rents have gone up even faster. We see about a 55% [increase] nationally.”

The Census Bureau data shows homeowners in Washington, D.C., bear the highest monthly costs of about $3,181. The median California homeowner pays $3,001 a month, while residents in Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Washington state all pay more than $2,500 a month.

The median homeowner in West Virginia bears the lowest burden, at $1,272 a month. In Arkansas, that homeowner pays $1,375 a month.

Median monthly costs are rising fastest in the fastest-growing states in the nation. Year-over-year costs jumped more than 11% in Florida, and more than 10% each in North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina.

Southern states tended to see larger increases in monthly payments in part because of rising insurance rates as carriers boost premiums to cover rising threats from natural disasters like hurricanes and winter storms.

The higher costs come as fewer Americans move between homes, and as pending home sales slump, largely due to higher interest rates.

An August report from the National Association of Realtors found pending home sales fell by 0.4% from the previous month. Sales decreased from the same period in the previous year in the Northeast and the West, while sales increased in the Midwest and the South.

But Evangelou said early signs that the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates — a possibility that grew after key reports found inflation may be easing and that the job market is weaker than expected — could push more buyers and sellers into the market. She said she expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates at least twice this year, beginning at next week’s meeting.

“Last year, we had a very hot-running job market. Now we see that the job market is cooling. This will help to give some more room to mortgage rates to come down,” said Evangelou. “This will help with the lock-in effect, this will help with affordability.”

Evangelou said a reduction in mortgage rates from 7% to 6% could allow as many as 5.5 million households to be able to afford a median home. About 10% of those households could be expected to move over the next 12 to 18 months, adding more than half a million home sales once rates are cut.

About a quarter of homeowners faced added fees on their condos or to homeowners associations last year, the data from the 2024 American Community Survey found. Those fees vary widely: About a quarter of homeowners who face such fees spend less than $50 a month, while about 1 in 8 spend more than $500 a month.

More than half of Nevada homeowners pay condo or HOA fees. So do more than 40% of homeowners in Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida and Hawaii. By contrast, fewer than 1 in 10 homeowners in Rhode Island, North Dakota and Maine pay such costs.

Reid Wilson is a State Affairs national editor covering state politics and policy out of our Washington, D.C. office.